So, you want to be a voiceover...

Get involved with your local hospital radio station. It will give you technical experience, mic experience, everything you will need to give you a thorough grounding in using your voice.

Do you have a local theatre group or amateur dramatic society? Find them and volunteer, voice over work IS ACTING!!! Even the simplest voice over requires performance skills.

Got a mobile phone? Change the voice mail message on it everyday, try to impress people with it. Make a note of what works and what doesn't.

Find someone to whom you can regularly read a story. If you're good at characters, well a good story will give you plenty of opportunity to prove it, and practice.

Do you want to go on a course and get some professional training? There are many courses like Vox Training who will teach you how to get the best out of your voice - or, alternatively, tell you that you're not cut out for the job. Most people who've been told they would be a good voiceover... aren't.

Enthusiasm is great and it will get you through the tough times, but a space shuttle pilot got to sit in his seat through a combination of training, experience, dedication, enthusiasm and hard work now you must do the same.

A good voice or a clever/flexible voice is only rung one on a very long ladder. Work in the industry can be feast or famine and in the early days it will be thin on the ground, you just need to keep telling people that you are out there. Remember it is not a salaried job so if you don't work, you don't eat.

With the right equipment it is possible to work from home, you can set yourself up for about £3,000. Using ISDN technology you can be accessed live from around the world, most local radio commercials are voiced this way. Alternatively, find someone who has ISDN and ask if you could base yourself from there for a fee, A1 Vox London charge about 15% of a script fee.

It is possible to break in and there are lots of people who will give you a first chance but if you try before you are ready you could very easily blow it. Producers talk to one another so your first session could also be you last.