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Voice Coaches Radio #629 – Should I Have a Business Plan?
Voice Coaches Radio. Everything voiceover. Welcome to a brand new episode of Voice Coaches Radio. We are now getting into the month of April. Uh, you know, hopefully you didn't fall for any jokes and pranks on, uh, the first. I know that can trip some people up. I don't feel like it's as prominent as it once used to be.
And maybe that's just me not seeing the pranks done as often, uh, anymore, but, you know, being somebody heavily radio background, you know, I used to watch it happen on the air all the time. And then, like, I just think we got more sensitive as a society that that started to become a big no no. So, I mean, I was just telling somebody the story.
Not long ago, I mean, within the last probably 10 years ago or so, the morning show on the station I was working at, they, they started the morning as if prostitution became legalized in New York state. And then they had like people calling in saying that they were on different street corners or whatever, that they were part of the bit, obviously.
But, um, it was, it was quite a morning because, you know, you've got to realize like people are like half asleep as they're tuning in and they're hearing it and they're like, like, and they think it's real. And, Had a press release for it and everything. Like, I mean, uh, can't get away with that kind of stuff now.
Uh, I think, you know, moment that gets on the air, it's like, people are going to be hooting and hollering and like getting so, so offended, um, instead of just having some fun, you know, but, uh. But whatever to each their own just hopefully nobody dumped water on you when you weren't looking or I don't know I'm not a pranker.
So I just don't know, uh, but speaking of being a fool, uh, you know, I I had a class with Gentleman, his name was harry and he was asking me some some questions that I think are important Depending on who you are and how you operate as a person. Um, you know, i'm i'm somebody I will admit Uh, probably a little bit more You seat of my pants.
In fact, I was, I had a business meeting earlier and I mentioned how I feel like I'm somebody, I, I do, I'm like kind of like spur of the moment, but also like the organized, like spur of the moment, which might not make any sense to you, but it makes sense in my head. Uh, but that being said, some people really do need the methodical thinking and, you know, lay it all out.
Here's a question to me. Was it came right from a friend who also is a business owner because that's what happens like you get into this industry and Whether you realize it or not you become a business like you yourself your voice your person You are a business now and you are Gonna be self made and you're gonna be self taking care of and you know, how do you how do you go about doing it?
What do you do first? His question was, should I have a business plan? And he asked me what I did. And, and, you know, now listen, I've been doing this for a while, right? Like I started when I was, God, when I was in school, like, you know, beginning, uh, it was like 22, maybe. And, and like, I started at that point too.
And I mean, I didn't really have a big thought process on, process on it. Cause like in my head only months before. I graduated from a totally different school and like for something completely different for fine arts Like that was my backup plan I was just a shy kid taking a shot and seeing what would happen and if I could do this And and next thing, you know, I was just being like thrown to the wolves and uh, i'm i'm thankful for it I'm glad it happened, but I didn't have a plan.
There was no plan in my brain, you know, so I think you know as You As an adult, like a full grown adult, right? Not just like a 20 something kid just getting out of school. Um, and as somebody who's already tackled a big chunk of your adult working life and now going into venture something else, like, yeah, you should probably have a business plan.
You should have a good idea of what kind of things you want to accomplish. And, and I think what you need to really do. Is you got to think of the bigger picture before you start piecing together the smaller bits to get to the big picture because that's the thing, right? We want to have some, some big goals and we need to have like the biggest goal in mind and then maybe like the other goals that we want to achieve underneath that umbrella that are more realistic maybe in the moment.
Um, You know, and then you want to kind of go ahead and set the foundation of like, well, how, how am I going to achieve those things? How do I get there? What should I be doing? And what steps should I be taking to get to each one of these spots? And, I mean, it might, it might start with something so simple as knowing where to start searching.
Um, it might start with getting a web domain. It might start with understanding, uh, you know, if you want to get an LLC, um, you know, or maybe it's business cards. Maybe it's getting, you know, uh, like the understanding of, well, what, what kind of name am I going to go by? What name am I going to go by? What is my business name?
