An elevator pitch is one or two sentences that say who you help, what you do for them, and why you are the one to call. Ten seconds, said out loud, and the other person can picture the job. Below are five you can borrow the shape of — a plumber, a florist, a bookkeeper, a dog groomer and a consultant — then the structure underneath all of them, the places you will genuinely use yours, and the two ways these go wrong.
At a glance
| Feature | Detail |
|---|---|
| What it is | One or two sentences: who you help, what you do for them, why you |
| How long | About ten seconds. If you cannot finish it in one breath, cut it |
| Where it is used | The first line of your website, your Google Business Profile, your quotes and emails, and any time somebody asks what you do |
| The test | Can the listener picture the customer and the job? |
| The two ways it fails | Too vague to picture, or too long to finish |
| How long it takes to write | Ten minutes and about six attempts |
Five elevator pitches you can borrow the shape of
A plumber. Take Jamie, who runs Jamie's Plumbing, a one-man emergency plumbing business in Reading. His pitch: "I do emergency and general plumbing in Reading, 24 hours. If your water is somewhere it should not be, I can usually be there the same day."
A florist. Take City Florists, a flower subscription business that delivers a bouquet to your door every week. Its pitch: "We put fresh flowers in your house every week without you having to remember. Forty pounds a week, twenty-two a fortnight, pause whenever you like."
A bookkeeper. "I do the books for small builders and trades around Bristol. You send me photographs of your receipts as you go, and you stop doing paperwork on a Sunday night."
A dog groomer. "I groom dogs at your house, in a van fitted out as a salon. It suits nervous dogs, old dogs, and dogs that hate car journeys, because nobody has to go anywhere."
A consultant. "I help small manufacturers in the Midlands work out why jobs are running late. It is nearly always one bottleneck, and I usually find it inside a fortnight."
Read those aloud. Every one of them fits in a breath, and every one leaves you able to picture an actual customer with an actual problem.
The structure underneath all five
Three parts, in this order.
Who you help. Be as narrow as you honestly can. "Small builders and trades around Bristol" is a person you can picture. "Businesses" is not. Narrow does not turn work away; it makes the right people recognise themselves.
What you do for them. Say the result, not the activity. The groomer does not say "professional grooming services" — she says the dog does not have to go anywhere. The bookkeeper does not say "bookkeeping and compliance" — she says you stop doing paperwork on a Sunday night.
Why you are the one to call. One concrete thing, and it has to be something a competitor could plausibly not offer: 24 hours, at your house, pause whenever you like, found inside a fortnight. "Quality and great service" is not this, because every competitor says it too. Our guide to finding your unique selling point goes through how to pick yours.
That is the whole formula: [who] + [what they get] + [the one reason it is you].
Where a pitch actually gets used
The networking room is the least of it. Most founders use their pitch in writing, far more often than they say it.
The first line of your website. The sentence at the top of the page, before anything else loads, is your pitch. Get it right and a visitor knows in three seconds whether they are in the right place. Our guide to what a business website needs covers what goes underneath it.
Your Google Business Profile description. The free listing that shows up when somebody searches for a plumber near them. That description is a pitch with a word limit.
The top of a quote or an introduction email. One line reminding someone who you are and what you do, before the numbers.
When somebody asks what you do. At a barbecue, at the school gate, in the van outside a job. This is where most small businesses get their first ten customers, and the answer "oh, a bit of everything really" wastes it.
Actual networking, if you do it. Useful, but it is one room. The website line is read by more people in a week.
The two ways a pitch goes wrong
Too vague to picture. "We provide bespoke property maintenance tailored to each client's needs." Nobody now knows what you fix, for whom, or where. The fix is always the same: put a real customer and a real job in the sentence. Not "property maintenance" but "I fix the things landlords get called about between tenants."
Too long to finish. You start well, then you add the second service, then the qualification you got, then the area you also cover, and by the time you stop the other person has stopped listening. If you need a breath halfway through, it is too long. Cut the second half and see whether anyone misses it.
There is a third, quieter failure: writing a pitch you would never say out loud. If the words are not ones you would use to a mate in a pub, you will not use them at the school gate either, and the pitch dies in a document.
Once the pitch is right, the look is easy to decide
The pitch is the first brand decision because everything after it gets easier. A pitch that says "fresh flowers on your doorstep every week" tells you the business should feel calm and seasonal. One that says "24 hours, same day" tells you it should feel bold and easy to read from a van. You are no longer guessing at colours; you are matching them to a promise you have already written down.
Create your brand guidelines free with Plan. Answer a few quick questions about the look you want, and Plan puts together your colours, typefaces and a brand guidelines document — free, and built to match the sentence you just wrote.
Writing yours in about ten minutes
Write six versions quickly and badly. Say each one out loud, then say them to somebody who will be honest with you. Keep the one that makes them ask a follow-up question, because a follow-up question means they understood you and want more.
Then use it everywhere the same way. The pitch on your website, your listing, your quotes and your mouth should be the same sentence. That repetition is most of what people mean by branding, and our guide to branding a business covers the rest of the decisions in the order they are easiest to make.
The elevator pitch is the very first step in Plan, before anything else, and it takes a couple of minutes there because the app asks you the three questions in turn and puts the sentence together with you.
What is Plan?
Plan is a free business operating system for people starting or newly running a UK business. It walks you, one simple step at a time, from your elevator pitch through brand, product and pricing, to a complete business plan — then uses everything it now knows about the business to help with the basics: logo and brand, marketing, a website, a bank account, funding, insurance, company registration. You can use as much or as little as you want.
Frequently asked questions
What is an elevator pitch? One or two sentences that say who you help, what you do for them, and why you are the one to call. It is short enough to say in about ten seconds, which is where the name comes from. For a small business it is used far more often in writing than in a lift.
How long should an elevator pitch be? Around ten seconds, or one or two sentences. The practical test is whether you can finish it in a single breath. If you need a second breath, cut it, because the person listening has already started thinking about something else.
What should an elevator pitch include? Who you help, what they get, and one concrete reason it is you. The last part has to be something a competitor could plausibly not offer, such as 24-hour call-outs or working at the customer's house. Anything every competitor also claims can be left out.
Do I need an elevator pitch if I never go networking? Yes, because the pitch is the first line of your website, the description on your Google Business Profile and the answer you give when someone asks what you do. Those get seen and heard far more often than a networking room.
How is an elevator pitch different from a USP? Your unique selling point is the one thing that makes people pick you. The elevator pitch is the sentence that carries it, along with who you serve and what they get. You usually find the pitch first, then sharpen the difference inside it.
Two ways to do this
Write it free in Plan. The elevator pitch is the first thing Plan does with you: three short questions, some examples, and a sentence you can actually say. It runs in your browser, nothing to download, and you can do just this bit and stop there.
Or have the whole brand handled. If you would rather not write it yourself, our sister agency The Fractions can design your brand and build the website that goes with it.