My sister in law is a personal trainer. I was thinking about working with her to design a logo and develop some forms she needs for working with her clients.

I wanted to do this for her for free since I have a thing about mixing family with business but I do plan on adding what I make for her to a portfolio page.

Do you think providing examples like this on my website will be usefull?

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Suzanne Dondero
www.virtualdeskjockey.com

Most definitely it will. It can be added to your portfolio and also can ask her for a testimonial as well.

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Dawn Riley
A Virtual Assistant in Paradise
Our business is about making yours better

Yes, adding a portfolio is a wonderful idea. By showing an example, you can give a potential client a peek at your work. I've been gathering examples myself to add to my website. Also, I'm with Dawn about the testimonials, those can be very helpful.

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Leilani
Aspire Virtual Assistants

Thanks for the tips guys, I think I will work on pulling together a portfolio of some of the work i've done.

I made my husband an Access database to use at work for some complicated data tracking. I was thinking that a screen shot of the input /display form would be a good example - as long as the actual contents of the database are not shown.

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Suzanne Dondero
www.virtualdeskjockey.com

Suzanne, great idea,

You could add a line at the bottom of the forms like. "created by www.virtualdeskjockey.com" with the approval of your sister of course.

You may feel that business and family don't mix but if you treat them as a client even if it is sans $$ the experience and lessons learned will be a great step forward for your business.

Truth be told, I get asked to do admin type work all the time from family and some of it really pays off. I do work for family and I charge them a small token and any expenses I incur, they in turn have given me many paying referrals.

As far as putting samples up, you could describe the access database and the forms as part of your portfolio.

Cheers!!

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Bernice
Energy Virtual Assistant

When I was first starting out I spent hours creating sample logos and graphics for my portfolio - it was great fun and good practice

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Yes! It would be most helpful in adding this experience to your portfolio!

Congrats and keep going!

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Kathya Kalinine
http://www.emeraldvirtual.com

Tess has a great idea - you might even create a new niche for your business!

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Michele Flynn

When I first began it was newsletters. Playing around with designs and trying things out was fun. I offered to do the newsletter for a local community group near to my home and for about 3 or 4 years, their monthly newsletter went out with me as their sponsor. Was a great way to let people locally know that I exist.

I agree with everyone else. That's a great idea! I do free stuff all the time for my mom and some friends (some of my friends are true paying clients, though). Usually just small stuff and I share what I learn and good relevant articles all the time. I'm hoping to do a lot for my mom who's a realtor (she wants a website and I'd like to get her into some social media at least a little bit to try to get her name out there). I'll be doing all of this for free for her when I have the spare time. After all, she's spent a LOT of money on me in the 38 years I've been around and, even now, she usually pays when we go out to eat...lol However, I will definitely ask her for a testimonial. It actually works out well because we have different last names so people won't think that my mom gave me a testimonial (but, of course, when I get the time to sit down with her I will treat her as a true client because I want the testimonial to be her honest perception of what I have to offer).

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Stephanie
New VA in the research phase :daisy: