You Need an Elevator Pitch!

As a freelancer, you're constantly in sales mode. You want to present yourself well to the outside world, to existing clients, and potential clients. In order to do this, you should have a well-polished elevator pitch that you can share quickly and concisely with people you come into contact with.

First impressions matter. When people first meet you, and especially if they are not technical/design-saavy people - which most clients are not - they are not going to understand much of what you say, if you get too far into the details of what you do right away. They need something easy, digestable, and memorable - something that distinguishes you in their memory.

I think that, at least from my own personal experience, technical people tend to get into details to quickly. Someone asks you what you do - you start off by saying "I'm a programmer", and if they ask any follow up question, before you know it you're getting into your favorite object oriented framework, and the obscure bug that you started working on before lunch and which is dominating your mental activity at the moment!

If you don't have something quick and concise, they will just label you in their mind as a "computer guy" and will probly call you the next time their anti virus software is blocking their email!

OK, so what's your pitch, smart guy? ... I'm glad you asked :)

I run a small web development company that specializes in small to medium web applications, especially community websites. Two of the significant problems that I've solved within my own business are finding and converting good sales leads, as well as finding and managing good, cost-effective development and design talent. I enjoy mentoring other developers, as well as bringing value to my clients.