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Pre-Race Prep - The Sponsorship Plan of Attack
Create Your Budget - Do I Need $5 or $10 Million?
So, speaking of finances, this is a good spot to talk about one of the main points of this whole racing sponsorship search - figuring out how much money you need so you know how much to go ask for. Remember as you are going through this, that your budget doesn't have to be down to the penny. You just want to get a real good idea of what you will need, taking unexpected expenses into account as well. If you don't know yet what some budget items may cost, you may want to add researching and finding out to your short-term goal list.
Anyway, here's a list of the basic items you might want to plan for. Of course, only budget for those items that may apply to your situation, and you may know of other expenses that haven't been listed.
Aluminum, Carbon Fiber and More
- Race car
- An additional race car for your team
- A new race car for a higher level series you are looking to move to
- Race car transporter
- Engines, transmissions
- Spare parts
- Fuel and fluids
- Tires (lots of them)
- Racing suit, helmet, gloves, shoes, etc...
- Team uniforms
- Tools
Fees, Fees and Did I Say Fees
- Race entry fees
- Track testing cost
- Racing schools and licensing
- Racecar maintenance and repairs (No - nobody ever damages a racecar, do they?)
- Race club membership fees
- Racing series fees
- Travel, food and lodging expenses
- Transporter fuel and maintenance
The Big Giant Purple Gorilla - Promotional Costs
- Marketing materials
- Race car and transporter painting and graphics
- Back-up funds for extra painting and graphics if your car is damaged
- Sponsor hospitality events
- Other promotional activities like show car events and trade shows
And finally the all-inclusive, miscellaneous, just-a-little-bit-of-an-extra-cushion amount just to cover anything else that might pop up.
That should give you a pretty good idea of what kind of budget you will need. Again, this is just a target to make sure you at least planned for all contingencies. I would recommend using a program like Quicken, QuickBooks, or Microsoft Money to set up your budget and keep track of your income and expenses. The more you run your team like a business (and it really is a business), the more professional you will appear to sponsors, thereby increasing your odds of sponsorship success.
And by the way, don't think that you can't go out and get more sponsorship dollars than your budget. Believe it or not, most businesses strive to do this, and they call it making a profit. Your race team is providing professional marketing and advertising services to other businesses just like any other advertising firm that is in the yellow pages. You deserve to make a profit too. Plan on it and then use the extra money for next year's season, moving up to the next racing series, buying more spare parts, or just taking a vacation.
Next section: When Do You Start - Go there now!
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