I ditched uni and now earn £114k a year working from a shed in my back garden – here’s how you can too

A WOMAN ditched university to become a voice actor – and now earns £114,000 a year working from the comfort of her own back garden. Emily Jardine, 37, can be heard in adverts for major brands including Google, WhatsApp, Coca-Cola, Milka, McDonald’s, HSBC and John Lewis. Emily Jardine, now 37, decided at the age of 17 that university wasn’t for her Credit: SWNS She now earns up to £114,000 a year working from the office in her back garden Credit: SWNS Deciding at 17 that traditional university wasn’t for her, Emily initially completed a BTEC National Diploma in Business Studies and getting a double distinction star by age 18. Emily, from Reading, said: “Funnily enough, I was rebelling from drama school. I’d spent so much of my childhood in drama schools that I just needed space. Sign up for the Money newsletter Thank you! “I wanted to do something that could be a foundation for whatever else I wanted to do in the future. “I knew A levels weren’t for me – I’ve never really followed the beaten path. Read more on non-uni routes “As it turned out, my studies in business built the foundation for the business I have today. As with any VO, it’s not just about having a nice voice. It’s about building something that works and is sustainable.” After finishing college, Emily initially worked a series of admin roles, starting on £14,500 a year. By the time she landed her first producer role, she was earning £27,000, eventually working up to £34,500 a year. Her life changed forever in 2012 when she used Gumtree to search for a new job and bagged a role as a project assistant in a recording studio. Most read in Money Emily said: “I became a project assistant in a studio and I started working with voice talents and casting. Then one day my manager asked me to do a quick voiceover. “I got behind that microphone and I was so scared. I thought they could hear my heartbeat but I fell head over heels in love with it.” The starting point to earning £114,000 a year You may have heard Emily’s voice in adverts for brands including Google, WhatsApp, Coca-Cola, Milka, McDonald’s, HSBC and John Lewis Credit: SWNS However, it wasn’t instant plain sailing. Emily spent one to two months doing free jobs before she even starting getting paid. Then, her voiceover work brought in just a few hundred pounds a year, rising to around £4,000 by year five while she balanced her day job. The major turning point came in 2017, when Emily decided to leave her role working as a voice artist with an agency to become a non-exclusive voice actor who works for herself. Emily said: “For the first time in my working life, I was in charge of my own future. I didn’t need someone else to say I could move up the ladder, and I didn’t need to wait for a pay rise. Overnight, my income soared. “My earnings started jumping every year. “The first time I hit £90,000 was about three years ago. The next year it was around £96,000, and last year I hit £114,000.” Her high-earning status is boosted by a network of 51 agents across 24 countries, meaning work is constantly rolling in. To manage her workload across global time zones, Emily relies on a “very strict and structured” colour-coded system of booking in projects. Emily said: “During working hours, I try to reply within 30 minutes, but sometimes it’s moments. “Having that many agents means when it’s busy, I might work 16 to 18-hour days. But when it goes quiet, at least someone across those 24 countries will be booking me in.” Experience and name recognition also allowed her to command higher fees. “The more experience I got, the more big-name brands came to trust me,” Emily added. “Now, I barely go a month without adding a new exciting client to my list. When I approach new agencies, I’m in the position where I get to cherry-pick which household brands I tell them about first.” Examples of adverts Emily has done includes world food company Danone, where she is the voice at the end of the ads, Bentley, Emma Sleep, Pantene, WhatsApp, John Lewis, HSBC, Babybel, BT, Barbie, Trailfinders, Google, Vodafone, British Airways, Amazon Prime, Durex, LEGO and Dungeons & Dragons. ‘I’m working less for MORE money’ As her salary went up each year, Emily has been able to transform her life. In 2021, she bought a rural four-bedroom home for £283,250 – complete with a library, large kitchen, three bathrooms, two gardens and space for a presenter studio for her actor fiancé. Emily put down a £50,000 deposit – keeping aside an extra £20,000 for furniture and renovations – leaving her with monthly mortgage repayments of just £1,142. She said: “Because we had so much disposable income, we spent money transforming the house straight away. “We hired builders, had custom items made, and bought higher-end brands. We spent many thousands on furniture – our bed alone is worth about £5,000. “We also had a specialist acoustic consultancy build a detached recording studio for me in the garden.” Her daily commute from the house to her garden studio takes just 52 seconds, with Emily usually working from 10am to 6pm. On a busy week, she might record up to 10 voiceovers alongside individual coaching sessions. Emily said: “It’s been lovely that I’ve gone from commuting and doing all these crazy things and my life being completely bonkers, to now I walk downstairs, I go outside and I have a fifty-two second commute. And I can work less for more money.” Getting into extra income streams Emily makes extra money teaching others how to follow her career path – but admits it’s not for everyone Credit: SWNS On top of her voiceover work, Emily charges £120 + VAT per hour for one-on-one coaching, keeping a strict limit of 12 individual students at any time so it doesn’t distract from her main career. Demand for her expertise is so high that her waiting list regularly hits six months – and once reached 18 months, forcing her to temporarily close her books to new clients. Emily said: “I got into coaching through demand – people asked me why I wasn’t doing it, and I got 10 clients almost straight away. “If people are coming to VO for the first time though, I will actually turn them away. “Instead, I recommend they do some research on the career first and approach some of the (amazing) subscription VO training providers first. “It’s so much more cost effective and it gives them the chance to assess if the VO life is really for them. It’s not an easy career to get off the ground.” Reflecting on her choice to skip university, Emily urges young people to look at creative alternatives to higher education. She said: “There are lots of industries out there that you don’t actually need to go to university to get into. “If you’re creative and have a hell of a lot of drive, you’ll be able to massively change your career. “It’s really, really hard being a voice actor, but if I hadn’t been pulled into that studio one day, I wouldn’t have realized how much I loved being behind a microphone.” How to get started in voice acting - without the 'perfect' voice YOU don't need a 'perfect' or well-spoken posh accent to succeed in voice acting. In reality, acting ability and authenticity can matter far more. Regional accents can also give you an advantage when it comes to character work and regional advertising. To get into the industry, it’s important to build the right skills: Learn the basics first: Before investing in expensive home studio equipment, use a subscription-based training site such as Gravy for the Brain to learn everything from mic technique to accent training and script reading. Just make sure to look into the charges before signing up. Practice “cold reading”: Read everyday scripts aloud – from cereal boxes to news stories – experimenting with warm, energetic or serious tones. Build a demo reel: Once you’ve trained, record a short, 60-second commercial demo reel to show agents and casting directors what you can do. Think of it as your “audio business card” for securing work. Find work: Major household brands rarely post traditional job ads for voice actors – instead, they often hire casting directors who hunt for voices on open sites like Backstage, Mandy and Voice123. These platforms regularly host open casting calls where brands look for non-traditional talent with regional voices so it’s worth keeping an eye out. Comment now