Imagine you meet your dream employer/client/angel funder in a lift (or elevator if you're not British).

You have 30-60 seconds to persuade them to give you the job/project/money.  That narrow band of opportunity, and how you use it to sell yourself, has come to be known as the "elevator pitch".

How do you go about this?

Well, here are 5 tutorials to give you a head start.

1: How to Craft a Killer Elevator Pitch That Will Land You Big Business - Dumb Little Man

2: Perfecting Your Pitch, Part One: Assume Short Buildings Fast Company

[K. Stone's thorough tutorial 1 doesn't just tell you what should be included, it gives you step by step instructions for how to write and prepare your pitch. Tutorial 2 - similar ideas to tutorial 1, but targeted at internet start-ups.  Worth a look just to compare.]

3: Is Your Elevator Pitch a Home Run? Freelance Folder

One sentence wonder.  As the link suggests, this tutorial is for freelancers who have to sell themselves and their skills to harrassed businessmen. Less of an elevator pitch, more of a "winning sentence about myself and what I can do for you."

4: Prepping for Warren Buffett: The Art of the Elevator Pitch Four hour workweek

This tutorial takes a completely different approach. It's target is simple: get you another appointment with the world's richest man. A man who hears elevator pitches every day of his life, and will never remember you unless you come up with something unique.

5: Skip, Scan, Stop, Save and/or Spread?  Life Beyond Code

...and finally the tweet. 140 characters of elevator pitch.  Some salient questions about the quality of your tweeting.

Feel free to add your elevator pitch as a comment to this post, or tweet me your elevator tweet.