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There IS No Downtime

April 9, 2013 By Leave a Comment

downtimeSure there are days when you don’t record…but that does NOT constitute a wasted day.

Lately, I’ve been hearing from more than one corner, the frustration that comes from not having a gig to record.  We all want to PRODUCE.  To be at the mic, and doing the work we’ve prepared for.

Yes.  That IS the bottom line.  We must record to be fulfilled, and to make money.  But often it’s what we do in the non-recording moments that makes the recording moments possible.

These are the difficult opportunities for voice actors.  Our strengths are not typically in mining for prospects, preparing websites, creating demos, finding other creative freelancers to which we can delegate, building a marketing powerhouse on social networks, etc.  We want to play to our strengths, so the trick is to make these other talents as STRONG as we are at the mic.

This is why I tell people who approach me with great pipes that their God-given talent will get them only so far (like 20%), and the other 80%, they’re going to have to work at…hard.

In down days recently, I’ve engaged in the following activities:

  • Sent follow-up thank you’s to recent clients
  • Took advantage of some weekend coaching opportunities
  • Attended VO meet-ups locally for friendly feedback
  • Narrowed the field of possible CRM software solutions
  • Caught up on my bookkeeping transactions
  • Blogged, Blogged, Blogged
  • Trolled Social Media (esp. LinkedIn) for trends and leads
  • Considered sponsoring opportunities for national VO conferences
  • Submitted new VoiceZam demos
  • Made progress on designing a new website
  • Approached past clients with a friendly email to let them know I’m around
  • Refined an email mailing list for upcoming newsletters
  • Consulted with VO peers for an upcoming virtual event

One of my most-visited blogs evar was one I wrote in 2010 that still hits the mark.  Take a quick look, and see if there’s something that might jog your mind if you feel like you’re treading water and wasting time not recording.

FILLING THE VO VOID.

CourVO

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Your January Planner

December 19, 2012 By 5 Comments

january2013You build your business.  You set your goals.  You make progress.

What was priority in 2010 is a past accomplishment in 2013.

For instance, I’ve been putting off too long the need for an efficient, workable, online, intuitive bookkeeping solution.  Now that next year’s tax season is looming, I’m especially aware of my 2012 shortcomings in this area.  I WILL start out the new year with a system in place.

In that spirit, I’m throwing out some ideas for you in this article.

Some might stick against the wall, and others are gonna slide right down, and end up on the floor.  It’s not exhaustive, nor is it all-encompassing, but it might rattle something in your brain that you forgot needed to be on the front burner.

I’ve mentioned before I’m a prodigious list-maker.  Some of the stuff in the list below may be behind you… or too far out in front to handle in 2013.  It’s neither a newbie nor an advanced list.  It’s just a brainstorming session:

  • Time to tweak your demo?
  • Do you need to develop OTHER niche demos?
  • Does the website need an upgrade?
  • When’s the last time you offered to help someone?
  • How’s your computer doing?  Hard Drive making funny sounds?
  • When’s the last time you backed-up your files?
  • Are you keeping a database of clients/colleagues/prospects?
  • What are you using for Customer Relationship Management (CRM)?
  • When’s the last time you dusted your equipment?  ;-}
  • Is this the year you get your dream mic?
  • Which VO events/webinars/meet-ups/mixers are you going to attend in 2013?
  • What coach or coaching will you pursue?
  • Will you tune into EWABS every Sunday?
  • Will you seek a mentor this year?
  • Is your DAW software doing what you need?
  • How are you handling your finances?
  • Are you setting aside a portion of your proceeds for taxes each paycheck?
  • What is your follow-up procedure for keeping regular clients happy?
  • Are YOU happy?
  • Do you take enough time for your family?
  • Would an intern help your workflow?
  • Time to spruce up your Social Media presence?
  • When’s the last time you said ‘Thank You’?
  • What is your strategy for getting new clients?
  • Will you stay with online subscription sites?  What is the ROI there?
  • Do you need an agent/more agents?
  • Could WoVO help you out?
  • Can you justify the expense of Source-Connect or ISDN?
  • Finally time to get those acting/improv classes?
  • Do you need a tablet?
  • What about a cloud computing solution for your files?
  • Will a regular newsletter to your clients come in 2013?
  • Are your rates due for a step-up?
  • What task will you delegate to free up time?
  • Are you in a MasterMind or Stand-up group?
  • Is a whisper-room in your budget this year?
  • Did you visit VoiceOverXtra today?
  • What advantage would going/droppping union bring you?
  • When’s the last time you called your agent to say thanks?
  • Will you commit to reading Voice-Acting in Vegas every day? (just checking)
  • Which annoying habit will you conquer in your delivery?
  • Did you go paperless yet?
  • Can you do an audiobook?
  • Do you have a marketing plan that’s measurably working?
  • What part of your business should you jettison/stop regardless of how dear it is?
  • Which colleague have you asked for a frank opinion on your sound?
  • When’s the last time your revamped your LinkedIn/FaceBook/Twitter profile?
  • How can you better manage your time?
  • Is your financial bookkeeping up-to-snuff?
  • Will you be at FaffCon FINALLY/again?
  • Are you looking for VO jobs, or a VO career?

