Whether you’re introducing yourself at a networking event, telling new colleagues about your business, or pitching to another professional — you want to capture attention and get it fast.
In situations like these, you need a short and easy-to-grasp explanation of your company and its products, like an elevator pitch. An elevator pitch — also known as elevator speech — can better introduce professionals to your company.
In this post, we’ll discuss why you should use a pitch, discuss different types, learn how to write your own, and give you tips on how to make a memorable one. After all, the person(s) you’re speaking with might turn out to be a perfect fit for your business — or know someone who is.
What is an elevator pitch?
It’s a short, memorable description of what you do and/or what you sell. The goal is to earn a second conversation, not to convince the person you’re talking to they should hire you or buy your solution. An elevator pitch is never an opportunity to close a deal. It’s an opportunity to close more of your prospect’s attention and time. It’s a quick introduction to you, your company, and how you can help your prospect.
Pull it out at networking events, conferences, warm calls — and even job interviews or career fairs. Keep your elevator pitch goal-oriented (e.g., “I help companies like yours increase production by up to 30% without additional cost.“) and always end with a business card or request to connect on LinkedIn. Remember to be engaging and friendly, and practice your pitch, so it’s clear, concise, and well-paced.
If you’re curious about what an elevator pitch should look like, or simply ready to jumpstart the pitch creation process, download the templates below. We’ve compiled several types of templates — from sales pitches to funding requests.
No matter which type of pitch you’re delivering, concision is essential. You don’t want to waste your prospect’s, investor’s, or fellow professional’s time. With that in mind, how much time should you spend on an elevator pitch? Let’s find out.
How long should an elevator pitch be?
An effective elevator pitch is meant to be no more than 30 seconds, just like the length of time you ride in an elevator. You want to keep your words easily digestible, so avoid trying to get too deep into specifics as it can drag on the conversation — and lose your prospect’s attention.
You should have an effective elevator pitch prepared before you need it, since you have such a short time to deliver it. To show your value in under a minute, your pitch needs purpose, flow, and a hook to reel in attention — all of which we’ll discuss as follows.
A favorite trope of sleep research is to divide the entire human population into two cute, feathered categories: early birds (also called larks) and night owls. Often, these studies link people’s natural sleep patterns—called their chronotype—with some waking behavior or personality trait.
But can the population really be categorized so neatly? Or is the research painting an incomplete and overly moralistic picture?
A study published May 24 in PLOS ONE by a group of Polish researchers takes a fresh look at the long-established link between being an early riser and being conscientious by examining a separate but potentially important variable that might underlie the link: being religious. The team found that people who woke up earlier tended to score higher on all dimensions of religiosity, leading them to conclude that being religious could help explain why early risers are more conscientious and more satisfied overall.
“Morningness” might be closely aligned with godliness, in part because certain religions practice early-morning prayer—so religion could be driving the link between rising early and being conscientiousness. Religion, of course, is just one under-examined variable that may be contributing to the link between sleep and waking behavior. Countless more exist—which suggests we’re probably thinking about the morning bird/night owl divide too starkly, in research and in real life.
“I think most people would recognize that, in reality, [chronotype is] more of a continuous type of variable,” says Brian Gunia, a sleep researcher, professor, and associate dean at Johns Hopkins’ Carey Business School. It exists on a spectrum: not everyone is always one or the other. But so much research uses this binary classification because people are usually able to self-identify that way, Gunia says.
The bias that people who rise early are morally superior to evening people doesn’t just loom large in scientific research. It’s at the very heart of the U.S.’s founding principles of industry and hard work, says Declan Gilmer, a PhD student at the University of Connecticut who studies workplace psychology. “If someone gets up at 6 a.m., and they show up at work early, they’re viewed potentially as more committed,” he says.
For his 2018 masters’ thesis, Gilmer asked people to imagine themselves as managers and review employees’ requests for easily accommodatable schedule changes based on a number of factors. He found that people acting as managers rarely treated chronotype-related scheduling requests—like asking to start and end the workday later when such a schedule didn’t interfere with meetings—as legitimate.
And when night-owl employees made such requests, they viewed them much more negatively, even when they were just as productive as the early birds. Other recent research published in the journal Behavioral Sleep Medicine found that people “perceived night owls as significantly more lazy, unhealthy, undisciplined, immature, creative, and young,” the study authors write.
Yet a person’s sleep preference is far from fixed. Though it does have biological and genetic roots and “doesn’t vary from month to month or season to season,” says Fogel, “we know age is really important.” Chronotype can shift as you get older, he says, which means that research needs to control for things like age. “Some of the better work in the topic area has been trying to identify the genes that are most tightly linked to morningness and eveningness,” he says—genes that, if understood, could open the door to a more nuanced view of the topic.
