I began my career as a software designer. So, I’m used to someone asking me for a design portfolio. Every designer is, and it’s often the bane of our existence.

Why? Because it’s almost always out of date. I recently talked with a very senior designer, and she was dreading the task of updating hers. She hasn’t touched it in years.

That’s the problem. When you’re happily employed, you let things sit and gather dust.

• Portfolios are out of date.

• Resumes become stale.

• Elevator pitches get rusty.

• LinkedIn activity goes dormant.

• Networking crawls to a stop.

Then, when you suddenly find yourself unemployed or trying to land new clients, you have to scramble to refresh everything. It’s not fun.

A better approach is to do a little work every month to keep things fresh. Make small tweaks to your LinkedIn profile. Update the language of your elevator pitch. Add new material to your portfolio.

Some of you might say:
“Portfolio? I don’t have a portfolio. I don’t n…