Voiceover Q&A #005: How much should I charge for voiceover services?

This is the transcript for Voiceover Q&A with Brian Wiggins #005.

{ 0:02 }

Okie dokie. Take two. Yeah my computer rebooted and now it just decided my microphone was going to work. So yay. So the question we have is how do vo rates work and how do I determine my rates? And that can be a really spiky question can't, because you're basically asking someone how much do you get paid?

But it's also a very valuable question because it's one that you kind of need to know when you're starting off and that's with any freelance work, right? And I'll tell you what, I've been kind of modeling my approach to this is, as far as I can, answer any questions like this, and I'm going to preface this with knowing that I am not the foremost expert. There are people out there that are way more experience in

{ 0:59 }

voiceover than I am. but, I figure maybe in a way I'm a little bit closer to people who are getting started off. Then the veterans and it's not to take away from the veterans, there's some really awesome. Awesome people, some very cool awesome people that have been very helpful along the way to myself to others who are very giving of their time and advice and encouragement but then there's a lot of folks that are not there very gatekeeper e. I've had experience with both. But anyway, that's not the question of questions about rates. So how do we determine that? Because when you start you're not going to want to, you can't charge, you just can't charge the top-tier rates your brand new, I'm brand-new, I still can't charge top-tier rates so I would say the first thing is check out. So when I set my rates and I try to be pretty open with my rates, because as far as

{ 1:58 }

what I'm doing, because what do I have to lose? What are the lose by sharing? What I'm doing with other people, it doesn't hurt anyone. To know how the formula works if you want to call that. But anyway, so when I, when I figured out, when I was figuring out my rates, I went to the gva, a raid guide, and I'll put a link in the in the description, but I went to the gva rate guide and that's sort of like the the I don't want to say it's like the the Commandments of rates because I don't think that's, I don't think that's accurate. It's more like the Rosetta Stone of rates and interpreting what we should do. Because there's so many factors that go into determining how much we charge for a project and even then it's going to be negotiable. I feel so buts. That's a good place to start.

{ 2:58 }

So when I started, I started with the GBA a rate guide and I knew as a beginner I was going to be at the bottom of that scale.

But the gva rate guide is nice because it is essentially based off of the sag-aftra contract. So that's sort of like the industry standard for what we should be charging for our rates. And if you're doing Union work, that would be obviously, what what the rates would be, but I also knew I might be going beneath that a little bit at times, but I would I charged at the bottom end of that. So for instance, when I started and again there's a lot of things that go into determining how much you're going to charge for a project. How long is it going to be? How long will it take me? What's it going to be used for? How difficult is the language? How many projects am I going to get through this?

{ 4:00 }

Yeah, there's a lot there's a lot Hurley has really has some opinions about this. Apparently there's a lot that's going to go into making those decisions. Determining what the rates going to be. But yeah, I've started at the lower end of it. With the knowledge. So whenever I do send out when someone asks for my rates, I have a rate card that I will send out but I also plainly say this is negotiable. because, A maybe the it could be that the client whoever that is just doesn't have a budget for a 350 dollar or $500 session fee. but if they're in the neighborhood of what's reasonable, Then, yeah, I might be willing to do it.

{ 4:59 }

If it's going to be like a two-minute read or a 30-second read. Yeah, I'm willing to negotiate on that. I'd say. All right, so generally speaking, like my session fee is like, I'm going to say, I can't remember the last time I looked at it. It's like 300 325 and what you know that gets you a recording basically, you're buying an hour renting an hour of my time in the booth that does not get you an hour of finished audio, that's different. And now we're finished. Audio is different because it's going take me more than an hour to record that but that's where I start because I look at it like if I start at this number, I feel like that's a fair number for my time. And if that's in your budget, awesome. Then everyone's happy. If it's, if your budget is below that, then we can negotiate,

{ 5:59 }

we can talk about and see what's reasonable. If your budget is above that, either a, I'm hoping that the person if they're honest when say well, we were hoping to, you know, we can actually pay more than that. Usually, if they have that kind of budget, they're kind of upfront with it. And again, this is all with folks that are when we're when they're coming to me with a project or Something like that. Hey, they'll ask me what my rights are a lot of stuff that I auditioned for actually I just see the rate up front and I can make a decision but this way I feel like I'm not. If I am leaving money on the table, it's not a lot. It's not going to break the bank literally or figuratively. It's going to allow me to pay the bills but then it also allows me to come down a little bit in price now. Yeah, if it's super cheap. Like I saw some stuff the other day where and it might have been a student. Project. So I will put the caveat that if it's a student project I get it. There's no budget at all.

