Notice I didn’t say like, or admire, or even “Are you fond of”. I said love, because it seems to me like most of the people I have dealt with in the Voiceover industry “love” the business they are in.
Very recently a client had made amendments on an IVR I had recorded for him. They had added a company to their IVR system (a second company) so they wanted to add the new company to the system. But the way the gentleman was talking to me… it was like I was a rockstar… He treated me like Talent, with respect, appreciation and regard.
It was odd to tell you the truth as usually I have to deal with casting agencies who will peddle the job to the lowest quoting VO out there… Make me feel anything but talented and miles from appreciated.
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As voiceover artists we sometimes have to put on several occupational hats. From Social networking marketeers to accountants, to recording talents to sound engineers. You can’t do everything but you can try to make some of the different aspects of the job easier with the right tools.
I don’t know how it started but a few weeks back I realized that I need a proper invoicing software. What I did in the past was a somewhat laborious and a very medieval method of using a graphic design program to design an invoice template and just used that design program to send out my invoices and quotations (or estimates if that is what you like to call them).
I usually limit myself to finding free or open source (which technically means free) applications that can do the job for you. But this time around I figured that I won’t limit myself to just free applications, the only restriction I would put on myself is how much I would pay for them.
So I embarked on a quest to find an invoicing solution that suited me. Oh yeah, and I also didn’t want to use an online invoicing company although their are many available who will not charge you if you have less that 10 or so clients. The reason for this decision was that I was kind of sick of having all my information available online… and didn’t want to have to go through a facepalm moment (look up facepalm online for clarification) if one of those sites gets hacked and my information goes public.. although now that I write this I have no idea who would find that information in the least bit interesting.
In any case, a few weeks back this was an issue for me. So I started looking for both applications and server based programs that you run on your hosting account.
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A while back I was alerted that the Indian Voiceover Scam outfit Voxbox has started to list jobs under a different name. Voice Up, or at least this is what we thought was the case.
Shawn Pereira was the one listing the jobs under Voice Up and Melroy DeMello was out of the picture… in hiding I suppose.
But today I was contacted my Shawn … and he wanted to clear his name. He sent me this email:
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A few years back when I moved back to Cairo from Toronto, I started working for the advertising company that I am currently with. I was hired back then as a Senior Art Director and thrown into the trenches. It was a bit strange to adjust to the Egyptian work environment after working for 4 years straight in Canada.
The working atmosphere in Canada is very different to Egypt. Egypt is far more relaxed and far more forgiving. In Canada you could get laid off in a heart beat.. In Egypt they feel that it is inefficient to lay off people since you would have to hire someone else and retrain them and reintegrate them in the work place.
I much prefer that side of the Egyptian way of working. Although I don’t enjoy coming to work sometimes and just sitting on my desk doing nothing (which means you browse the web, check emails, chat with fellow workers). When the work crunch comes back you just put your head down and scythe through it.
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Philip Banks has pretty much always been outspoken and to the point. His humor is often biting but to me quite straight forward. This is what he had to say about the conference… the last line he says was the most surprising though.
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