Introduce yourself with an elevator pitch

In order to explain to people what you do and what you are offering, having an elevator pitch is super helpful. You want it to be simple to understand and brief, so try not to overthink it. If you were meeting someone for the first time and they started talking to you, what would you want to know about them? Probably not their life story but maybe what they do. How would you want them to present themselves? Probably in a casual way that didn’t feel too sales like.

Practice a pitch that you can deliver in a minute or less that covers:

• Who you are?

Keep it relevant to the person you are talking to – what would be interesting for them to know about you? What do you love, what drives you, sparks your curiosity, inspires you to do what you do?

• What do you do?

What do you create, what service do you deliver, what project have you recently been working on, why, and what was the outcome? Avoid business jargon, acronyms, and anything that t lose the listener's attention – remember to keep it simple

• Why might the thing you do be of interest to the person you’re talking to?

Is it pushing boundaries? Is it more ethically invested in making a positive impact? Do you do it in more detail, to a higher quality, with an incentive? Explain how and why. Register for our online AI Career Centre for quick access to an Elevator Pitch Builder

Times when having your pitch ready will be useful:

• Cold contacting – pitching to a new person whether online, in person, or over the phone
• Any social media DMs, but typically on platforms like LinkedIn, Instagram, TikTok
• Attending events and being asked ‘what do you do?’

Figure out your audience

If you’re looking to sell a product or a service or promote yourself as something/one others should invest in, consider who would be interested in buying or using or working with you, who are you trying to reach? Consider:

• Are you targeting the right people?
• Are you on the right platform?
• Are you in the right spaces?

Say you’re looking to get hired to run a pattern-making workshop, you want it to be a 2-hour session aimed at children being the ages of 16-19, with a focus on design, creation, and sustainability. You’ve never done it before, but you’ve done some research and whilst there are other similar opportunities out there, you’ve realised that knowledge regarding sustainability is missing in other workshops and that’s what you want to pitch as the thing that makes your offer stand out.

Your audience would be children within your chosen age demographic, but it could also be:

• Parents of those children, school and college board/committee members
• Teachers and staff where those children spend a lot of their learning time
• Community group spaces, assisted learning spaces, youth clubs
• People responsible for eco committees, career weeks, and other internal events or group spaces within colleges

Explore outside your industry

It never hurts to think about ways that you might be able to extend your skills and services outside of your core industry, sector, or demographic. It’s worth investing time in researching and reflecting on ways that you might be able to grow horizontally.

If you change industries you are not starting from scratch, the skills and experiences you hold will be transferable and valued by other sectors, you just need to think about ways you can communicate what you do in a way that will make sense, so you may need to adapt your pitch to a new audience. Keep it simple and avoid business jargon that is specific to your past industry, sector, or demographic.

Utilise alumni groups, industry groups, social media groups

Meeting people where they are is key to starting relationships, and often you can find new contacts through group spaces that have been created for people to share information, resources, ideas, thoughts around specific topics or areas of interest. You can also learn a lot too! Facebook and LinkedIn can be useful when looking for professional group spaces to build your network within. Being active in these spaces is important:

• Joining and passively scrolling/absorbing information is fine for learning, but... without sharing your own insights and experiences, you lack reciprocity which can lead to meaningful engagement.
• Try to identify what the needs or wants of the group are so you can share relevant information.
• How you can offer your skills or services to contribute in a way that has a positive impact on the group as well as yourself, your product, or your service?

Be seen

Wherever possible promote yourself as being open to freelance work:

• On your LinkedIn profile or in social media profile bios
• On your website
• In your email signature
• On business cards

If you’re seen as active, you’re likely to attract more questions and enquiries. This doesn’t just go for online communication, it would extend to being read as active in person – attending events, showing up and showcasing what you do at fairs or talking on panels, highlighting the skills you have, asking questions, sharing your contact details, people will find it easier to connect with you.

Stay Connected

Maintaining your professional networks can be a challenge, previous peers, colleagues, clients and managers can change careers and take career gaps and we all get busy so reminding ourselves to check in every now and then can take effort and practice.

Do

• Consider who to stay in touch with and how often you want to reach out
• Make use of different communication tools available including email, phone, coffee dates, social gatherings, social media platforms and handwritten notes
• Look for ways you can help your contacts find opportunities and further connections

Don’t

• Go overboard on social media and email. Be strategic about how you use it and how often
• Brag or exaggerate your achievements or opportunities
• Try to network with everyone you’ve ever met. Keep a list of relevant contacts and audit it every now and then

Whilst it’s not always possible to do all of these things all of the time, aim to experiment and be open to testing out different ways to utilise networking in your approach, and let us know how you get on!

Join us for workshops, talks and networking opportunities tailored to freelance career journey during Freelance Week 2023 – Book on to sessions now!

On Thursday 15th June we will be hosting a freelance insights panel talk and a networking meet and greet 5:30-7:30 at High Holborn. Check out our online Freelance and Business Support for more resources and tips