{ 6:57 }

But I saw it where they wanted like two hours of work and they were going to pay 25 or 50 bucks. No I'm not going to turn on a mic for that. That's too low within reason, you know. Maybe it is a really cool student project. Maybe I know the person and again there's a whole bunch of factors that go in there. So but I would just say, yeah, you have to be honest with yourself because it's like, where are you in your career? But you You start start with a gva rate guide, that is a good place to start. Don't undersell yourself because good luck asking for a raise. Once you've worked with a client for a certain amount of money, it is really hard to say, well, my rates went up. a lot of times they just might decide not to work with you, and that's because it's what their budget is and I'm not a scribing any

I'm not assuming bad behavior or bad faith. I'm not assuming that they are going after the absolute cheapest work possible. Are there people like that? Yes, I have worked for people like that in my professional life.

But I'm not a scribing that behavior. I'm just assuming the budget is what it is. Not all companies have the ability to pay the full Union rate now, where I do get a little less flexible is when we get to broadcasting commercial work if it's being used in broadcast and there's a release involved, that's where I'm going to get a little bit more to be a bit more of a stickler. I don't do a lot of work like that, so it doesn't come up that often but that's where I would be. I'm going to adhere a little bit more closely to the Jeep. A a rate card. But that.

{ 8:58 }

Yeah, I start. I mean, honestly, if you're just getting started, you got to start where everyone else started at the bottom. And you might feel like it's too low. Unless you can justify to a client why you're worth more than. And I don't mean you as a person that your work product is worth more than the lower tier of the lower end of the scale and that's where you're going to start. And you'll do a few projects that way and then you slowly raise the rates over time that's going to be in due to what you're comfortable with what your demand for your time is what your skills are. What do you bring to the table? That no one else does. And that's a whole bunch. I guess that a whole bunch of factors. There's no one number. But, yeah, but you're the other thing you run into is I thought some of them were too high. I thought some like man, my is my time really worth that, my going to scare people away. The one thing I'll tell you is don't be scared to ask for the money.

{ 9:59 }

Don't feel like you have to undersell yourself, don't feel like you have to take pennies on the dollar that if the state if you're seeing that session fee should be $200 or $250 but you're seeing a job 450 again. I'm not paying your bills so I can't tell you how to make your money and what to charge. But don't undersell yourself. Don't pick. Well, I'm only going to charge 50 bucks where everyone else is charging 201. You're underselling your undervaluing yourself. I'm going to guarantee you that. If you've had training, if you have a professional demo, if you've taken the time and have skin in the game, you're worth, you're worth it. Your time is worth it. The other thing is don't, don't play the game where you're underselling, everyone. You know. You're only hurting yourself. You're hurting. You're hurting the industry. If you under charge constantly and there's folks out there that do that and they make money. But

{ 11:00 }

I mean is it going to destroy the industry? No, no I don't believe that it would have been destroyed years ago if that had happened. If that were the case. But yeah I don't know if that helps. I don't know if any of this really helps with the right question.

Yeah, I just start with the gva a rate guide and try to be even if you're at the bottom end of it, even if you're going to go below some of those rates which again is your choice, be reasonable about. It, don't go so far under but have confidence with yourself and be willing to negotiate. You know, I could stick hard to saying, no, my session fee is this, it is $350 session fee. Well, our budget is 250. Where our budget is 275 or my session fee is 325 and they only want to charge 200 well?

{ 11:58 }

Alright it's 150 bucks percentage-wise. That's a big chunk of money yet. If we talk percentages but just in terms of real life day-to-day, am I gonna am I going to sacrifice? Getting paid at all over the course it for a hundred bucks. Probably not again, depends on the project. I don't know if that helps, I hope it does. Please let me know if that helps. Please let me know if that helps. I'm not trying to be ambiguous. I'm not trying to be secretive. It's just it's a really big question. so please like I said, let me know if that helps and if you have other questions about that, please let me know because I feel like I truly feel like The only way anyone gets good at anything is through having a mentor is through having someone to kind of be their Rabbi to

{ 12:59 }

Shepherd people through. And it's usually more than one person. And I don't feel like there's anything to be gained about being secretive about rates about how people go about marketing about, where we find jobs. There's enough work out there for everyone. Yeah, I think in the macro that there's enough work for everyone. Yeah, I mean, we'll something's be eroded if we everyone knows everyone's business a little bit, but the folks who are really going to make it go at, this are the ones who have the toughness to stick with it to stay in the game because this is not an easy way to make a living even part-time. And if you're not willing to put the work in and not willing to take your lumps, then you're not going to make a living doing this. It's just the way that this way freelancing works, the way that being in a creative industry works. So I'm that's Why I'm not too worried about it, but again, I hope this helps. Yeah, I really I hope it helps. I know I repeat myself a lot at the end of these things but

{ 13:58 }

let me know, hit me up if you feel like this does help or if it doesn't or if you have other questions about it. So yeah, thank you so much for watching, please. If you could take a moment to subscribe down below. So you could support the channel. If you have any questions, you can absolutely reach out to me via social media at the st. Brian, on both Twitter and Instagram. If you need to book me for voiceover projects, you can get me at vaux, Brian.com. And if you ever want to work with me, for private coaching, for voiceover to get Ready for a demo for audition help. You can reach out to Edge Studio and they can book my time for coaching purposes. So thank you so much and thank you for the support for the channel.

--- End of transcript ---