Perhaps the most important reason not to rely too heavily on the “research-backed” moral superiority of morning birds is that aspects of your personality (like how hopeful and creative you are) and your own physiology (like how focused you are) that are supposedly linked to your chronotype change throughout the day. Very few chronotype studies include information about the time of day during which the research was conducted, but Gunia’s research has found that this seemingly simple factor can change data a fair bit.
In a 2014 study of chronotype and ethical behavior, for example, “we found that morning people are most ethical in the morning, and evening people are most ethical in the evening, so maybe it’s more of a fit between chronotype and time [of day] than it is this idea that morning people are better or worse,” Gunia says. Studies that don’t take time of day into account “are missing half the equation.”
Humans don’t always fit neatly into one of two categories, even when it comes to their sleep preferences. As researchers work toward a more individualized view, just remember: You don’t have to be a morning lark or a night owl. You can be any kind of bird you like—there are plenty of worms to go around.
ProBit Global cryptocurrency exchange was developed in 2018 in Seoul, South Korea, by Steve Woo. It is one of the leading crypto trading platforms, and it offers an accessible and advanced exchange platform with a wide variety of services ranging from crypto trading to IEOs.
Compared to other exchanges, ProBit is built with high authority and unique features, and it boasts of becoming the fastest crypto exchange in the world. The platform can handle more than 1,500,000 crypto transactions every second. This ProBit Review will delve deeper into the platform features, pros and cons, fees, payment methods, supported currencies, and many more.
What Is ProBit?
To define ProBit, it is a trading platform for cryptocurrency traders. It was developed in 2018 in Seoul, South Korea. The platform supports more than 40 cryptocurrencies, and the developers are working to offer more than 100 cryptocurrencies soon and allow more users to trade on the ProBit exchange.
The platform successfully distinguishes itself from other trading exchanges by offering a global crypto-to-crypto exchange for all kinds of traders. It puts a high priority on the security of its client’s funds.
They also offer a Trade Mining Service that allows users to mine the following trading pairs – BTC and USDT, ETH and USDT, BTC and KRW, ETH and KRW, ETH and BTC. Their services allow users to receive transaction fee discounts in the form of PROB, their native tokens.
All in all, the excellent and advanced crypto trading features make the platform one of the best options for both beginners and experienced traders. The Exchange highlights three main points why a trader chooses ProBit: global, professional, and secure.
How Does ProBit Work?
Comprehending how ProBit exchange works are exceptionally straightforward, and new investors can efficiently operate on the exchange. ProBit exchange allows traders to mine digital coins on the platform, which is the beauty of the exchange. To know more about how the exchange works, read the following to get an in-depth understanding of the platform:-
To start trading on ProBit, users need to maintain funds in the account. Without funds, buying and selling activities are prohibited. The significant cryptos supported on the platform are – Bitcoin (BTC), Tether USD (USDT), and Ethereum (ETH). So, a ProBit account or wallet must deposit either of these coins to start trading.
ProBit Trading
The trading dashboard on ProBit is typical, and it lists the crypto trading pairs along with price charts, price movements, order book, trade feed, and trading volume. The interface is quite interesting. Below the order book, the display shows the Buy and Sell checkboxes for placing orders. Additionally, the dashboard enables four limit orders that help investors maximize their profits and minimize losses.
ProBit Staking
Experienced traders would know how to maximize profits through staking. Staking refers to how traders can earn profits with their new cryptos on the exchange. ProBit provides multiple crypto tokens along with lockup periods. Heavy users know that staking the native token PROB will fetch staking rewards, referral bonuses, and trading fee discounts.
VIP and Exclusive Levels
Users can increase their benefits from the exchange platform through ProBit Exclusives. This feature allows users to purchase primary crypto tokens at a discount. However, users must stake at least 500 PROB and lock up the staking for 180 days to enjoy this feature. This will automatically enroll the user in the 1st level VIP Membership. There are 11 VIP levels on the platform, each level requiring more extensive PROB staking.
History of ProBit Exchange
ProBit’s history dates back to 2018 when the trading platform in Seoul, South Korea by Hyunsu Do and Steve Woo. Currently, it has expanded its market to a worldwide level to become one of the most professional, global, and secure digital platforms for cryptocurrency traders.
