Start a Painting Business -
How Do You Set Up a Decorative Painting Portfolio?
Setting up a professional looking portfolio is essential to impressing and
obtaining clients as they need to see what type of work you are capable of
doing. This is where all the work on your own home and the homes of your friends
and family will pay off.
Portfolios can be set up using photo albums or the spiral-bound portfolios found
in art or office supply stores. They should be in book form, rather than loose
pages.
You should be very creative with your portfolio as it’s your personal “calling
card”. It should reflect your talents. For a unique touch you could hand paint
or faux finish the background pages and then mount your pictures overtop. Let
your imagination run wild. However, don’t lose site of the professional image
that you are trying to convey.
If you find that you are lacking in amount of photos available for your
portfolio, you could use pictures taken from magazines. However, you need to
ensure that you really are able to do the design from the magazine to avoid
problems at the end of the job so make sure you practice the finish on foam core
boards first.
You can also set up your portfolio online. A great web site to do this is at
Picturetrail.com. You can have up to ten albums divided up into categories. You
could sort them by types such as: faux finishing, murals, borders, stenciling,
One Stroke painting, etc. Another option is to sort the albums by rooms you’ve
done such as bedrooms, living rooms, kitchens, dens, bathrooms, etc.
Include your Picturetrail web address on your business cards as well as on all
your advertising and you have an online portfolio that can be viewed by anyone
24/7 with Internet access.
Setting up a professional portfolio, whether physical or online, will be your
calling card so make it as beautiful as possible.