Juan Antonio Garcia: How to Create a Portfolio

Juan Antonio Garcia is an architect that decided to take the plunge, go freelance, and set up his own practice.

It’s never easy to change the way you run your business but the first thing that he needed was a brand new portfolio website.

This is how a Zyro website helped Juan Antonio Garcia create his own professional online portfolio.

Zyro – the easiest way to build a website

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I always wanted to try something else

I was living in Spain my whole life and I wanted to try something else. I had the feeling, I needed to see how things work outside my country and learn some others perspectives and approaches to the Architect’s job. An opportunity came up here in Munich for an internship at a design consultancy agency. 

And I said, OK, why not? 

Initially, I came to Germany for six months but soon I found that I was jumping from one company to the next. 

Now, nine years after, I’ve been in three different companies, and that’s when I started to think, OK, I have the knowledge and the skills, I need to do something on my own. 

I love my sector, I love my job, but I wanted to put my brand on it

In the beginning, I was always collaborating with other architects. But, when the pandemic started, I knew I needed to start something new, I had to start working on my own.

Architecture is a really nice job, but in the end, when you are working for others, your name is never there, so why does it matter if you did or not? You’re just not there when the recognition for your work comes. 

As soon as I decided to start my own business, my first question was, OK, how? 

I didn’t have a plan but I knew I had to start. As an architect, you normally have a paper portfolio that you send to potential clients.

It is the thing that represents your style and how you do your work. But, as I understood it, that’s not enough, if I’m still working only on paper then my potential is going to be very low. 

There are so many people thinking about my market but how can I meet them, and how can I convince them to work with me?

I moved to Germany from Spain, and now I have clients around the world, but in the beginning, I didn’t really have many contacts, and meeting clients was really difficult.

How can I build my own brand? The best idea is to make a website.

A website is your own place. It’s your opportunity to show who you really are and what you can do.

From the beginning, I wanted to do a multi-language site because I have had clients in Spain, Germany, America, and many other places. But, if you’re going to have many languages, you need a website builder that is not complicated because the languages are also not so easy.

I’m not quite there yet with the languages on my website, but the templates made it much easier to start.

I wanted to find a solution with good hosting and great templates. With Zyro, I found some designs that I really loved and represent my Idea and the style I wanted, and that’s how I got started. 

It allowed me to send my work to anybody. It’s so much more than a business card or a LinkedIn profile. My website is a way to show something more about myself but in an environment that I can control completely. No banners. No extra elements that I can’t choose.

I could have hired a web designer, but with Zyro, I didn’t need one

I’m an architect, and I love design. So, usually, if I do something, I try to do it on my own. Especially if it’s something to do with design because I know what I want. 

Maybe I do don’t have the skills, and yes, I know what I want. But, the crucial thing is that I knew I wanted to have a straightforward website.

I just needed one home page and three tabs: my life, work, and contact. That’s it. No more. 

The most important thing, for me, is that people can find my work easily and quickly. So that’s why I looked for a portfolio design template. 

I found the one I liked. I took the idea and added the primary photo, and wrote a simple and straight text. 

I don’t want to sell anything, it’s about making an impression, so I try to keep it simple at all times.

Even if you don’t speak Spanish, I think you can understand my website, and that’s important. 

But, I understand that my next milestone is to translate it and maximize my opportunities. 

It’s straightforward, really intuitive, and I’m thrilled with the results.

Going freelance is easy with Zyro.

If you already have a full-time job, switching to freelance can be terrifying.

So, it helps when you have the right tools. For starters, it has to be easy to use. 

But, you also have to be quick, because you don’t have a lot of time. So you need something that works perfectly for you but is also fast, and for me, that was Zyro.

It’s effortless to change something or to upload something new, and you don’t have to think too much about how it works.

Say I want to test something new on my website. For example, maybe I want to change the color or add some new buttons to my website. I can do that instantly and then see what works best.

It’s really fast, and even if you do have a problem, the support team is always there for you, and it really works.

You can try Zyro for free.

Maybe, in the beginning, things don’t work perfectly. Still, you can see that your website is working. 

You can tell that you’re going to get what you want. 

When I started, I was focused on creating the first steps of what I wanted to do.

For me, that meant creating a place where I could display my brand and a place where people could see the work that I do.

That was the first thing on my list and it was relatively easy.

Building your own website is fun. 

A lot of people use Instagram or Facebook for their brands but I wanted to make mine more personal. 

I want to show my work, but I had to do it my own way. 

When you see my work, I want you to see something appetizing. I want to be in control of the environment that it is found in. 

That’s why I wanted to build my own website.

I was always thinking, “there has to be a tool that can get me what I want.” I wanted simplicity: three buttons and three pages. That’s all.

You need something straightforward because, in the end, a website is not only for you, it’s also for your visitors and your customers.

It has to be easy, and Zyro is definitely easy. If it’s not easy, it doesn’t work for me because I don’t have time for that. 

My website can’t be a three-year job for me because I already have enough jobs as it is.

It’s the first website I’ve ever built.

I wanted to make a website because I wanted to be in control.

Actually, I wanted to do all of the complex things, too, like the programming and everything, but I didn’t know how to do it. 

So, I needed something in between.

One thing that I enjoy about Zyro is that it allows you to do both.

You don’t have too many different options, but you can get many different results from those options.

Because of that, you can really quickly learn how to use Zyro effectively.

Successes and my work on your website

I already got some clients and potential collaborations thanks to my website and really nice feedbacks about it too; really nice design!, it looks really professional!  Love it! 

It helps a lot, anytime I contact a new company or contractor they get directly an idea of the architecture that I want and the quality I expect. Also potential customers can tell really quickly if I am the architect they need or not.

The contact form work perfectly, you get an instant message on your email anytime someone submits a text so you don’t miss anything.

Definitely, create my own space was the first stone that I had to build to boost my business.

My advice? It’s easy, what are you waiting for?

I was speaking with a friend of mine who was asking me how my website works and how I made it?

He saw my website said that he wanted to try and make one too. 

What could I say? It’s really easy. You only need to know where to go. 

Just open Zyro, and then all you have to do is move some photos and write some text. That’s it. 

Zyro has so many different templates, and they are so easy to edit that nobody will notice that it has been used before on another website.

So, to anybody who wants to try it, my question is this: Do you have any excuse not to? 

It can’t be because you are lazy because Zyro is too easy for anyone to be lazy. 

It can’t be the price either because it is the most affordable option on the market. 

You can have a website for one year for the same price that it costs to go to a restaurant for one evening. 

It’s quick, it’s easy, and it’s cheap. So, really, if you have an idea, just do it.

Zyro – the easiest way to build a website

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