What am I missing?  What is YOUR priority for your VO business this year?  Name one thing that just can’t be ignored one more year, and HAS to be done in 2013.

CourVO

Filed Under: Business-end-of-things, Ruminations Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , ,

PayPal Here, Now Here

November 19, 2012 By 2 Comments

Square broke this idea first, but PayPal has significantly moved forward the idea of a portable credit card reader.

…and what a great idea!  Plug a plastic gizmo in your smartphone’s head-phone jack, slide a credit card through the slot and take payments from credit cards for voice over services completed.  Of course, there’s an app to install first, and some configuration of your account, but you gotta admit it’s a far cry from the old metal CC imprinters (oh, am I  dating myself again?)

PayPal Here builds on Square’s big idea, and puts their considerable market force behind some improvements to the process.

I know what you’re thinking.  What good is a credit card reader, when some of your clients live in another state?  Read on. This is where PayPal’s new/extra features make this worthy of consideration.  Not only that, but PayPal Here works with your iPhone, iPad, or any Android OS tablet or phone.

First of all, the physical reader itself is an improvement’s on Square’s frustrating issue of pivoting mindlessly while you try to swipe the card. PayPal’s card reader has a hinged plastic panel that holds the reader in place against the casing of the phone while you swipe.

On the downside, completing the transaction requires completing choices and option on no fewer than 7 different screens.  But part of the reason is that PayPal offers some nifty choices that Square does not.

For one thing, you can actually take a photo of the card itself if you forgot to bring your blue triangle.  There’s a higher fee associated with that, but that’s pretty handy.

You can also accept physically-written checks by photographing them front and back.

Signing up also gets you the option of a MasterCard Debit card where all your sales land immediately upon receiving payment.  You an use that card to withdraw cash from you PayPal account or make credit card purchases.  And you get 1% c ash back on credit purchases with the card.

CourVO

Get started, and find more information about PayPal Here.

PayPal Here FAQ’s

And here’s a quick YouTube explainer.

Filed Under: Business-end-of-things Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

6 Best Recent Business Blog Articles

June 24, 2012 By Leave a Comment

One of these days, I’ll get it through my thick skull that the best way to more and better VO jobs is not entirely through my talent and my product.  There is THAT…but I’m there (mostly).  No, the best way to get more and better VO jobs for me now, is running my business and my marketing better.

Do I have to trot out that old 80/20 split rule of thumb?  Your success is 80% marketing/promotions and about 20% talent and technology (give or take).

In that sense, 2012 is my year of business-building.  I’m paying attention to marketing, CMS, promotions, customer follow-up, thank-yous, outreach, database management, accounting and invoicing and more.

So, I’m saturating my spare-time (yeah, right!) with reading the best and the latest.  My RSS Feed Reader runneth over.

Here are some gems I’ve found recently that I gladly pass along, ’cause sharing this kind of wisdom only raises our business across-the-board.

10 REASONS WHY I DON’T BUY FROM YOU – John Jantsch

WHY PERSONALITY + VALUE IS YOUR KILLER COMBO FOR ONLINE SUCCESS – Craig McBreen

EMAIL MARKETING TIPS – Chris Brogan

LEARN TO LOVE SALES – Melanie Brooks

FIVE SHOCKINGLY EASY WAYS TO CREATE A SUCCESSFUL PITCH – Diane Holmes

86 COMMON SENSE MARKETING IDEAS FOR STARTUPS — Wendy Kenney

(Honororable mention:    7 EASY WAYS TO IMPROVE A BAD DAY – Geoffrey James)

Happy reading!

CourVO

Filed Under: Business-end-of-things Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

Giving Voice to Your Invoice

May 29, 2012 By 4 Comments

The invoice is admittedly one of the most important documents your voice-over business will generate.  Not just because you want to be paid, but because it’s an extension of your brand, your business savvy, and your bookkeeping practices…and ultimately customer relations.

This blog is NOT about the best invoice software on the market, ’cause invoicing is kinda like choosing a mic.  Ya gotta find the one that’s best for you and the way you run your business.

