What is an elevator pitch?

I’ve recently joined the ‘Savvy Solos Club, convened and orchestrated by the inimitable Nicola Jayne Little. I interviewed Nicola about her company Digital Sparkles (www.digitalsparkles.co.uk.) last year – the link to the interview is below. Nicola bounced into my life during a European-funded business course on which she was a tutor. She is a bundle of energy and inspiration. A former teacher (like me) she now spends her time with small business owners training them in

digital marketing.

Last Monday I joined fifteen others for a morning organised for the Savvy Solos Club on how to produce a good pitch. I say ‘produce’ because the aim was to be able to say it, to speak it out, and so we built up bit by bit our own so-called ‘elevator pitch’.

A year or so ago I was completely dumbfounded by the notion of an ‘elevator pitch’ – I thought it was something to do with putting your ideas over in a way that would mean they were taken up quickly (‘elevated’ if you will)!  I felt so foolish when it was explained to me that it was an American concept (elevator= lift), in which you imagined yourself explaining the nature of your business in the time it takes to go from floor one to floor ten. Well, I know now.

The Savvy Solos morning was enjoyable not just for the knowledge gained and for the skills practised, it was also useful for chatting to other one-man-bands (and indeed, one-woman-bands). Many of us can be somewhat isolated in our day-to-day working lives, so this was a good opportunity to engage with like-minded individuals. The process was greatly helped by the fact that one of our number Ali Bergstrand of Ali’s Ark (www.alisark.co.uk) is a cake-maker and she brought a box of cake with her. The iced banana cake which I sampled was truly wonderful.

Here we are. I am on the left in the pink top.

And for the record, this is what I do:

“I’m Amanda from Amanda Jane Textiles, which is a textile design business that creates fabric designs and writes quilt and sewing patterns for people who like making beautiful things with fabric. I can be found online. My fabric designs are just a bit different and my patterns are very easy to understand (even for beginners). In a mix of crowded on-line markets, these are patterns that work and designs that are individual.”

To illustrate the point, here’s one of my fabric designs, ‘Blackberries’, available here:

…and one of my sewing/quilt patterns, ‘Pinstripe’, available here:

The link to my interview with Nicola is here.

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Thank you for reading my blog. Quilt patterns are here, Fabrics are here, Classes are here