The company has divided its operations between 2 significant functions – ProBit Global and ProBit Korea. ProBit essentially deals with global investors, and they are headquartered in Seychelles, East Africa. ProBit Korea, on the other hand, is headquartered in South Korea and is operated by Oceans Inc. ProBit has expanded its operations dramatically and achieved several milestones since its launch.
ProBit Features
ProBit is a robust platform that offers several advanced trading and security features to allow users to smooth and instant trading, buying, and selling of cryptocurrencies. As per the review, here are a few of the features ProBit investors need to know:–
Above-par Security Measures
ProBit provides its clients with three most essential security features, one of them being cold storage, where traders can store more than 95% of their digital assets. Added to this, the platform offers an encryption system that helps in keeping essential user data safely.
Exceptional Trading Experience
ProBit is designed to provide easy accessibility and utmost convenience to its users. The user interface is customizable, and users can set it based on their preferences. This means that users can view only the information that they find relevant and prevalent.
Multiple Currency Trading Pairs
The exchange supports more than 150 currencies for trading, how and it continues to invest more as the market expands.
IEO Launchpad
ProBit has its IEO launchpad that allows users to invest in new start-ups in the blockchain crypto community. It shows an in-depth review to the user before they launch crypto projects.
Staking
Users on ProBit can earn passive returns through on-platform staking.
BitUniverse Grid
This feature is one of the best things about ProBit. Users can use the app called BitUniverse to grid their trades.
FTX Tokens
The exchange platform offers more than 8 FTX leveraged coins listed.
Trading Fees
The fee structure is transparent, and the fees are relatively low, with discounts offered when a user transacts in PROB, ProBit’s native token. The trading fee is 0.2% for every trade, which is lower than the global industry average.
Creating an Account With ProBit
ProBit users know how easy it is to create an account on the platform. As per the review, the registration process is hassle-free, fee-free, and takes just a few minutes to complete. Here is how new users can create an account on the ProBit exchange:-
Go to the official website of ProBit and click Register.
The next page will display a form to fill in with the client’s name, email ID, and password. Check the boxes before entering the Register tab.
A pop-up will appear on the screen with a checkbox saying, ‘I am not a robot.’ Check the box, and a vcode will be sent to the registered email ID.
Copy the verification code, paste it into the box or simply enter the code in the box. This step will verify the user’s email ID.
Next, users need to meet the ProBit exchange KYC standards and complete level 2 KYC to start trading on the platform. To do this, fill in the verification form with personal details and upload a photocopy of any ID or passport along with a selfie holding the original copy of the passport or ID.
Submit the documents, and level 2 KYC is complete. Users can now start trading.
Probit Fees
Trading Fees
As per the reviews, Traders on ProBit know that the platform follows a flat fee model as it does not charge different fees for makers and takers. The maker’s and taker’s fees are uniformly fixed at 0.20%; ProBit Global’s history is slightly lower than the global industry average. But many companies today charge trading fees as low as 0.15%.
Additionally, ProBit provides trading fee rebates for the high trading volume. This means that trading fees can fall 0.05% and even lower to 0.03% for large trades made with PROB, the platform’s native token.
Deposit Fees
ProBit does not have deposit fees on its platform except WBX (WiBX) that charges network fees.
Withdrawal Fees
Withdrawal fees majorly vary from one crypto to another, and they are generally fixed. For Bitcoin withdrawals on other crypto exchanges, users have to pay 0.0006 BTC as withdrawal fees, but on ProBit, the withdrawal fee is 0.0005 BTC for every Bitcoin withdrawal. This rate is slightly lower than the global industry average.
If we see the big picture, the trading and withdrawal fees are lower than the industry averages. You can also click here to get more insight into ProBit’s fee structure.
ProBit Deposit and Withdrawal Methods
ProBit Global does not accept any form of deposits except crypto exchange. This means users can not buy and sell digital assets using fiat currencies. So, deposits on ProBit can only be made in cryptocurrencies.
ProBit Korea traders can make deposits in KRW (South Korean Won), but this feature is available only to those who have verified their identity on the platform. ProBit charges a 0% fee for making deposits, but network fees may be charged for withdrawing crypto coins from the wallet. The withdrawal and the processing time are based on the crypto being withdrawn and the network used to withdraw.
ProBit Accepted Payment Methods
Since ProBit does not support fiat currencies, users can make payments only with cryptos. It helps the largest selection of crypto assets, namely, Bitcoin, Tether USD, and Ethereum. So, accepted payment methods include:-
Crypto to crypto trading.
Crypto to fiat trading.
