[ChampionAudio]

Also remember that the $15/hour you would be happy to make is actually $15/hour after expenses. You have to pay the rent and insurance, hopefully treat your room a bit, and make an occasional gear purchase, not to mention all the little nickel and dime stuff like blank discs and cables that very quickly add up. For any company that provides a service, the labor rate/billing rate the company charges its customers has to be much higher than the hourly wage of the person doing the work. Depending on the industry it can be 3 times higher or more.

I'm not trying to discourage you, I think the trial run is definitely worth it. You should ruthlessly pursue every revenue source you can think of, and when you've done that, do some research and find more sources. This is often the most creative part of operating a small studio. The studio I'm vested in with two partners is currently doing some voice-over work to keep the lights on while we do some other projects for free up front, then when they're done, we control the CD manufacturing. When the artist comes to us to purchase copies of their CD to sell at shows, that's where we earn the revenue. It's not easy to sustain this over a long period, but it's a definite stepping stone .

Good luck! And like Bryan said, make sure EVERYTHING you do with a client is documented on paper.