Being Your Own Agent
Having an agent isn’t always necessary to begin a modeling career.
Even though you have to do all the work, being your own agent in the beginning can be beneficial because you won’t have to give anyone 10% of what you make. When you’re just starting out and not getting paid all that much, you’re gonna need all that money just to pay your bills.
To get started, a model needs to put together some marketing tools to help them secure work. These include producing a comp card, establishing a web presence, and building a portfolio.
The comp card, or composite card typically contains a collection of 2 or more pictures and the model's basic stats—height, eye color, etc.—printed on 2 sides of an 8.5" x 5.5" piece of card stock (12 pt stock). It’s important that these are professionally done and don’t look like they were created by the model on their home computer. Call modeling agencies to find out what photographers they would recommend to their own clients, making sure they recommend more than just one.
In addition to the comp card, an online presence can help a lot, especially in these days of the world market. Sites like myspace now have a huge audience for you to market your looks to and hopefully get noticed by someone in a position of power. All kinds of creative types have started their careers on this site and there’s no reason a model can’t do the same, especially since the Internet has always been a visual medium.
Being your own agent also means booking your own gigs. When one is first starting out, the model can find their own work by going to auditions in their local area. These can be for hair shows, promotional reps, or any other kind of beginning modeling work that serves to build a portfolio. You don’t need an agent to find these auditions. A site like Explore Talent or Auditions.com can provide listings of auditions in your area to get you started in building that portfolio.
Doing all the work that is required to be your own agent may not sound like fun but it will be a great learning experience as you get your feet wet in the world of modeling.
