How to Make a Business Portfolio

A business portfolio showcases all your best accomplishments into one format that you can then share with prospective clients, employers or investors. The format you use depends on the work you've done.

Here are tips on how to make a business portfolio:

First, consider why you're creating a business portfolio. The message should be consistent with your goals. If it's simply a general portfolio designed to give people specific information about you or your company, that's fine. Just make sure it has focus and direction. This will help determine how you should set up your portfolio.

What to Include

Start by including a summary of your recent accomplishments. Depending on how your business portfolio is set up, this may or may not be the first thing the viewer sees. You may want to have a big, splashy photo of your newest product or project.

Be sure to include important details about your company or background, photos of your work, supporting documentation such as testimonials, customer comments and brief information about results achieved.

When gathering information for your business portfolio, start broadly and narrow it down. You want the finished product to be brief and to the point. A business portfolio isn't a lengthy document where you try to explain every aspect of your business. It's designed to give a reader a sense of the important things you've accomplished in business.

Basically, what you include in your business portfolio are the items you want other people to know about so that they view your work in the best possible light. When you get a good first draft, show it to a trusted colleague or friend, sharing the information you left out with them.

Online

In virtually every instance, you'll need a link to an online business portfolio. If your work isn't already in a digital format, you'll need to scan it in. If you have products you want to feature, you'll need to photograph them. Perhaps you want to feature activities around your business. These will also require photos.

An online business portfolio is different from a website in that it's more directed and focused towards a consistent message about your business. While you can direct potential investors to your website (and should), a business portfolio gives you a chance to customize a message.

There are a variety of online portfolio services available, both paid and free. Naturally, the paid sites make more features available to you.

In some cases, an online portfolio will be all you need. This is true if all your activity is web based. However, if your work extends past the web, then it's a good idea to have your business portfolio in other formats.

Other Formats

DVD is the next logical step after an online portfolio. In creating an online portfolio, you'll have gotten all your important data in digital format. While your portfolio will take on a different look on a DVD vs. online, it should remain similar in look and feel.

Printed versions of your portfolio will be more expensive than either a DVD or online, but may still be a good option.