Well, this is gonna sound brutal, but well. If you're trained for professional voiceover, stop accepting bullshit rates. You're not an amateur, so why are you letting people treat you like one? Here's the truth most newcomers never hear. Being new does not mean working for scraps. It means being new to the business of voiceover, not being new to respecting your time and talent and value. This post isn't just a voiceover pricing guide. It's your blueprint to busting the cycle of second guessing, taking low ball rates and self doubt so that you can turn this part-time side hustle into a full-time career. Let's rewrite your money story. One script, one client, one confident quote at a time. Okay, so you spend months, right? Learning the craft, getting training. building out your studio, your website, and you finally land that first gig. And you're excited and you're nervous and I get it. It's awesome. And then the client asks, what's your rate? And your stomach drops. What if I charge too much? What if they ghost me? Panic sets in. So you quote well below what's in the GVAA rate guide. Maybe it's a buck 50 for a commercial. Maybe it's 75 bucks for an entire e-learning module and you think to yourself, well hey, any money's better than no money, right? Wrong. There's this pervasive belief in our business that beginners should pay their dues and work for bullshit rates and build the portfolio and eventually graduate to pro money. But this is poison, not only for your own career, but for the entire VO industry at large because it accelerates the race to the bottom. If you are trained, to competency and you provide a smooth experience and a good product for your clients, you are a professional. You're not begging for charity. Your work has value and you should charge appropriately for it. What makes you qualified to charge pro rates? Let's break it down. If you have completed to competency foundational voiceover training, I'm not talking about a lesson here or there or some shitty weekend webinar with a quote unquote pro demo, but actual coaching from a reputable qualified coach over the course of months. If you can deliver high quality audio from your home recording space, if you understand direction, if you understand script interpretation, how to break down a script, if you understand booth direction, if you understand how to revise takes, if you provide a smooth and pleasant experience, maybe even God forbid fun on time and on budget, you're not just a beginner, you're a qualified professional. And the only thing making you an Amateur is your willingness to bend over and accept shitty pay. Alright, you want numbers, not motivational quotes. I get it. Here's what the pros use. First, the GVAA rate guide in North America. This is the gold standard for non-union rates for the US and Canada. It is the reference guide for what pro non-union voice actors charge across the board from commercials to audiobooks, e-learning, medical narration, video games. animation and anime, you name it, it's on there. Now, if you're competent but new, aim for at least 80 % of GVAA rates for the first six months or so. After that, there's no reason not to charge full pro rates. Bottom line is, if you're even getting off the couch for less than 250 bucks, you're undercharging your value and you're setting yourself up for burnout. Aha, Paul, but what if I'm not trained to competency? Well, grab your ankles, because here's the tough love. If you're not trained as a competent professional, you have no business asking other businesses for money. The industry ain't hurting for cheap guys. It's hungry for good. Invest in learning the craft before you focus on charging. Otherwise, you can't help but provide subpar results and you're going to be hurting for work. Look, when you're new, I get it, right? You're thinking, well, I'm no... Insert big-time voice actor here. I'll just quote Lowe to get my foot in the door. Stop it. Price is rarely what closes the deal for good professional clients. Clients need you to be reliable and skilled and provide a read that solves their problem. You're not a hack on Fiverr working for $50 a holler anymore. You gotta think bigger. Let's talk about why cheap clients are career poison. First of all, they never, never become high paying clients. The $75 clients are never going to be $750 clients. Also, cheap clients refer you to more cheap clients and you get stuck at the bottom of the market. And finally, and this is true, not just in voiceover, but in many businesses, the cheapest clients are the hardest ones to please. They want the sun, the moon, the stars. They want it all for nothing. They will ghost you at the first sign of expensive and they will suck the joy and the life right out of this business for you. The fastest way for you to grow professionally, especially in the beginning, is to have the simple confidence and willingness to walk away from bullshit rates. Yeah, I know it's intimidating to talk about money. So let me give you some language in a couple of scenarios that you can actually use. Client says, what do you charge for an explainer video of about two minutes? And you go, my standard rate for a two minute explainer is 360 bucks. And that covers the recording, a round of retakes and two-day turnaround. That 360 by the way is still 80 % of the GVAA rate. No need to justify it, you just put it out there. Client says, well we only have 60 bucks in the budget, can you do it for that? And you say, thanks for sharing your budget. My rate is 360 bucks which includes broadcast, quality, audio, and a quick turnaround. If that's not the right fit, I totally understand and I hope we can work together one day on a project with a bigger budget. No apology, no. desperate counteroffer, just a professional response. That's it. And on the casting sites and the P2P's, no matter what the client budget is, you post your rate or at least 80 % of the GVAA rate guide and stick to it. If you get messaged about a lower rate, just use the language I just gave you. Now here's the not so secret truth. You will lose jobs because of your rates, but that's also kind of the point. Huh? Clients that value you will pay you what you're worth and the ones that don't will head for the hills and they will never become good long-term partners and especially if you want to go full-time charging less ain't gonna get you there Why because as the kids say the math don't math quick reality check if you want to make let's say 75 grand a year you need 62 50 a month in revenue if you're charging 75 bucks a project that's 84 jobs a month. That's impossible for most people. But if you're charging $3.75 per job, that's 17 jobs a month. Totally doable, much less burnout. Raise your rates, raise your revenue. But what about experience, Polly? Look, nobody's suggesting that you skip the practice phase. Here's how to build experience without destroying your rates down the line. First, do free work smartly. And only if you must. A non-profit that you believe in or some sort of passion project. Disclose it as donation based. Second, ever tell anybody publicly, work for free. And finally, do projects for charity or practice jobs sparingly and label them as such if you ever put them out as a sample or part of a demo. I have two rates, full price and free. And I'm the one who decides who gets free based on my passions, my values and my relationships. Now you want to, I don't want to call it a hack, but the fastest way to get some experience at least, sign up for coaching, sign up for boot camps where you're getting real qualified feedback on real actual scripts from qualified coaches. And when you've completed that, when you've completed that training, you can look a client in the eye and say, I deliver results on a professional level because you already have. Then in six months, review your rates as you collect social proof, testimonials, case studies. You can work closer to those full GVAA rates. Raising your rates is not greedy guys. It's how you stay in business. And here's how you communicate a rate increase to your potential clients. I'll give an example. I appreciate working with you over the past year as my business grows and in line with industry standards and my own growth as a voice artist. My rate for new projects will increase roughly 10%. or whatever you deem necessary. Effective January 1st. I'm excited to continue delivering the high level quality you expect. Now, you can have two identical prospects, right? Same script, same job, same budget, same everything. One value is hiring a real professional. The other doesn't. Let's show you how to find those first folks. And it starts with marketing yourself like a pro. Your website, your demos, your LinkedIn profile. When you do that, cheap clients get turned off and Pro clients get impressed. Again, it's all about attracting the right clients and repelling the wrong ones. Next, join communities for VO. professionals, not hobbyists and hacks. And finally, you got to generate leads. Reach out to producers, production managers, e-learning companies, advertising agencies, using tools like Client Connect Plus. I'll put the link in the description and show notes, and I'll give you 50 % off with discount code NEWPRO50 for 50 % off of EO Client Connect Plus. And finally, don't waste your time on P2P jobs that are simply rewarding the lowest bidder. So after all of that, you're still nervous about charging pro rates. If you're not confident in your training, get trained up. If you are trained up, courses like our own VO Rates 101, and again, I'll give you 50 % off with the same code, VO Rates 101 will not only teach you pricing, but negotiation and confidence so that you don't freeze up like a deer in the headlights when somebody asks you what your rate is. Charge what you're worth, not what you think they'll give you. Way too many talented voice actors in this business stall out and sometimes fall out because they think they have to be cheap. Don't let that be your sad tale. Being well-trained means you deserve professional rates. Price yourself accordingly. Stand by your numbers and watch how quickly you become a respected professional in the business. Now, if you're ready to take the next step, I've got the GVAA rate guide link in the description and show notes as well as link to professional training and development. to help build your pro career. Start charging what you're worth today. As always, if this video helped you, if you think it will help another voice actor, please by all means share it with them and have them check out these videos right here. The more we talk, exchange ideas and information, the more we come together in community, the better, stronger industry we're going to have for everybody. Thanks so much. See you soon, guys.