Kiwi Biker Scholarship?

[Deano]

sponsorship is not easy to get but it is achievable.

i get a fairly significant portion of my annual racing costs paid for - you've got to make your pitch to the right people - look for opportunities where you can reciprocate and give something back. this strategy as well as just playing the numbers and sending out your cv.

biggles is excellent at getting sponsorship and proven it can be done - put in some effort and you will achieve something at least - every little bit helps

as much as some of my sponsors would like to come and watch the racing, not many have taken up this offer so that is not cruciual to everyone. they still enjoy reading the race reports though.

[ajturbo]

Merv is right on it.
Cash handouts, scholarships and exclusive little training groups are proven as a waste of time. Well proven in the south is that all that's needed is for clubs to create the right environment. Once that's done it'll thrive. There's no shortage of young riders, talent and money. Why people outside of Canterbury persist in ignoring this proven simple formula and try to reinvent the wheel puzzles me.

From MY personal experience with this I agree with Peter...

What the Vic club used to do was a good idea,
but now that i have "been there and done that" i can see the pitfalls...

If this gets off the ground, the riders MUST have some sort of checks and targets to aim for.. or the bike is lost to them...
and for targets I mean
* Lapp times, (that are pre-set for the year)
* report writing ( and fronting up with a verbal account)
* personal presentation

ETC

if these things are all in place....i think there would be too much money coming ...!

[trev]

In New Zealand the model you need to buy into is attracting a patron/mentor. Someone with money and an interest in YOU as well as some interest in the sport who would rather enjoy being invovled in the journey (The 'ride' as it were) than paying tax.

etc. etc. etc.

.

As a former sponsor who put up reasonably serious money let me say the above post has a lot of truth to it.

[schrodingers cat]

As a former sponsor who put up reasonably serious money let me say the above post has a lot of truth to it.

What else would you tell the hopefuls?

[oyster]

"This is where young people and money on the whole fall down. Accustomed to being given everything they think that it is their unbelievable talent that is being rewarded, take the money and complain.[/QUOTE]"

Most of Shrodingles Dog's post is pretty right, but not this bit. I've worked with probably a hundred teenagers (and younger) in Road Racing in the last ten years and a big part of the job is explaining how sponsorship works. For pretty well all of them it's such a foreign concept they don't easily get it straight away.
None of them have been "stuck up" as described above. What they are is quite the opposite. Most of them hide it best they can , but they actually rate their performances much lower than they should. As a result they shun support when they're offered it (don't think they're worth it) and when they get it their sense of under achievement invariably makes them slow to respond by recognising the sponsor.
Some I've worked with have made dramatic changes once that's been explained and they get the confidence to phone up a supporter after a meeting, and even if the the results were pretty ordinary, they speak confidently about their exploits. As
Shrodinger said, that's usually the main reward a sponsor wants.

[Shaun]

As a former sponsor who put up reasonably serious money let me say the above post has a lot of truth to it.

You put up very serious money Trev, thanks for being who you are

[schrodingers cat]

None of them have been "stuck up" as described above.

My point was that anyone who gives you any support whatsoever need to become your new BBF (best friends forever). Genuinely.

Because not every report is going to be rosy. And endless excuses and 'spin' are tiresome.

The better you can understand your sponsor's motivations and what they like the stronger the relationship grows.

Ultimately you want a situation where, if they decide that they can no longer continue support, that the door is open for the future.

In your case the youngsters have the benefit of you drilling them. Look at the sport as a whole and ask yourself how many sponsors you've seen 'burnt' over the years?

[neil_cb125t]

Prize money extinct??
I arranged $1000 for the 600 class at the Manfeild nationals, stood up at riders briefing and asked all competitors in the class to wear a sponsors sticker as they needed looking after and they were at the track too.
One third of them did not bother to display a sticker for the first race.
You can lead a horse to water....

Yep that was AWESOME - I was meaning Consistant prize money, like what Wanganui USED to put on

[oyster]

Thanks Schrodinger, we're now in total agreeance! Thanks for your input.