sponsorship????

[marcus]

i have met a person who might be interested in sponsoring my kart racing team.
he is a business man and wants to see a professional proposal , althought ive been a fan all my life i am relatively new to the driving scene and know what i want to say and what i can do to help his business along BUT i really dont know how to set a proposal out. so if anyone could give me any info on how the pros set out there proposals that would be much appreciated.
i am racing on sunday and he said he might drop in to have a bit of a look so i hope i can do well and stay on the track.

[Ken]

Marcus , have a look under I need help, further down the page. It was when a racer named Gideon was looking for help . It would be faster than myself or others reposting when we told him to do . Any more questions just ask we racers have to stick together

[marcus]

Thanks Ken that helped a little...very interested in how i can put a sponsors logo on my kart in a photo...sounds like a great idea just to let them know how it would look.
I am still not sure on how to set the proposal out ...u know with a title page ...do i have a list of contents?
should i state how much money i would be interested in recieving?...things like that...but i am trying to get hold of proposals from V8 supercar teams...so hope fully i can work it out and do a good job..
Thanks again....would really like to know more about photo's though

[Ken]

OK , get a camera and take a pic of a company logo , sign on the front of the building , Pizza box, where ever the company displays their name. Now scan it and save it . Now what I use if a programe called Photo Suit. I bought it at a computer show for about 15 $ a couple years ago . I then cut and crop the company name from one pic onto a pic of my car. Then I print it. It comes out OK in most cases but will give an Idea of what there company will look like . I wouldn't have a contents page. Have pix of yourself in race suit. The car sitting and then action shots of your car and others. Have a couple of shots blowen up that always looks nice. Not too many pix just a few to give the company an idea of what you do . You have to find their buttom that will make them want to help you out. As for money ?? you have to sit down and total it up . How far do they want to sponsor you ? Does the company want to raffle off tickets in the place for a ride in your car , with some of it going to a charity ? You see this is just a little to what you have to want before you meet the guy/ gal .

[Ken Crank]

I normally don't give out free advice on this subject as it is my business, but what the heck.

You can mess around all you want with trying to put a sponsor's logo on your kart, and I'm not suggesting you don't put one on the kart, but take a look a some photographs of your kart with you driving it in races. Look at different angles. What's the largest surface area you see?

YOU. Put the logo on the front of your helmet and across the shoulders of your leathers. This also gives the sponsor a personal identification with the driver, not just the vehicle. At least that's what you tell him.

Good luck.
Ken Crank

[Ken]

Ken Crank , I didn't know you were into the sponsor game? Wish I had known before and would have sent some questions your way.

[Ken Crank]

I haven't posted my e-mail address as I know I **** off a lot of people here and don't want a lot of nasty e-mail.

If you want to post yours, I'll send you mine and we can correspond privately.'

I'm not really as bad a person as my postings may make me appear.

Ken Crank

[CATMAN]

I get approached all the time re the sponsorship thing. What most people want to see is professional presentation.
Scruffy overalls , boots , glove or Helmet are out. Your racing projectile should be clean as a whistle, polished and logos or paintwork immaculate. You tools and spares should be the same, and neatly set out.
If you`re using a truck or trailer, it must be clean and well presented outside and inside.
Spray your fuel cans the same colour as your
stands, jacks, and tool boxs. Have a place for every thing, and label everything and its storage place. Make sure you trucks sun shade, awning or your uncles old tent that you work under is also clean and presentable.
Make sure that if you are seated at your setup between races, the table and chairs are clean and the cool box is neat with your team logo on it and and you eat and drink from un marked clean cups etc.
I`ve heard hundreds of people moan at the lack of sponsorship money. But thay turn up with a van with doors wired up plastic over a missing window, the tools fall out when the doors open. tools covered in ****. Overalls and driver kit that looks as if the`ve been used under the van that has probably broken down 3 times on the way to the track.
When you are racing with little money it may seem crazy to spend it on the kit rather than your car, kart or bike. But offering a potential sponsor a coffee in a cracked stained mug ,and wiping your greasy hands on your race overalls as you hand him the last cookie as your mechanic in a pair of jeans half way down his ass, and a greasy T Shirt with a F!ck U logo scrambles over piles of **** in the van shouting I can`t find the p1ssing plug wrench again. Is mnot the way to go. You may think this an insult to your intelligence but there are plenty out there still working this way to some exstent.
If you want to represent some one else and spend their money, make sure what you have looks its best and is well presented and clean. Image is what they are looking to sell and yours must be good to get their money.

