Think Small and Think Local

Although the competition is fierce for becoming an established singer on a national scale, there are probably lots of opportunities in your own home town and lots of niches you haven't considered. Instead of dreaming about being the next lead singer for a Grammy award winning band, set your sites on opportunities in your local area. The more exposure you get even on a small scale, the more likely you'll be able to parlay your talents into something larger.

Singing Telegrams

This is a fun way to hone your performance skills and earn money at the same time. You would make money by going to various sites chosen by the client and delivering a song along with a customized performance. You might visit someone's home, a local hospital to deliver a get well song, or a party or other special event. This type of work is varied and interesting. Plus, you never know when a gig like this can lead to a larger singing job or even professional acting work. If you're super industrious, start your own singing telegram business.

Sing at Weddings

Why not offer your voice talents and get paid for it by singing at local weddings? There's a large demand for voice talent at weddings and it's a relatively easy to get started. Have some business cards printed up describing what you do. You'll need to prepare a demo tape to share with clients so they can experience your talent firsthand. Advertise your service at local wedding stores and online. With some focused marketing, this type of business can really take off. Plus, the more you perform, the greater the chance of being “discovered”.

Sing at Restaurants and Night Clubs

In any moderate sized city, there's a demand for voice talent at restaurants and night clubs. Your chances of being successful are even higher if you can play an instrument while you sing. Start by making a list of all the late night restaurants and night clubs in your area. Take your business card and demo tape around to each one and let them know what you have to offer. Offer to sing for them free for an evening to get established. There's a good chance you'll make enough in tips to make it worth your while anyway. Who knows? You may just become a local celebrity.

Start a Hospital Singing Business

If you're confined to a hospital bed or nursing home, there's nothing more uplifting than being sung to. Why not start a business specializing in delivering get well songs to hospital and nursing home patients? You could market your service at the hospital gift store and by giving your business card to nurses who can spread the word to their patient's families. To make it easier, you could arrange to visit the hospital on a particular day each week to deliver your songs so you don't have to make multiple trips. This is a service that would be much appreciated by both hospital patients and their families.

While you're waiting for your big break, go to as many auditions for singers as you can and enter singing contests. In the meantime, you'll have a source of income to fall back on from singing gigs in your local area.

Well, at Amber Talent, we get an awful lot of applications from people who feel they should be famous or where mum or Mr Jones down the road, or any one else, said they they have some sort of talent. In fact, we get between 700 and 1500 applications every week. But not all are going to get on our books.

The reason for this is that we are looking for people who have a look that we can sell - we're in the business to make money so we're not going waste resources on someone who hasn't got a chance of earning us any money. Sounds harsh doesn't it? But that's the reality of any agent you approach, no matter how nice they are.

Don't forget, that as agents we don't charge an application or registration fee, we don't take any money off you. The only way we make money is from commissions that we earn on the jobs that we find for you.

So here's a bit of a guide for those of you that are aspiring models, singers, actors, dancers, even magicians, and want to register with an agent.

First of all, find out about the agent - what they are looking for, what their application/registration process is and what they offer. This can usually be found on the company's website or by simply telephoning the agent.

Now what we do is send out instructions for completing the application form along with an information sheet. The information sheet tells you what services we offer and what commissions we take. Normally, you don't need any more information than that because it states it clearly. If you do, then you can always e-mail and ask your question but beware if your question is already answered in the information sheet then you are likely to get a very terse reply!!

Secondly, fill out as the application form as instructed - there is nothing worse than having to chase up someone, say a model, just because they have omitted to give their vital statistics on the form (we can't “sell” you without this information).

My staff's biggest bugbear however is applicants that send in their forms and don't include enough photos, show-reels, voice-reels etc. You are what we are marketing so you need to give us the material to market you with. You may think that this is stating the obvious and indeed it is, yet you would be surprised how many people send us forms with either just one photo with their face obscured or a very bad recording of themselves singing (usually of “Angels” by Robbie Williams!).

Finally, don't chase us for your profile to get done or get you jobs. If you are accepted onto our books we will let you know in due course and then we'll build your profile, cards etc. We will then start marketing you to talent users.

In the meantime, be patient. You are not going to be rich and famous overnight so waiting for your agent to get the job done properly is far better than hassling them to rush it and then sending you off to jobs you won't do.