Um, you know, so. Everybody is probably going to be a little different in how they navigate this. But that business model for yourself will be really, really helpful. Because, I mean, think about it. If you go and think back to being in school, you had like an outline that you were going to do for your book report.
Like, that was always how you wanted to start it so you understood where to go and how to navigate. That, that essay or that, that book report, um, so you start with the outline and you do it in bullet points and then you got to hit each one of those things that you labeled on that, that outline to get to the final product.
And that's the same thing here. You know, it's like you want to have that, that overall outline and then weave your way in and out to be able to hit everything that you want to do. You know, I think some of what you need to do is going to be similar to other people when it comes to setup, when it comes to the things, the basic things that you need, whether it's social media, whether it's business cards, whether it's a website, um, maybe it's a dedicated phone line, like an email address, like, you know, those are going to be some basic things that, that anybody is going to want to have to start.
Um, but then, Then you go through, well, what are my big goals? What are the bigger goals from there? You know, and, and just build around it. Uh, it's gonna take some time. It's gonna take some patience, right? It's gonna potentially test you a little bit. But the best thing that you can do, is just kind of, do it little by little.
You start getting stressed out, you gotta put it down, you gotta walk away, and you gotta clear your brain. And you gotta remember that this is a, an industry that is a whole lot of fun, if you allow it to be fun. And, like, the business part of it, You know, when we're starting to put this structure together and, and create something, that can be a little, that can be a little, uh, heavy.
It can be a little stressful. You know, I just did my taxes. I'll tell you, that can be a little stressful as a self employed human. Oh, but it's, it, it pays for itself in the end. I gotta pay for my taxes. But it, it does. It pays for itself tenfold, let's face it. Because I could be doing almost anything else.
It I don't want to do anything else. I want to do this. So for me, you know, when I was talking to Harry, I, I said to him, maybe, maybe initially I didn't have any kind of plan, but in the back of my head, in, in the rebuild phase of all of this, and I've said this before, once I knew, wait a minute, I can do this from home.
Wait a minute. I don't have anything holding me back. Like, I've got the okay from this one station that I'm doing that as long as any other work isn't in that same market, I can go ahead and I can explore. The world was open to me all of a sudden. And maybe I didn't write down a business plan, but I knew in the back of my head that my goal was to work from home.
My goal was to add work stations, radio stations, any kind of voice work I could. And I wanted to be able to have the flexibility that so many. in in voiceover end up having the luxury of. It didn't happen overnight, it never will. Came sort of easy, at least in my eyes, but it was also because of the 15 plus years of work that I put into it, leading into The nonsense that we've been dealing with the last few years, you know, so it's not like a handwritten plan, but I knew what I wanted and I just kept doing it and I kept doing little things and anything that would come my way.
I said yes, if I if I if I could. Next thing you know, it's it's the steps paying off and getting to be remote and getting that flexibility and You know, kind of being that self made employee, um, or, or, or just business as a, as a person. Um, and you'll get there too. But it all starts at step one. And I think right now for you, step one is beginning the, uh, the business plan process and you just got to see where you want to start.
Maybe it's figuring out your goals. Maybe it's setting up some of the basics to then get to whatever the goals are gonna be. But, it starts now. Uh, don't put it off. You know, let yourself rule 2024 and uh, see what you're really capable of. You know, every day is a brand new day and every day is a, a day to start something new and something fresh.
So let, let either today or tomorrow be that day for you. All right. And if you've got anything that you want us to tackle, right here on the pod, Marissa at voicecoaches. com. Marissa at voicecoaches. com. Brand new episode. In fact, I'm going to have Simone on with me next week. So, uh, she has been very heavy in a lot of different elements of the voiceover world.
So she's got a really interesting background. We'll talk all about that and what she does here at voice coaches. And that is coming up next week, right here on voice coaches radio. Stay safe, everybody. Visit voicecoaches. com for more voiceover news and information.