[Ken]

Excellent Catman , and welcome back , that is the first time anyone has told it like it is . Is it OK to have my girlfriend in a bathing suit all 120 LBS of her? I know with myself and others we are just a one man team and do 95 % of the work/ setup ourselves. Yes some of the guys who get the better sponsors do have a real nice set up, trailer, canopy and always have company. I am working on a couple of deals right now and hope they pan out. One looks good for next year and it is a tire deal and the other needs more work .

[CATMAN]

The scantilly clad girlie is an added bonus, it proves your balls must in working order if
nothing else. I said nothing on the nubile
woman side of things, as I don`t want to start a sexist angle to this.
Presentation is No 1 when it comes to gaining sponsors. Clean overalls for you and your team mate/s are better than beat up I`ve got 20 years of grease covered patches holding these rags together to prove my experience. Clean shirts and shorts each day present a good image ( girlies **** two sizes to small with no bra tends to draw a crowd ).
I`m glad you took my words the right way Ken as I can`t push the point far enough, Motor racing runs on B1ll Sh1t. And sponsors love
good presentation. McLaren and Co don`t have new $million + motor homes every 2 or 3 years for fun. It is all part of the Bull S
that the sponsors expect, and PAY for.

[Peter Mallett]

Good points all CATMAN.

Team shirts and clean jeans are generally the order for my "team" (when I have one). I try to do all my preparation at home before the car goes on the trailer which leaves a wash and polish before practice.

If we need to use tools they are in the boot (trunk) of the car.

I read once that Jackie Stewart used to insist on having the valves of his trailer wheels all lined up. The trailer would be cleaned along with the car. These habits were carried through to the F1 team transporters.

[CATMAN]

Yeah look at the teams pull into any circuit, first clean truck, polish wheels and black the tyres. Bull and more Bull, the driver might fall off on the first bend, but evrey thing looked good !

[Warwick]

Marcus try the karting web site (cant remember the adress) it has a professional proposal in a downloadable format,just remember it is as much about what you can do for the sponsor as much as what he can do for you

[marcus]

sounds great warwick ..would go check it out but without the address i carnt do much
does anybody know this address?

[Peter Mallett]

Try the links section on this site.

[Tony Harman]

Test

[Tony Harman]

Oops sorry about the test reply.
Marcus, Every year I bash out the sponsorship proposal to try and get some funds. Sometimes we're successful too, what seems to work at club level is to get the people interested in the sport, it is very hard to justify the expense when there is no hard return, e.g. TV coverage but if they're interested then they may help out. The other thing that seems to work is to have them pay for something specific rather than just give you cash. A few years ago I got someone to pay for a new set of overalls, about £400, and they're still getting coverage 4 seasons later. Last year I got someone to pay for a set of tyres. TH

[Liz]

These are all good ideas. The best idea is to see what the sponsor wants for his or her money, though. I'm a sponsor of a race team and what I want is to hang around the cars, see my name on a car on the track, and maybe get a chance to play with the toys. I consider it money well spent. One of my clients has just finished up a sponsorship deal and he was very frustrated with it because he never heard anything from the pilote except that he had broken something and needed more money. He had no idea how the guy was spending his money and began to suspect he was sending all the bills to that one sponsor, although judging by what it costs to race, he was probably wrong about that. Anyway he ended the sponsorship because he wasn't getting any feedback, only bills. The moral of that story I guess is: A little judicious grovelling never did any harm.

[Peter Mallett]

How about a little judicous grovelling by proxy for me Liz?

You are right of course. I run stories which I send via fax, e mail, snail mail to various journos. The stories tell them whose sponsoring me and what I did on my weekend. All very boring to journos but good for sponsors.

[Liz]

He sponsored an Indy Lights pilote too, and the guy is going up to Champ Cars this year, I just heard that. So we are talking real money here. I tried to talk to him about giving the money to me, but he is right now rather like a man who has just got out of a bad marriage. I will try him again later when he has cooled off....