Having said that, almost all the major bookkeeping and online accounting programs offer invoicing.  Ostensibly you want an invoicing set-up that:

1)  Is at least partially automated
2)  Allows for customization (including your logo)
3)  Integrates with your bookkeeping and accounting system
4)  Timely schedules itself
5)  Can be manually altered if need be
6)  Includes a follow-up or “Thank You” feature.

I’ve tried a number of invoicing approaches, which I’ll list here, but I hope you’ll tell us what you’re using if you’re happy with it.

My bookkeeping software is QuickBooks, but I’m not a fan, and will probably be switching to a FreshBooks/Batchbook combination based on the recommendation of another freelancer (outside voiceovers) who raves about it.

PayPal does a pretty good job of generating invoices.  This is especially good if you’re fond of using PayPal for buying, selling, and receiving payments for your VO business.

Zoho‘s broad suite of online cloud-based programs is pretty impressive.  I actively use Zoho mail to handle courvo@courvo.com (my main email aaccount), andI  keep adding other elements of their integrated offerings as I go along.  Amazingly, many of them are free, and the entire family of apps is very intuitive.  I’m not yet using Zoho Invoice, but it’s beguiling me.

It’s been a while since I tried Invoice.com. The site appears to be tailor-made for small and medium-sized businesses, but I seem to remember the price point was a little high.

Here’s one I haven’t tried, but their site looks pretty inviting:  Invoicera.com

The Invoice Machine touts it’s service as being designed for freelancers and businesses who want an easy way to manage, create and send their invoices (uh, that’d be pretty much everybody!).

But don’t take my word for it.  Here are the links to two great articles that have lists of invoicing software.

The first one from FreelanceSwitch.com is dated 2008, but seems to have been updated.  7 Online Invoicing Apps for Freelancers.

The other: Best Online Invoicing Tools for Freelancers from Design-Modo is more recent (2011).

Let us know what you’re using, if you’re happy with it.

CourVO

Filed Under: Business-end-of-things, Freelance, Web Resources Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

A Note About Thank You Notes

April 27, 2012 By 4 Comments

This blog is to remind me to say thank you.

Actually, I love to say thank you, especially to my clients…and I do it often.  But I’ve never sent a physical thank you note to a client in my life.

That’s gotta change.

I figure there’s one rule:  Keep it simple and sincere.  No ulterior motives. No biz card included. No upsell implied.

It might not even hurt to include a small gift, like a Starbucks card…but no branding elements.

What to say?  Well, there are a lot of thoughts about that, and below is a list of some of the best suggestions I’ve been able to find on the subject.  Glean what you can, but remember, the best approach is simple and sincere…no ulterior motives.  Thank you is thank you.

How To Write a Thank You Note

Crafting Thank You Notes

Writing a Personal Thank You Note

Thank You Note Samples

Sending Thank You Notes

CourVO

Filed Under: Business-end-of-things, Thanks Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

Details Details

March 27, 2012 By 6 Comments

Every time I rub shoulders with VO elite (a la FaffCon), I’m reminded of how well they handle the detail of their business.

Most of us want to run headlong into being better talent, and finding new voicing techniques, but the good freelance business owners are developing new job prospects, and taking care of their current ones by using solid business practices.  Most have found tools and routines that save time, track important metrics, and handle details that should never be overlooked.

Although I’m not inspired, here, by any session I attended this last weekend on business practices, I must confess a deep frustration with my current accounting system.  Keeping track of work, invoicing, scheduling, payments, purchases, follow-up, and the like.

I use the highly-recommended QuickBooks, but I’m about to bail out.  First of all, I detest their annual “upgrade” ploy that makes you feel like last year’s program is now dog-poop, and that you should immediately purchase their latest and greatest version with improvements too numerous to mention.

Secondly, it keeps telling me I can’t do things.  Hey, I bought this program, I’ll use it like I want!  Aside from being obstinate and rebellious, I just don’t have the time to take a class on using QuickBooks — insisted upon by my CPA.  I pay him too, and he’ll just have to accept my financial data in the form I give it to him!  [see how I have this magical way of digging myself deeper?]

Regardless the pros ‘n’ cons of QuickBooks, I keep hearing fantastic things about the following trio of strictly online tools that I hope will replace my accounting software, my CRM management, and my follow-up system of invoicing and tracking paymements.

OUTRIGHT.com is described as an Online Accounting and Small Business Bookkeeping Software for small businesses.  The site claims: “…All in one place! No more spreadsheets, piles of paper, and sticky notes everywhere…”  The thought of having all my financial data “in the cloud” instead of having to rely on ONE computer stacked with all my financial records really appeals to me.  All I hope is that they have ironclad security.

