Do you have an elevator speech prepared? An elevator speech is not really a speech at all but rather a couple of sentences describing what you do and who you do it for. Pretty simple right? You should be able to say these couple of sentences between the the time the elevator doors close on the ground floor and the time they open again on say the fifth floor. If you ask someone what they do for a living, and they kind of look around, throw out some words that don’t really belong together in the same sentence and generally freeze up, you are not likely to have faith enough to hire them right? Chances are you would not recommend them to a friend either. Let’s face it, part of being successful is being able to talk the talk and being able to communicate in a clear and concise way will go a long way.
On a side note, I once hired a painter at Home Depot based entirely on the conversation we had about house painting while we waited in the check out line.
It’s not that you are hoping that that person will hire you necessarily (although that would be pretty sweet!) but they may know someone who is in need of whatever it is you do. Hand out a business card while you are at it. You would be surprised how many people can help you find work via a referral just by being able to clearly state what it is you do.
Get out there, with business cards in your pocket and just be social, available and observant. Clients can appear in the most unusual places!
