You have a great service or product to market. How do you create your brand, effectively pitch it to clients, and put a price tag on your time? Some expert advice to help your business take off
Malkie would love to make the jump from pushing papers to full-time baking. But is this realistic? How will she get the word out to ensure a burgeoning clientele? How much should she charge? She’s flummoxed.
All successes begin as dreams, but before you quit your day job, you’d better make sure that dream is coming through in full-color, high-resolution form. “You have to define your mission,” advises Julie Levi, the successful founder of a promotional marketing company, who spoke at the 2015 Jewish Women Entrepreneurs conference in Stamford, Connecticut. “You need to first conceptualize what you want your business to look and feel like.”
One of the most effective ways to focus your vision is to craft what’s known as an “elevator pitch.” The term originally comes from film, conjuring the image of a wannabe script writer who finds himself in an elevator with a producer and has only a few seconds to condense his idea into a convincing sales pitch. But the concept has evolved since the early days of screenwriting.
Jeffrey Hayzlett, in the introduction to The New Elevator Pitch, advocates the 118-second elevator pitch: eight seconds to hook your listener, and 110 to drive it home. “Simply put,” he writes, “your 118-second pitch must do the following: 1) grab the attention of your prospect, 2) convey who you are, 3) describe what your business offers, and 4) explain the promises you will deliver on.”
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