ProBit Supported Currencies and Countries
As per the reviews, the platform supports all countries except the following ones:-
Albania, Algeria, Barbados, Bangladesh, Botswana, Bolivia, Cambodia, Cuba, Ghana, Ecuador, Iraq, Jamaica, Morocco, Mauritius, Myanmar, North Korea, Nepal, Pakistan, Panama, Singapore, Syria, Sri Lanka, the US, Uganda, Yemen, Venezuela, Zimbabwe.
Coming to the supported currencies, the platform supports a wide range of 500 cryptocurrencies on 1000 markets which are huge compared to other crypto exchanges. The primary crypto tokens supported are Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), and Tether USD (USDT).
ProBit Token Details
PROB is ProBit’s native token that is a standard ERC-20 Ethereum token. According to the exchange’s whitepaper, PROB can be used by investors for:-
Trading fee rebates for Premium traders who have sufficient PROB tokens in their wallets.
Voting rights for brand new listings of tokens depending on the PROB amount being held.
Increasing referral bonus.
Easy and quick access to advanced features of ProBit crypto exchange.
IEOs or initial exchange offerings that run on the IEO platform.
However, the maximum PROB supply is fixed at 200,000,000, and they have been allocated in the following ways:-
Qualified transactions will mine an 80% trading fee depending on the PROB’s existing market price and issue it to the traders as rewards. Nevertheless, trade mining does not apply to those transactions where the trading fees are paid with PROB tokens. Stake mining allows users to stake PROB and earn huge yields annually. The main benefit of PROB tokens is the fee discounts.
This means users can get discounts of 10 to 50% while paying trading fees using PROB. Additionally, the whitepaper also mentions that the platform is operating a PROB repurchase system in which 20% of their profits will be used to repurchase the PROB tokens.
ProBit Token Details
PROB is ProBit’s native token that is a standard ERC-20 Ethereum token. According to the exchange’s whitepaper, PROB can be used by investors for:-
Trading fee rebates for Premium traders who have sufficient PROB tokens in their wallets.
Voting rights for brand new listings of tokens depending on the PROB amount being held.
Increasing referral bonus.
Easy and quick access to advanced features of ProBit crypto exchange.
IEOs or initial exchange offerings that run on the IEO platform.
However, the maximum PROB supply is fixed at 200,000,000, and they have been allocated in the following ways:-
Qualified transactions will mine an 80% trading fee depending on the PROB’s existing market price and issue it to the traders as rewards. Nevertheless, trade mining does not apply to those transactions where the trading fees are paid with PROB tokens. Stake mining allows users to stake PROB and earn huge yields annually.
The main benefit of PROB tokens is the fee discounts. This means users can get discounts of 10 to 50% while paying trading fees using PROB. Additionally, the whitepaper also mentions that the platform is operating a PROB repurchase system in which 20% of their profits will be used to repurchase the PROB tokens.
The Chinese shopping app is topping app stores in the US. But it’s burning money and squeezing its suppliers to a breaking point in a bid to take on Amazon. Eight makeup brushes for less than a dollar, with free international shipping, is surely too good to be true. But in the lightning deals section of Temu, the prices are all unbelievable—50 hair bands for $1.17, 10 pairs of socks for $3.87, six lip balms for $0.97.
Temu, owned by the Chinese tech giant PDD, has exploded onto the top of US app stores since it launched last September, targeting cash-strapped Americans with cheap unbranded products shipped directly from Guangzhou, China. In just seven months, Temu’s app has been downloaded 50 million times.
But the reason that prices on Temu seem impossibly low is that they are. An analysis of the company’s supply chain costs by WIRED—confirmed by a company insider—shows that Temu is losing an average of $30 per order as it throws money at trying to break into the American market.
The financial company China Merchants Securities has calculated that Temu, which is also operating in Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, is losing between RMB 4.15 billion and RMB 6.73 billion ($588 million to $954 million) per year. At the same time, the company is squeezing small manufacturers in China, pressuring them to cut prices to levels that make it almost impossible to turn a profit.
“We are working for Temu for free so that Temu can attract more American customers,” says Sandy, who started selling pet products on the platform soon after it launched, speaking on condition of anonymity to avoid reprisals. Temu did not respond to a request for comment.
Spending big on deep discounts in order to build market share has already worked well for PDD in China. Pinduoduo, PDD’s Chinese flagship company, burst into the local ecommerce market in 2015, differentiating itself from Taobao and JD.com, which dominated the market at the time, by selling cut-price white-labeled or unbranded goods, and targeting people on lower-incomes in rural areas.
To bring people onto the platform, it subsidized prices on everything from unbranded homewares to high-end smartphones. “That is how Pinduoduo gained market share in China, they know how to use these strategies really well,” says Veronica Si, a researcher specializing in ecommerce platforms. In the US, most of Temu’s subsidies come in the form of free international shipping.
