Let’s not beat around the bush. The majority of people who decide they want to launch an acting career don’t typically have any idea how to run a business. The odd thing about that is pursuing a career in acting is essentially having your own small business. So why do actors never consider this when they make their career plans? Probably because they are artists and artists generally only like to think about the art, the creative process, and the talent part of what being an artist looks like.

This is partly why a lot of actors are broke and struggle because they can be driven more by emotion and ideas as oppose to practicality and logic. The idea of approaching your acting career as a business may feel triggering to some because it might feel like someone is asking you to stop dreaming and “be realistic.” That can be interpreted as an attack to crush your dreams.

But dreams without vision are tragically blind endings. There are reckless risks and calculated risks. Picture yourself standing on a boulder in a field of other boulders some sharp with deep pits. Taking reckless risks is like jumping from rock to rock without examining if the rock or area is stable and safe whereas taking a calculated risk is examining and analyzing every area you plan to step onto and looking ahead towards your destination.

In both cases, you have intentions to make it to the other side and anything unexpected can arise, but when you are calculated you are less surprised, more prepared, and more confident. A balance of being an artist and a businessperson is what is required to truly dominate the entertainment industry today. Before you open up a business you always assess the possibilities and you always make a calculated risk, so no that doesn’t mean you aren’t going to launch your business it just means you have a plan on how to win.

So how do you go from thinking like an artist to thinking like a businessperson?

Learn the fundamentals to starting a business.

The first step in starting a business is to come up with a business name. What will the business be called and what will business offer/do?

In the case of an actor your business name will be the name you want to be credited on IMDB and you are a service based business. What do you do? You are a professional storyteller and you tell stories for companies, film writers, music artists, live theater, etc. and you become the character that these people need to deliver their messages.

2. Securing the brand name

Once you establish the business name and service, you then want to secure the domain names to ensure you own your brand name. As an actor this means securing every social media handle from Facebook, TikTok, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, IMDB, etc. and maybe even purchasing the domain name for a future website you’ll want to build.

3. Market Inspection

Now that you have your branding secured, it’s time to inspect the market that you want to be offering this service to. What location are these services being offered? Who is able to hire you for your services? What age range is this demographic? What does the competition look like? What makes your service better than a competitors service? How much margin for profit is there in this market? How much money can you project to make?

I’ll give you a sample answer: I am an actor and my services are located in Los Angeles. Movie productions, TV show productions, music video productions, commercial productions, and broadcasting productions can all hire me for my services. My demographic is all ages 18+. The competition in Los Angeles is high, but what makes my service better than my competitors is that my product/service is higher quality. It’s higher quality because I have received better training, I have more experience with more film credits, I have stronger more effecting headshots for acting, and my marketing on social media has allowed me to build my own brand and a supportive audience. My projected income is $60k a year (be hopeful).

4. Product Development

This is the phase where actors invest in themselves to get the best kind of training to make them great actors. Hire an acting coach, take acting classes, do a student film, practice monologues, record a bunch of self-tapes, audition for a local theater play, audition for whatever is available, and improvise scenes with an actor friend for social media. This is the time where you want to try everything and improve your skillset because from a business perspective you have to ensure that your client is getting the best possible service out of you. This is where you will learn what things will work and not work or what your strengths are and what your weakness are. It’s important to note that a business will always be in product development phase. That is why we have iPhone 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, etc. But they always release their best versions!

5. Marketing

Most business die here. They can have the BEST product ever invented, but if NO ONE knows about it then it’s meaningless. Same goes for your business. If no one knows who you are, then you are nothing and it doesn’t matter how talented you are. So you need to develop a marketing plan; how to get people to know your brand exists. And the first step is to get acting headshots. Headshots for actors are essentially an advertisement or even a business card. What yours look like will speak highly of the kind of business you have. Do you have good quality headshots or bad quality? This is where you’ll have to invest money in hiring some of the best headshot photographers in LA or wherever you are from.

Then after you have a headshot, get excited! Because of social media today you have way more power to build a presence and an audience with TikTok, YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram than ever before. It’s not necessarily about gaining a bunch of followers, but it’s about consistently producing CONTENT and understanding that numbers speak. When your product is great and you have the numbers to back you, then you’ll attract the right customer. What’s great about this is that you can finally control your own content and what you want people to see. Stories don’t have to be high quality either. It’s simply about feeding people engaging content that can be comedy, drama, thrilling, or whatever you can create. The objective is to create content, share to social media, and build an audience. Repeat until your name and brand starts growing.

6. Scaling

Once you developed a system for your business, then it’s time to scale. What is a “system?” It’s a process that you can duplicate multiple times to have the same outcome. Once you have your system down, then it’s just matter of scaling for growth. This would be equivalent to auditioning and then getting hired for the production and then replicating that same process over and over until the projects get bigger and the paychecks get bigger.

7. Maintenance

At a certain point in a business you’ll be able to reliably get consistent cash flow that it’s not a matter of growing it anymore, but simply maintaining it. From an actors perspective maintenance looks like regularly updating your actor headshots with top LA headshot photographers like myself, working on staying in shape and eating right, taking care of your mental health, reading great acting literature, watching commentary from actors from films they’ve done, or participating in some improve classes to sharpen your acting muscle.

All of these principles are fundamental to ANY business. I’m sure by now it all makes sense and that you never thought of it from this perspective, but now you might be able to understand why so many actors fail to make it in acting, because they don’t realize that acting is as much of an art as it is a business and realistically those who have a higher chance of succeeding are really masters of the art of business.

Join my FB community for actors to learn how to approach their careers as a business here.

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Brandon Andre - Headshots Photographer in Los Angeles & Phoenix

If you need professional headshots in Los Angeles or Phoenix, you can contact me HERE. I am considered one of the best headshot photographers in LA. I am 5-star rated and will provide you with affordable high quality professional headshots. If you would like more information on pricing or how to book a session click HERE.

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