Creating Your Sponsorship Resume
Paintball is an expensive sport that can greatly benefit from creating relationships and friends. Paintball sponsorship is about these relationships and developing mutual partnerships with businesses. Presenting yourself to potential sponsors successfully requires hard work and some planning.
Your personal, or team, paintball resume speaks volumes about who you are. Sending a broken "leet" sentence asking for "free stuff" will result in a return of equal effort. Take the time to understand and build a quality resume that communicates who you are and why you want to build a relationship with the sponsor.
Now is the best time to start your resume!
"I just want the free stuff now. Why don't they just give me the stuff now?" If this is how you think, it may be because your parents don't believe in spanking. Building a resume takes time and you need to show genuine value in who you are. It's about the relationship and developing long term results.
We are not the experts on creating the world's best resume, but we'll talk about how we approach resume creation. Take from this what you want, but keep learning from other sources and don't stop updating and building onto your resume.
If you don't have a resume yet, "now" is always the best time to start. Create a folder on your computer and start a document like MS Office or Open Office. Or use a cloud office system like Google Documents.
Start with a profile by filling in your basic information; name, headshot, age, address, phone, email. Example:
- John Doe - 17 Years Old
- 555 State Street
- Frozen Nut, Alaska 55555
- (555)555-5555
- john.doe@example.com
Repeat this process for each member of your team.
Then make it personal by adding a brief summary of where you play and what you love about paintball. You want your potential sponsors to see that you're a real person and not just another request for sponsorship and "free stuff".
I started playing paintball 3 years ago at my brother's birthday party. I quickly got my friends to start playing and now we are regulars at XYZ Paintball Field in Frozen Nut, Alaska. Although I started playing woodsball, I recently discovered speedball when my local field ran a beginner tournament. I've since created a team with 4 of my best friends and we're signed up to play the Frozen Nut Paintball League this year.
Add some information about what you or your team stands for and what you've been doing that shows a contribution to the sport or your community.
We've been working on creating a paintball league at my school and we're currently working with local law enforcement to create a paintball safety awareness clinic. We feel the future of paintball is dependent on what current paintball players contribute now.
Another great thing to add is how you relate to this sponsors products(or service). Add a paragraph about how you use their products or how their products have helped you to become a better player.
XYZ energy drink has helped our team at every tournament by increasing our intensity and endurance on the field. Our motivation to take control of the field has improved by giving us the burst of energy required to get from bunker to bunker quickly. Others have seen our improved capabilities and followed suit by using your product.
Next step: brag. List the events you've entered and the results. They don't all have to be wins, most sponsors are more concerned about your level of involvement in the sport. Then list the events you're planning on attending this year and add the estimated costs of each event onto the list. This will give them an idea of what kind of costs you're expecting for the season.
- May 25th, 2010 - Super Cool Tournament - 123 Paintball Field - 5th overall
- June 14th, 2010 - Bob's Tournament - Bob's Paintball Field - 3rd overall - Sportsman ship award.
- July 21st, 2010 - Splat Tournament - 123 Paintball Field - 1st
- August 31st, 2010 - The Scenario Event - Frozen Nut Field - Awarded: Scenario Team Most Likely To Succeed
- October 5th, 2010 - Bob's Payback Tournament - 3rd overall
- April 20th, 2011 - Sack'em Tournament - 1st Place
- June 11th, 2011 - 24hour Scenario Event - Sportsmanship Award
- August 22nd, 2011 - Hit & Run Tournament - 5th Overall
- October 2nd, 2011 - Frozen Nut Event - 3rd Place
Events Planned For 2012:
- April 23rd, 2012 - Bob's Paintball Field - 3 man tournament, $100 entry, 3-4 cases of paintballs @$50 each.
- May 24th, 2012 - Bob's Paintball Field - 5 man open tournament, $150 entry fee, 5-6 cases of paintballs @ $50 each.
- June 5th, 2012 - XYZ Paintball Field - 5 man scramble tournament, $250 entry fee, 5-6 cases of paintballs @ $60 each.
- More to come.
The tricky part can be your expectations on what to ask for. If you're not a pro team on the face of every magazine, don't expect much. Think of sponsorships as long term relationships that you can contribute value to each year. Maybe the first year will just be agreeing that you work together with a slight discount on their products. The second year, maybe they'll pay for a tournament or increase the discount.
Do not expect them to pay your way or give you "free stuff". If that's what you're expecting you've got a lot to learn about sponsorship.
Include your team's website URL. It's often a great source for talking about what you do and what events you've played. It's also a super place to advertise any sponsors.
When you get your resume ready to go, create a spreadsheet and list companies that you will submit it to. Keep track of what companies respond, whether it be positive or negative. Keep the spreadsheet running for the following years so you can refer back as to where you got responses from.
A Team resume is a constantly developing thing that takes hard work and dedication. Don't get overwhelmed or discouraged if it seems too big of a task. Get everyone on your team to contribute and remember to keep track of your team's activities. If you can do that you'll be on your way to a sponsorship.
Posted by Redwood on 02/03/2012
Also see:
Paintball Sponsorships
Does your team deserve a Paintball Sponsorship
Looking for Paintball Sponsorship
