Figuring out what your company is all about

One of the blogs I read quite often is JoelOnSoftware by Joel Spolsky.

Joel and his blog are a bit of a legend in the software startup space and is a must-read for anyone building a software business.

A recent post there with the title “Figuring our what your company is all about” caught my eye. Specifically a quote he had on there:

“Kathy Sierra taught me that if you can’t explain your mission in the form, ‘We help $TYPE_OF_PERSON be awesome at $THING,’ you are not going to have passionate users. What’s your tagline? Can you fit it into that template?”

That’s what’s often refered to as an “elevator pitch“. You should be able to sum up what you do in one sentence. That applies to all businesses, not just those in software.

So for us at KashFlow it’d be “We help owners of small businesses be awesome at doing their bookkeeping and accounting”.

So here’s an open invite for you to spam my blog with your elevator pitches using the comment section below.

(I reserve the right to delete comments from competitors, especially if your pitch is better than mine!)

http://www.clear-thought.co.uk Bryony Thomas

We’re the marketing department small businesses can’t afford to have on payroll.
http://www.writemysite.co.uk Emily Hill

Write My Site: we help businesses of all sizes keep their websites updated with regular, unique content.
http://www.taxadvicenetwork.co.uk Mark Lee

Who could resist such an invitation?

So my pitch (today anyway) for the Tax Advice Network – using Joel’s approach:
We help accountants provide clients with an awesome tax service – through our weekly practical tax updates and our vetted independent specialist tax advisers.

NB: In my view different styles of elevator pitch are relevant to different types of business. Depends on target audience and also environment in which you are making your ‘pitch’. For example I know one sales trainer who says that prospective customers don’t want ‘help’ they want solutions..
tops

I help people understand what is going on!
http://www.amango.co.uk Amanda Thomas

I also can’t resist such an invitation! My pitch is…

…I take really nice shots that will enhance your business and make your people look great!
http://www.mattchedit.com/Blog.aspx Matt Chatterley

We help business owners and managers be awesomely efficient by automating their business processes.

And we make good tea. 😉
http://www.goldfigure.co.uk Jeremy @ GoldFigure

We help people to see from their business what they really should should know already.

Put on your hard hats… we’re going data mining.
http://www.solvexx.com Keith Turner

(Great idea – spam my blog)

Solvexx creates high impact, video, animation and web software for organisations that need great results online.

Who do you need to educate, convince or impress ?
http://www.kipfx.com Chris Carrier

We make you look better! We may not re-invent the wheel, but we can make it look a whole lot better! Image is everything!
http://www.edocr.com Manoj Ranaweera

We help businesses find new customers through their existing document inventory.

Want to know more? Visit http://edocr.com and select pricing plan to suit your budget
http://www.KashFlow.co.uk Duane Jackson

Of the above 10 pitches, I think only 3 fit the template mentioned in the blog post *worrying*
http://www.getting-paid.com Pete Bowen

We help smaller businesses get paid on time.
http://www.seahorseuk.co.uk Jason Dormer

In that template, ours would be:
We help accountants and bookkeepers be awesome at starting and growing their business.
http://www.keepmebooked.com Bruce Greig – KeepMeBooked

KeepMeBooked: We help hotel and guesthouse owners be awesome at managing their reservations.
http://www.bracketprojects.co.uk Alison Coward

Great post! Here’s my go:

Bracket – we help creative practitioners/businesses (artists, designers etc) collaborate more effectively through the use of online tools.

Do I pass the test?
http://www.creospace.co.uk Gary Dickenson

We help SME’s to be awesome at web based marketing.

in addition/or:

We help SME’s be awesome at becoming more efficient by utilising the web.

PS: I hate the word awesome, it’s soo American
http://www.greenstreet.net.au/ Paul Henriques

GreenStreet.net – “We help ethical shoppers be awesome at saving money at the best eco stores on the web”
http://www.profitpuzzle.com Don Osborne : Profit Puzzle

The Profit Puzzle Small Business at Home Start-Up Success System optimizes success and profit.
http://www.screencastsonline.com Don McAllister – ScreenCastsOnline

ScreenCastsOnline.com – I help Mac users get the most out of their Mac!
http://www.KashFlow.co.uk Duane Jackson

Thanks for all the spam comments. Keep ’em coming.

A lot of the elevator pitches, in my eyes anyway, miss the point.

I think what Kathy/Joel was saying is that you help someone be better *at* something then you’re on to a winner. So translating what you do into a direct benefit.

So

“We’re the marketing department small businesses can’t afford to have on payroll.”

becomes:

“We help small business be awesome at marketing without them having to pay for full time staff”

Or something like that.
http://capsulecrm.com/ Duncan Stockdill

JavelinCRM.com – “we help small businesses take good care of their customers, prospects and sales opportunities”.

and we integrate nicely with KashFlow too!
http://www.getting-paid.com Pete Bowen

Let me try again…

We help small businesses be awesome at getting their invoices paid without them having to hire a credit controller or make uncomfortable phone calls.
http://www.controlmyname.com Chris Padfield

We (will) help individuals build an effective personal brand using their existing online content.
http://www.showpresence.com Beth Gardner

Hmmm… this is a good one. Is it ok to have more than one?

We help small businesses be awesome at creating and maintaining their online stores at the lowest cost possible, guiding them to open source and scalable solutions.

We help non-profit organizations get awesome websites online for free.

We help competitive, responsible breeders be awesome at showing off their lines and breed rescue efforts through effective online presence (and whose paid sites support the above mentioned non-profits).

Perhaps I could use some help to focus this…
http://www.in-tuition.net Marc Gadsdon

We help IT suppliers be awesome at email and collaboration
http://www.carrytheone.co.uk Ed

We help e-commerce retailers save time by integrating their accounts systems so they can be awesome at everything else
http://www.mycake.org Sarah Thelwall

MyCake helps creative entrepreneurs become awesome at using their financial information to make better business decisions
tops

OK… I get it now!

I help people to do what they do better.
http://www.emailbuild.com/ Vincent

We help you be awesome at building email marketing campaigns.

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Figuring out what your company is all about

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