Day in the life of … Portfolio-oomph

I established Portfolio Oomph earlier this year with a mission to provide support to future artists and designers in the form of online study materials and mentoring for students preparing their portfolios for Art College.

My day usually starts with either the tapping of little feet into our bedroom from our 4 year old daughter Bibi, as she climbs into our bed, or we go and wake her sleepy head from her 12 hour slumber; usually the latter as she loves her sleep nearly as much as her mummy!

Having done the morning routine and getting the wee one off to nursery, I settle into working on the humongous task of creating Portfolio Oomph’s products from my studio in our miners’ cottage in Midlothian (just outside Edinburgh).

Currently the day is spent working on the heart of what the business is all about; the eBook titled ‘Creating a Sensational Portfolio’. Our eBooks are downloadable from the website so much of my time currently is spent writing and researching artists work that I am discussing in the eBooks. A collection of stunning artworks is being collated on our Pinterest account so students can view and share them. An important element of the eBooks is creating examples of art and design techniques, idea generation etc. so I do get my hands dirty from time to time, which I love.

Social media plays a large role in our business model so keeping up to date with our Facebook page predominantly but also regular blogging is essential. This often ends up with me spending hours getting embroiled in really inspiring artists and designers pages to inform students about, which is ‘work’ of course but doesn’t feel like it – it’s great!

One area within the business that I am currently developing in response to demand is a mentoring scheme. I might be spending time in my studio with a student looking at their work and establishing a focused, personal development plan to engage the student in a personal journey that will result in more of a unique and individual portfolio. On a mentoring theme I also receive mentoring through Business Mentoring Scotland to help with the development of Portfolio Oomph, where I attend a 2 hour session every month with my mentor – invaluable in terms of strategic planning and time management!

I’ve not mentioned that I do eat and drink throughout the day! But as you can guess, it’s not on my ‘to do’ list. I do find that working on my own at home each day I can get ‘cabin fever’ somewhat; I’m quite a social person and I love the interaction that the one to one mentoring provides. But occasionally I take myself down to the local Dobbies for a nice coffee and scone to see some people!! There are Jelly events in Edinburgh that are an informal co-working event where freelancers, home workers and small/micro business owners bring their laptop and work, chat, collaborate with other small business owners; I must go to one soon.

Gosh, it’s 5pm, time to collect Bibi from nursery! As usual, the day flies and I never get done all that I’d like. But that’s life, things progress at a slower pace once you’ve a family and I so look forward to collecting her and finding out about her day. Sometimes I tell her about my day too, she finds it hilarious that sometimes I have a naked person in the room and my students sit and draw him/her – this is called Life Drawing my little sweetheart.

You can find out more about Portfolio Oomph on our website:

* Website * Facebook * Pinterest *

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3 Comments

  1. July 4, 2012 / 1:51 pm

    Many thanks Joanne, it was a joy to write and makes me realise how multi-tasking we need to be these days – more than ever! Best wishes, Julie.