Actor’s Tool Kit #1

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ACTING FOR MONEY
by Bob Fraser

Let us start with an underlying truth behind all the info
and advice I’ll be passing along to you in this series:

Actors who depend on talent, training, looks, age, or their
‘connections’ – have a very small chance of succeeding. In
fact, it is this misplaced emphasis that causes most actors
to fail — and eventually quit trying.

The actors who succeed are those who determine early on that
what they are engaged in is a BUSINESS.

One of my hobbies, during my active career, was watching the
results of other show biz folks. I kept journals for about 5
years, then I noticed that I didn’t need to keep a journal
because it was becoming redundant. The fact is, that all the
successful people I met over 40 years, (and when I say ALL I
mean 100%) were capitalists.

I don’t mean that in a political way – I’m talking about
store-keeper capitalism. All the successful people I’ve known
in the show business are successful because they are good
business people. Good store-keepers.

The other side of the coin is the unsuccessful actor, writer,
director, producer, etc. Believe me, most of them are not
untalented, or untrained, or unconnected. Generally, their
real problem is that they are just lackadaisical business
people.

The biggest mistake I see is the total time and energy the
unsuccessful actor puts into the business side of their
careers. This amount of time can be called: NOT ENOUGH.

IMPROVE YOUR PRODUCT

If we are not working at our business to keep things running
smoothly on a daily basis, if we ever sit back and wait for
things to happen, stop marketing and promoting, or quit
trying new ideas to get people into our store (to buy our
product) well, every business around us will say a big thank
you – and grab our customers.

If we don’t devote enough time to our business, if we don’t
plan what we’re doing, if we don’t put in a lot of thought
and energy, if we don’t have vision, if we’re not excited
by it all, then the sad truth is that we’re just not going
to get very far. We’re going to be crawling along, while
all around us, sincere, hard working capitalists will be
charging past.

What can you do to become a better capitalist?

A good start is to understand the difference between being
in business and just having the store open.

The number one way to improve your business is to improve
your product. The best product is not always what the
customer buys – but it’s always the product the customer
wants. Your odds improve as your product gets better.

ADVERTISE

You will undoubtedly notice that I include a lot of ads
in everything I do – website, newsletter, this Tool Kit
series … and I do that for a very important reason: I
want to be successful.

To be successful in business (any business) you must be
willing to ‘market’ your product or services.

A lot of actors don’t like to do this part. That’s why
a lot of actors are not very successful. Be warned, if
you want to be in business, you must advertise.

If one kind of advertising isn’t working – try something
else. (Get new headshots until you get one that works.)

You also must engage in ’selling.’ If you don’t like
selling, then you are unfit to run a business. Every
business is all about selling. (Even acting – and in
fact the underlying idea of acting is to convince the
audience to ‘buy’ you as the character you’re playing.)

Which is why you shouldn’t worry about hiring a salesman
(an agent) until you’ve done a lot of advertising and
selling, yourself.

That’s because you want a good salesman — and a good
salesman knows better than to try to sell an untested
and unproven product.

An agent cannot afford to sell one of his customers
(studios and producers) a sub-par product. Keep in mind
that your salesman will probably represent a lot of
different “lines” and she will give more attention to
the ones who work hard at their business.

Always present the product (you) in the best possible way.

The key to good business is to accentuate the benefits of
the product and work hard to eliminate any reasons for the
customer not to buy. This requires a lot of thought.

After all, your product is a human being and we all have
flaws – which sometimes (after some thought) – turn out to
be benefits.

WORKING HARD AND SMART

That’s what capitalism is: Taking your product out into the
marketplace, defining your customer base, doing good product
testing and research, hiring good salespeople, advertising
well, and keeping the store open late.

Watch the capitalists around you. You know, the folks who
run their own dry cleaning store, sandwich shop, or quick
print center. If they are successful, study them carefully
and find out how they run their businesses.

Believe me, you will discover that most of them …
WORK VERY HARD.

Is it worth working very hard?

Well, their dream is probably just financial success. Our
dream, on the other hand, is fame, fortune, respect and a
bit of immortality. AND financial success.

Don’t kid yourself, it’s a capitalist’s dream … with a
twist and a cherry on top.

The question is: how hard are you really willing to work
to achieve your dream?

Keep in mind that the number one benefit of capitalism is
the money – and money equals freedom.

Freedom. I think that’s a dream we can all get behind.

“Reprinted from THE ACTOR’S TOOL KIT, the email course for
subscribers of Show Biz How-To -The Free Actor’s Newsletter.

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