WIRED looked at multiple analyses of shipping costs, including data from financial research company Haitong International Securities Group, which suggests that the cost of shipping even a small package from Guangzhou, where Temu has its warehouses, to the US is around $14. Haitong’s analysis—confirmed by the Temu insider—shows that J&T Express, the company’s logistics partner, bears some of the costs, but that Temu is on the hook for $9 or $10 per shipment…..
One of the worst financial fears most Americans have is being laid off and unfortunately, this is becoming more common. What should you do if this were to happen to you? Here are some steps you can take to deal with the financial implications:
1)File For Unemployment Benefits
The first thing you’ll want to do is replace as much of your income as possible and a good place to start is by filing for unemployment benefits in the state you worked in. How much and how long you’ll collect varies by state but benefits are typically 50% of your previous income up to a cap and generally last about 26 weeks or half a year.
2)Make Sure You’re Covered By Health Insurance
Your income isn’t the only thing you’ll want to replace. You’ll also want to make sure you’re covered by health insurance. If you’re married, see if you can get covered under your spouse’s plan. Another option is to continue your current health insurance under COBRA for 18 to 36 months, but that insurance is likely to be more expensive than what you paid as an employee.
Finally, you can enroll through the Health Insurance Marketplace and possibly qualify for subsidies based on your income. These options have deadlines to enroll after your employment ends so don’t delay. (If you have a health savings account, you can use it to pay health insurance premiums tax-free while you’re collecting unemployment benefits.)
3) Don’t Forget Life Insurance
While it may not feel as urgent, it’s important to make sure your family continues to be protected by life insurance as well. You may be able to continue any coverage you had under your employer if the policy is portable. If not, you can use this calculator to estimate how much insurance you should have and search for low-cost term life insurance policies here.
4) Get A Handle On Your Budget
If you’ve never created a budget or even tracked your expenses, now is the time to start. After all, you may have to live on a reduced income for an indefinite period of time, so you’ll want to watch every penny.
Go through the last three months of your bank and credit card statements and record your expenses on a worksheet like this. Once you know where your money is going, look for places to cut back. Keep in mind that this is only for a limited period of time until you find a new job, so you’ll want to be even more frugal than usual.
If you’re still having trouble making ends meet, make sure you prioritize your rent or mortgage payments, basic utility bills, car payments, and food and medical care over payments on unsecured debt like credit card bills. Keeping a roof over your head, the lights on, your car in the driveway, food on the table, and you and your family healthy are all more important than your credit score. See if you can negotiate an affordable payment plan with your creditors or work with a non-profit credit counseling agency to negotiate for you.
5) Decide What To Do With Your Former Employer’s Retirement Plan
The three basic options are to leave it there (if they let you), cash it out, or roll it into an IRA. Leaving your plan where it is can make sense if you want to keep a unique investment option that you can’t purchase anywhere else or if you have employer stock that you’d like to eventually pay a lower tax rate on the gain.
Cashing out your plan rarely is the best option since you’d have to pay taxes on any pre-tax money plus a 10% penalty if you don’t turn age 55 or older in the year you leave the company. Rolling your account into an IRA can allow you to continue deferring taxes while also providing you more flexibility in how the money is invested and withdrawn.
If you need to tap your savings and are younger than age 55, you’ll generally want to access your non-Roth retirement accounts last. Start with taxable accounts like bank or regular brokerage accounts. Then go to any Roth IRA contributions you have since they can be withdrawn tax-free and penalty-free. However, that’s still just a next-best option since you sacrifice the potential for tax-free growth. Only after those options are exhausted should you consider dipping into retirement accounts that would be subject to taxes plus a 10% early withdrawal penalty.
Of course, the most beneficial thing you can do after a layoff is to find a new job so don’t forget to update your resume, get in touch with your network, brush up on your networking and interviewing skills, and start job hunting. When you do land a job, try to build your emergency savings up to at least three to six months’ worth of necessary expenses. At least now you’ll have a better idea of just how beneficial that is.
I’m a Senior Resident Financial Planner at Financial Finesse, primarily responsible for providing financial education and guidance to employees of our corporate….
Pull it out at networking events, conferences, warm calls — and even job interviews or career fairs. Keep your elevator pitch goal-oriented (e.g., “I help companies like yours increase production by up to 30% without additional cost.“) and always end with a business card or request to connect on LinkedIn. Remember to be engaging and friendly, and practice your pitch, so it’s clear, concise, and well-paced.
