Sponsorship for myself?

This is a problem lots of people face when doing events. I'm going to explain a few things that way you can understand. The reason why athletes get sponsors is because they are placed in events, some are very large events that attract many people. Everyone from BMX riders, skate boarders, football players to yes even the guy who wants to jump 10 busses on his motocross bike all look for sponsors to make events happen or throw some quick cash in their pocket.

Keep these things in mind when looking to pitch to a sponsor.

1. If your going to do any crazy stunts like jumping from roof to roof, anything that has to with fire or anything daring or life threatening you must have took the proper safety matures to pull something like this off. Did you know even a local circus has to do walk through with local fire officials and display proper insurance before doing any show, even just a simple radio station fly away or party bus needs to at least have their winners sign a quick waver before getting on a bus or Plane. Example: Say I win a party bus to my favorite artist who will be doing a live concert 2 hours away. The only way I could see them is by jumping on a party bus to see them and get my back stage tickets.

Let's say I do get on their but the station didn't have me sign a quick waver and the bus crashes on the way to the concert. Let's say I live but have a broken leg, one of my ribs is broken too and I have a bunch of cuts on my face. You know dam well I am going to want the radio stations to cover my hospital bills and I might have to sue them to get that money out of them.

This also will apply at any crazy stunt shows I want to attend, let's say I went to check out that crazy monster tuck show and out of nowhere the dam tuck fly’s over his mark point and lands on me and a couple of dozen people on the crash. This will be a law suit too.

Let's say you pull off you daring stunt show and get a bunch of people to your local event, let’s say you get sponsored by a local clothing company that your buddy owns and even get a local radio and TV station to attend. Let's say you're jumping threw a hoop of fire using a dirt bike and you're going to do it using a blind fold through the whole thing. Let's say something goes wrong and you don't hit your mark and smash into the hoop of fire and you and the hoop fly into a large crowd of people.

These people are going to want to get some kind of money from you, the clothing company and even the TV or Radio station because they told them it was safe to attend this event.

When approaching companies for sponsorship you must have reliable insurance to do these types of events or no one will want to sponsor you.

2. Take the proof of insurance to show to the company you are pitching sponsorship to.

3. Have a good marketing plan to show your sponsor. You will do so by mentioning the following in the marketing plan.

a. Who are you, type out a cool bio in the marketing plan to show your sponsors that you're meant for this type of stuff leading to the past events you have participated in to insure them you're not new to this and you’re a pro at this! Try and mention something to make them feel just by mentioning yor name on an event will help attract a bunch of people!

b. Make sure to highlight past events with dates, number of people that attended and how much you thing each event generated. They are going to want to see 500 + people attend this event. Example: Let's say 1000 people were lined up around your corner just to get a free autograph from Mr. Potato Head. That’s 1000 people more that will be exposed to any signage at that event. Companies call this, "Estimated Consumer Impressions". All in all, how many people do you think saw Mr. Potato Head? What would be even cooler if he was wearing a "AMP Energy Drink" T-Shirt or Hat! I bet you more than half of the people are going to go out and buy some AMP Energy Drink just because they think it was cool.

C. Make sure to mention any upcoming events that you have scheduled within this year to show them your staying busy at this career and its solid. This will assure them that you will continue to promote their logo at each event. While mentioning each of these events make sure to estimate how much people are set to attend each event. If this is a special event, make sure to mention an equivalent event that happened and mention the outcome! If this is an annual event, make sure to mention last year’s event and what was the outcome. Try and list at least 3 to 4 years of the annual events outcome. What they are going to look for is how many people attended this event Vs the year before. They will want to see growth in every year to assure a stable market they are investing in. That's how the "UFC" did it buddy!

d. Last in your list, you're going to have to break down your sponsorship packs. Example: Package 1, Package 2 and Package 3. Each package will allow each company to do more signage then the other. Like Your wear their logo's for 1 to 2 years at all of your events, Another package will say will not only include their logo like package 1, but package 2 will insure them you’re going to post up a banner at each of their events and package 3 will do signage on you, banners at every event and you'll have a street teat distribute giveaways at all of your events. Make sure you include you will mention them at all of your newspaper, TV and Radio interviews because this will have promotional value and will always seem appealing to them as sponsors.

Keep in mind when getting sponsors, let’s say you have an event scheduled for 8 months down the year and you just so happen to get sponsored my "AMP Energy Drink", if the event is sponsored by Red Bull or Monster...you can count on not attending that event. You're going to have to research the heck out of each event you’re going to attend and find out if they are going to allow you to do what you are promising to your sponsors like venue signage for the banners and even just wearing their logo's or passing out anything at all. If you can't do it inside and you do it outside? Will they allow you to have a booth or a table and so on...

The key thing to keep in mind is, you can get any sponsor you want as long as you fall into the demand they are looking for. Make sure to only pitch sponsorship deals to companies that only target the type of events you will do or attend. It won’t make sense to get a sponsorship deal from "Play School Toy's" if you're going to be street stunts. Think energy drinks, street apparel companies and head phone companies. Music...Street and Drinks!!!

Good Luck Buddy!