How to Build a Portfolio of Samples Without Any Clients
If you’re a first-time freelancer, here’s how you can start
Every first-time freelancer is faced with the same dilemma: you need samples in order to gain work, but you need to work in order to create samples. So what are you supposed to do?
Let me preface this by saying I am not an advocate of doing work for free — most of the time. But there’s one occasion where the value you’re getting out of the work might actually be more than what you’re offering: when you’re first starting out and need samples.
If you’re dead set against producing work for someone else without getting paid under any circumstances, that’s fine. You can create fictional samples to show what you would do if you had been hired.
But clients like to see that someone else has actually engaged in business with you. It speaks volumes more than simply saying, “Look at this fictional press release I wrote. I can make a real one for you.” It’s much better to say, “Look at this press release I wrote for this company, and the results it provided.”
Which brings us back to the question, how do you get someone to bite when no one’s bitten before? How do you cross that initial barrier of entry to get the first client?
