Taking another drink of Metamucil, I feel myself aging as I type this, but I love the gameshow The Price is Right. There’s just something about people trying to guess what two new pairs of skis cost that really entertains me.

Have you ever actually been on the other end, though? I imagine it’s pretty suspenseful and almost impossible to think while in the limelight under time constraints… wait a tick… something about this sounds very familiar.

Well, if you’ve played the voice over game before, you’ve played The Price is Right. As a matter of fact, you’ve been involved in every aspect of the game.

You juggle a lot of hats when you’re a self-represented voice person. One of those hats that is often dropped is price. Naming the right price can be incredibly difficult. In the heat of the moment it can be quite difficult to decide on a price to quote. Will the quote be too high? These are just a few of the questions that run through the mind when the question of cost arises.

So, what’s your answer? A matter of seconds is often all the time you have to think when a prospective client calls, wants to know your price, and they don’t want to wait. The people who are hiring you for voice work often have many things to do and they usually want to hire someone quickly and for the best price possible.

So, the best thing to do is have a list of your prices with you everywhere you go. I keep all of my rates in my phone. Granted, I’ve got one of those fancy computer phones that can make spreadsheets and really nifty stuff, but a lot of phones can at least hold plain text notes: just enough to have your rates listed. You carry your phone with you everywhere (to answer those constant calls from clients for more work) so why not have it hold your valuable information as well? If you can’t store that information in your phone or don’t know how, print out a small rate overview card from your computer and keep it in your wallet.

So, now that you know where to keep your rates, how should you set your rates to be both attractive (to yourself and prospective clients) and competitive at the same time?

I think the key is two words: know thyself.

You should know how much time and effort it will take you to complete a 30 second radio commercial as well as a 300 page audio book. You know how long it took to make your demos (you should have demos and you should know how long they took to make if you had a hand in the process). So the main question is “how much is your time worth?”. You really have to answer this question for yourself based on a few factors:

1) How much experience do you have? More experienced vo people can charge more because they are more skilled. If you have no experience, skip the rest of the steps.

2) Do you run your own studio? If yes, keep in mind the initial and recurring costs as well as some profit. If no, you have to at least recoup the amount you’re being charged to record, plus the gas and time it took to drive there, and then add a double dose of profit.

3) Are you going to edit the material yourself? If you are, keep in mind the amount of work that will take and the time that the editing will take to complete. You’ll want to figure that into the cost as well.

4) How will the client want the project delivered? If they want it by e-mail or FTP, no big deal, but if they want an overnight cd, keep in mind how much that costs, because it’s not cheap. You’ll want the client to pay for that, so make sure to tell them that in the quote. Find out if they want that first thing. If, by chance, they want it recorded through ISDN, you’ll need to book a studio that has that capability and make sure to figure in the cost (as in point 2).

So, now that you’ve considered most of the things you need to charge for (if you’re and experienced talent), a note for the less experienced: you won’t be able to charge much, if anything for your services. I’m not saying do everything for free, that is a HUGE mistake that can lead you down a dark, dark path. You just may not be able to charge what you want for a while. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but you won’t be making what a professional will make for a while.

As far as charging goes, as in the actual price, what you need to do is think long and hard about your rates before you get asked by a client what your rate will be. While you’re doing free stuff, think in the back of your head “this is what I would want to charge for this”. Write it down if you have to. Once you’ve gotten an idea of how much you should charge for something, it’s time to start charging.

Don’t start of charging union rates, you’ll never book a gig. The only people willing to pay union rates are auditions that your agent sends you to. Most of you (including myself) won’t have to worry about that for a while.

The only reason I would look at union (SAG/AFTRA) rates is to get an idea of what kind of work is more expensive than the other. Or, you could take the rates and divide them at least by 3 if not more. This might be a good starting place if you are totally clueless about what to charge.

Always keep the client’s budget in mind as well. Sometimes you may not know it and you may have to guess. In that case, aim low and the client won’t be disappointed.

Good luck naming your price! Sorry this post took so long to get out, I wanted to make sure I wrote down everything I wanted to talk about.

More to come next time in part four of The Five P’s of Voice Over Success. Subscribe to the RSS feed above to have the article delivered to your e-mail inbox.

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