FreshBooks.com is described as “…the fastest way to track time, organize expenses, and invoice your clients…”  You can brand everything you send out with your own logo, and it integrates with Outright.com.  Right now, I’m still using a spiral notebook to do all that Freshbooks could do for me.

BatchBook.com is an online  Customer Relationship Management tool with a specifically Social Media bent.  Using a shared address book, Social Media savvy, lists of contacts, integration with FreshBooks, MailChimp, Google, etc., iPhone support, and the ability to track leads (among other things) Batchbook might just be the best thing that came into my life since my youngest daughter was born 18 years ago yesterday. :)

Honorable Mention:  Zoho CRM.  Lately, I’ve been digging deep into Zoho’s incredibly broad suite of online tools, and I’m thoroughly impressed.  Using Zoho CRM WITH Freshbooks might be confusing, overkill, though…so I’ll need to decide, here, what I’m going to go with.

Keep in mind, I’m PREPARING to launch into these solutions, and am not necessarily endorsing them yet…just telling you what my research has shown are the ones I think will be my focus from here on out.

What are you using?

Suggestions welcome!

CourVO

 

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Advice Advantage

January 25, 2012 By 4 Comments

“Pay-it-Forward” became a cliché the day after the movie of the same name was released.

But no one’s come up with a better way to briefly phrase the ethic that extending value IN ADVANCE of reward, holds great promise as a lifestyle, a marketing plan, and a business plan.  I try to live by that creed in this blog, and I can’t tell you how many times it’s payed dividends.

One of the gents I greatly admire in the voice over business is Bill DeWees.  He’s left behind a number of successful endeavours during his life, and is now making the voice-acting business look easy.  Note, I say “business“.  That’s how Bill treats it, and therein lies his success. That’s a familiar theme among the more seasoned pros.

Even though he’s a voice actor, Bill is maybe just as well-known for his pay-it-forward brand of how-to videos.  See the Bill DeWees channel on YouTube.

Yesterday on my Voice-Over Friends  FaceBook Group, Bill posted a link to an instructional video he produced as a live seminar recently.  You can view it for free, and in my estimation, there’s a gold-mine of VO business strategies in just the first hour, and then the show continues with valuable Q & A.  Please make an effort to watch as much of this as you can afford.

Among the gems in his presentation are reminders to treat all your past customers as future prospects through consistent follow-up.  Along with newsletters, postcards, emails, and phone calls, Bill shared that he uses the SmartContactTool to help automate some of this duty. When you click on that link, you end up on a site called Happy Grasshopper.

And then it hit me!  That’s how I met Bill! He had seen my blog about Happy Grasshopper from March of last year, and later contacted me to say thanks.

See!  Pay-it-forward brings its own rewards in due time, or to paraphrase:  What Goes Around Comes Around.

CourVO

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12 Trends: MUST READ!

January 5, 2012 By 2 Comments

Every year, David Ciccarelli — the technical genius behind VOICES.com — delivers a wealth of VO research in an easily digestible report.

His latest survey on the “state of the union” for voice-acting is out, and it’s called 12 Trends for 2012.

If you’re a VOICES.com subscriber, you may have already received your email link to this study.

Puh-leeze take the time to read this.  It may be THE MOST important data you will review this year.  The conclusions Ciccarelli reaches are nothing short of seminal and brilliant.  Yes, it is somewhat of a commercial for Voices.com, but there’s plenty of meat (or soy, if you’re a vegetarian) here for anyone to chew on beyond the Voices.com references.

Here’s the link again:  12 Trends for 2012.

Click.

Read.

CourVO

Filed Under: Business-end-of-things, Referral, Surveys Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , ,

Quick 2012 Business Survey

December 28, 2011 By Leave a Comment

This week, I’m entertaining relatives, enjoying all my daughters being home, and NOT working my TV job.

What I’m clearly seeing, though, is that the freelance VO  job is a juggernaut that CANNOT be relegated to “back-burner” status — even (and especially) during the holidays.

I promised some days ago to post some thoughts about planning now for your upcoming successes in the new year, and came across this simple and brilliant survey that touches on a lot of the things we should all be thinking about. TechRepublic.com: What’s Your Outlook for 2012?

In addition, Tom Dheere is sharing some excellent (and specifically some VO) thoughts about preparing for 2012 on VoiceOverXtra…a wonderful follow-up to my post on the same site about tidying up a few things for 2011.

Also, if you have a couple more minutes, you might want to check out:

FreelanceFolder.com  More Client Leads

Edelman Digital: Social Business Planning in 2012

Strategic Business Consulting: Business Planning Advice for 2012

CourVO

Filed Under: Business-end-of-things, Freelance Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
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