Building my portfolio

I may have been a corporate career-woman before. But having left that behind, I needed to build up my writing portfolio from scratch. Potential clients would like to see a history of work done and, in the freelance writing world, it's good if this can be as varied as possible to show flexibility and the capability of taking on different assignments. I can specialise; in fact, a lot of my work has been finance-related. But it's interesting to take on a variety of work because every writing assignment is a fantastic learning experience.

In the early years, in building my portfolio, I took any assignment that came along. Well, not any assignment. For example, I won't take any work that's related to the tobacco/smoking industry and, of course, alcohol. That's the good part about being your own boss - you can say 'No'. Other than such ethical/religious considerations, I had to get as much work as I could, even if the money may not have been so good. So I wrote articles for publications such as a human resource magazine, the Labuan Digest, Smart Investor and Majallah Ekuin. 


Writing copy for advertising/design agencies can be lucrative and the most work that I did in this area was for Freeform Design. I thoroughly enjoyed writing for their clients, Dewan Filharmonik Petronas and the Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra. Not really a concert buff, I learned a lot about classical music during the years that I wrote copy for them. It's not easy to get such work and I was fortunate that my brother Zaid was then a designer there and he introduced me to Kamil Yunus, the firm's owner. Kamil and I clicked and he must have liked my initial work for him to retain me for as long as he did. Zaid is now on his own with his long-time friend, Wei Shein - together they run Milk Design.

The range of writing work I took on ran the gamut of corporate communications - speeches, press releases, corporate profiles, promotional kits and brochures, as well as newsletters. I even did a training manual and a 10-year development plan for the Federation of Investment Managers Malaysia (then known as Federation of Malaysian Unit Trust Managers).

Over time, I put together a portfolio of work that has helped me to take on more ambitious projects. Such projects brought in bigger bucks but also created greater challenges.