And maybe that's just me not seeing the pranks done as often, uh, anymore, but, you know, being somebody heavily radio background, you know, I used to watch it happen on the air all the time. And then, like, I just think we got more sensitive as a society that that started to become a big no no. So, I mean, I was just telling somebody the story.
Not long ago, I mean, within the last probably 10 years ago or so, the morning show on the station I was working at, they, they started the morning as if prostitution became legalized in New York state. And then they had like people calling in saying that they were on different street corners or whatever, that they were part of the bit, obviously.
But, um, it was, it was quite a morning because, you know, you've got to realize like people are like half asleep as they're tuning in and they're hearing it and they're like, like, and they think it's real. And, Had a press release for it and everything. Like, I mean, uh, can't get away with that kind of stuff now.
Uh, I think, you know, moment that gets on the air, it's like, people are going to be hooting and hollering and like getting so, so offended, um, instead of just having some fun, you know, but, uh. But whatever to each their own just hopefully nobody dumped water on you when you weren't looking or I don't know I'm not a pranker.
So I just don't know, uh, but speaking of being a fool, uh, you know, I I had a class with Gentleman, his name was harry and he was asking me some some questions that I think are important Depending on who you are and how you operate as a person. Um, you know, i'm i'm somebody I will admit Uh, probably a little bit more You seat of my pants.
In fact, I was, I had a business meeting earlier and I mentioned how I feel like I'm somebody, I, I do, I'm like kind of like spur of the moment, but also like the organized, like spur of the moment, which might not make any sense to you, but it makes sense in my head. Uh, but that being said, some people really do need the methodical thinking and, you know, lay it all out.
Here's a question to me. Was it came right from a friend who also is a business owner because that's what happens like you get into this industry and Whether you realize it or not you become a business like you yourself your voice your person You are a business now and you are Gonna be self made and you're gonna be self taking care of and you know, how do you how do you go about doing it?
What do you do first? His question was, should I have a business plan? And he asked me what I did. And, and, you know, now listen, I've been doing this for a while, right? Like I started when I was, God, when I was in school, like, you know, beginning, uh, it was like 22, maybe. And, and like, I started at that point too.
And I mean, I didn't really have a big thought process on, process on it. Cause like in my head only months before. I graduated from a totally different school and like for something completely different for fine arts Like that was my backup plan I was just a shy kid taking a shot and seeing what would happen and if I could do this And and next thing, you know, I was just being like thrown to the wolves and uh, i'm i'm thankful for it I'm glad it happened, but I didn't have a plan.
There was no plan in my brain, you know, so I think you know as You As an adult, like a full grown adult, right? Not just like a 20 something kid just getting out of school. Um, and as somebody who's already tackled a big chunk of your adult working life and now going into venture something else, like, yeah, you should probably have a business plan.
You should have a good idea of what kind of things you want to accomplish. And, and I think what you need to really do. Is you got to think of the bigger picture before you start piecing together the smaller bits to get to the big picture because that's the thing, right? We want to have some, some big goals and we need to have like the biggest goal in mind and then maybe like the other goals that we want to achieve underneath that umbrella that are more realistic maybe in the moment.
Um, You know, and then you want to kind of go ahead and set the foundation of like, well, how, how am I going to achieve those things? How do I get there? What should I be doing? And what steps should I be taking to get to each one of these spots? And, I mean, it might, it might start with something so simple as knowing where to start searching.
Um, it might start with getting a web domain. It might start with understanding, uh, you know, if you want to get an LLC, um, you know, or maybe it's business cards. Maybe it's getting, you know, uh, like the understanding of, well, what, what kind of name am I going to go by? What name am I going to go by? What is my business name?
Um, you know, so. Everybody is probably going to be a little different in how they navigate this. But that business model for yourself will be really, really helpful. Because, I mean, think about it. If you go and think back to being in school, you had like an outline that you were going to do for your book report.
Like, that was always how you wanted to start it so you understood where to go and how to navigate. That, that essay or that, that book report, um, so you start with the outline and you do it in bullet points and then you got to hit each one of those things that you labeled on that, that outline to get to the final product.
And that's the same thing here. You know, it's like you want to have that, that overall outline and then weave your way in and out to be able to hit everything that you want to do. You know, I think some of what you need to do is going to be similar to other people when it comes to setup, when it comes to the things, the basic things that you need, whether it's social media, whether it's business cards, whether it's a website, um, maybe it's a dedicated phone line, like an email address, like, you know, those are going to be some basic things that, that anybody is going to want to have to start.
Um, but then, Then you go through, well, what are my big goals? What are the bigger goals from there? You know, and, and just build around it. Uh, it's gonna take some time. It's gonna take some patience, right? It's gonna potentially test you a little bit. But the best thing that you can do, is just kind of, do it little by little.
You start getting stressed out, you gotta put it down, you gotta walk away, and you gotta clear your brain. And you gotta remember that this is a, an industry that is a whole lot of fun, if you allow it to be fun. And, like, the business part of it, You know, when we're starting to put this structure together and, and create something, that can be a little, that can be a little, uh, heavy.
It can be a little stressful. You know, I just did my taxes. I'll tell you, that can be a little stressful as a self employed human. Oh, but it's, it, it pays for itself in the end. I gotta pay for my taxes. But it, it does. It pays for itself tenfold, let's face it. Because I could be doing almost anything else.
It I don't want to do anything else. I want to do this. So for me, you know, when I was talking to Harry, I, I said to him, maybe, maybe initially I didn't have any kind of plan, but in the back of my head, in, in the rebuild phase of all of this, and I've said this before, once I knew, wait a minute, I can do this from home.
Wait a minute. I don't have anything holding me back. Like, I've got the okay from this one station that I'm doing that as long as any other work isn't in that same market, I can go ahead and I can explore. The world was open to me all of a sudden. And maybe I didn't write down a business plan, but I knew in the back of my head that my goal was to work from home.
My goal was to add work stations, radio stations, any kind of voice work I could. And I wanted to be able to have the flexibility that so many. in in voiceover end up having the luxury of. It didn't happen overnight, it never will. Came sort of easy, at least in my eyes, but it was also because of the 15 plus years of work that I put into it, leading into The nonsense that we've been dealing with the last few years, you know, so it's not like a handwritten plan, but I knew what I wanted and I just kept doing it and I kept doing little things and anything that would come my way.
I said yes, if I if I if I could. Next thing you know, it's it's the steps paying off and getting to be remote and getting that flexibility and You know, kind of being that self made employee, um, or, or, or just business as a, as a person. Um, and you'll get there too. But it all starts at step one. And I think right now for you, step one is beginning the, uh, the business plan process and you just got to see where you want to start.
Maybe it's figuring out your goals. Maybe it's setting up some of the basics to then get to whatever the goals are gonna be. But, it starts now. Uh, don't put it off. You know, let yourself rule 2024 and uh, see what you're really capable of. You know, every day is a brand new day and every day is a, a day to start something new and something fresh.
So let, let either today or tomorrow be that day for you. All right. And if you've got anything that you want us to tackle, right here on the pod, Marissa at voicecoaches. com. Marissa at voicecoaches. com. Brand new episode. In fact, I'm going to have Simone on with me next week. So, uh, she has been very heavy in a lot of different elements of the voiceover world.
So she's got a really interesting background. We'll talk all about that and what she does here at voice coaches. And that is coming up next week, right here on voice coaches radio. Stay safe, everybody. Visit voicecoaches. com for more voiceover news and information.
This week on Voice Coaches Radio, Marissa had a student that was picking her brain earlier this week, Harry, who was talking to a friend about starting voice over. His friend asked him if he had a business plan and he wasn’t even sure if he should have one. So, should you?
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