According to a recent AT&T study, more than 70% of business calls are placed on hold for an average of 45 to 60 seconds each. 60% of the callers placed on hold hang up, and 30% of those that hang up never call back.

The opportunity to reach out to your customers is now!

They are a captive audience, and are eager to hear what you can do for them.

I recently interviewed my Terry and Sharon Ciccarelli to learn more about how they use technology, particularly the Internet. Both of them were born in the mid 1940s and belong to a generation that grew up with home freezers, television, and space expeditions as major technological advances. When I suggested that I wanted to interview them about technology, they were excited and pleased to share how computers and the Internet specifically have changed their lives.

Over the past year, there has been an incredible adoption of the creation and consumption of blogs worldwide. Blogs are generally used as online journals for individuals and tend to form a community around the person writing the blog posts and their audience. Corporate blogging is used to give customers a means to provide feedback and to help with product development while getting to know the company better.

"Don't judge a book by its cover", could now be translated to the phrase "Don't judge a voice talent by their stock demo".

In recent years, the voice industry has experienced exponential growth and enjoyed interest from new markets, particularly aspiring talent who want to get started in the business of voice acting.

The doors have swung wide open.

When getting started in voice overs, aspiring talent quickly discover that it takes more than just a great voice to succeed in this highly competitive market. Although at first glance, there may seem to be few doors that open for amateur talent seeking voice over work opportunities, the avenues for personal growth, talent development and networking are overly abundant.

When a business is in startup mode, usually the entrepreneur looks for ways to cut costs while obtaining all of the necessary objectives to run their business.

In the case of a voice talent, building a home recording studio is paramount to their success and fundamental to conducting business on a daily basis.

That being said, a voice talent entrepreneur's highest expense when getting started is the equipment to build their home recording studio.

In the international marketplace, it is very important for organizations to be able to both globalize and localize their product information and service offerings.

That being said, the information presented to their target audiences is only as effective as the means by which it is communicated.

For our purposes, the vessel or means of communication is via a voice talent performance; in essence, a voice-over recording.

Sitting down to watch television can be an enjoyable, relaxing experience. However, while a person is contentedly watching a commercial about a food or beverage product, regardless of time of day, there are numerous creative elements trying to persuade stomachs that their master needs to eat, especially if that tummy is subjected to food commercials prior to consuming a decent meal.

We've all been there.

Bombarded by work, email, phone calls or tedious tasks.

Some of us find time to relax on weekends, but the majority of us need a little R&R periodically throughout the week.

MSNBC did a little researching on the topic with an editorial called "Relax or Die: Lack of Weekend R&R puts Hearts at Risk".

Many voice talent start their careers in music, particularly as classically trained singers. During tireless years of training a voice for singing, a bounty of skills are developed including vocal stamina, projection, breathing capabilities, phrasing, tone, inflection, elasticity, rhythm, sight-reading, posture, diction, interpretation, and characterization.