Marketing an online business can happen anywhere. Not just online. Be prepared to give a concise, well planned description of your business whenever the opportunity comes about.
Write it, rehearse it to the mirror, your dog, and your best friend. That way, you’ll have it down next time you attend a Chamber mixer or a serious investor drops by.
Imagine this scenario: You step onto an elevator. Your mother (or someone who reminds you of her) steps aside to give you room. A brief and friendly conversation begins and she asks “what do you do?”
Her floor is approaching quickly. No sense in going into detail. Don’t waste the moment describing how good your service or product is. If she were to phrase the question more bluntly, she’d actually ask “what can you do for me?”
So, tell her:
- What your business does
- Who it serves
- How you make money
- Who you (or your team) are
- Who the competition is
- What gives your business an edge
While she’s listening, her brain is busy checking off a list to see whether she’s interested in getting your business card, or not.
Unless you carefully plan this thimble-sized speech, you’re going to be hard-pressed to deliver it in 60 seconds or less.
As an example, here’s our bare-bones elevator speech. This takes me 30 seconds to deliver:
The Online Business Cookbook offers recipes for starting a business online. We serve people looking to create income from a Web business. We earn a living through our business consultation services. We’ve started four profitable Web businesses, the first of which is now six years old and still expanding.
People have a lot of choices for help when they want to start an online business. They choose us because we’re people just like them. We started on a budget, learned how to blend the ingredients for success on the Web, and now we teach others how to do the same.
What’s your elevator pitch? Share it in the comments if you wish. I love hearing from you all. 
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