Start a Desktop Publishing Business - 10 wk: 4. Your Perfect Portfolio

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Start a Desktop Publishing Business - 10 wk 4. Your Perfect Portfolio From Jacci Howard Bear, your Guide to Desktop Publishing One of the key tools you'll use to convince prospective clients that you can make them look good is showing off how good you made others look. Just starting out your portfolio may be a little skimpy, perhaps even non-existent. Don't dispair, there are ways to put together a basic portfolio even if you have no real-world experience. This is one of the parts of starting a business that will change and grow over time. Get it off to a good start from day one. Missed a class? Get it here: http://desktoppub.about.com/c/ec/101lost.htm Lessons Why Use a Portfolio and What Goes In It Potential employers or clients use examples of your work to help determine whether they want to hire you. The samples you choose to display and how you present them can affect whether or not you get the job. Your design portfolio should be more than just a few samples thrown into a folder. http://desktoppub.about.com/cs/freelance/a/portfolio.htm Using Your Design Portfolio to Land a Client Now you have to present that great portfolio you've created to potential clients and explain your work. There is no single best time to present your portfolio. You'll probably find during the course of an interview that its presentation naturally fits into the conversation. http://desktoppub.about.com/cs/freelance/a/portfolio_use.htm Your Assignments Create a Portfolio Even if you have very little to use, create the beginnings of a portfolio. Get a folder and start filling it with samples of any existing work you have done. Make up a few pieces if needed. Take what you have and try grouping it in different ways as previously described in this lesson. Look at what you have and think about the size of portfolio case you will need (even if you don't plan to purchase one yet). Use Your Portfolio Do some role-playing. Get a friend or family member to play the role of the prospective client or employer and let you present your portfolio in connection with conducting a mock interview. Try out different scenerios for presenting your portfolio and discussing its contents and your work. If you want, just role-play only the portfolio presentation portion of a meeting to help gain confidence with discussing the different projects, turning the pages, and quickly finding examples based on questions from the client. Discussion Talk About Starting a Business Come to the DTP Classroom to ask questions about any of the topics covered in this email course or other questions you have about learning desktop publishing or starting a freelance design business. http://forums.about.com/ab-desktoppub3/ This email is written by: Jacci Howard Bear Desktop Publishing Guide Email Me | My Blog | My Forum   Missing a lesson? Click here. About U. is our collection of free online courses designed to help you learn a new skill, solve a problem, get something done, or just learn more about your world. Sign up now, and we will email you lessons on a daily or weekly basis. You are receiving this email because you subscribed to the About.com 'Start a Desktop Publishing Business - 10 wk' email. If you wish to unsubscribe, please click here. About respects your privacy: Our Privacy Policy Contact Information: 249 West 17th Street New York, NY, 10011 © 2010 About.com   Advertisement