So you want to race…
You aren’t alone. Support can come in many ways, be it family or your own finances, but assuming you don’t have thousands burning a hole in your pocket, you already know that sponsorship is something almost all racers need.
We’ve all been there, you’re at a race and see the stickers and logos plastered across buggies, cars, bikes, and trailers. These can sometimes come with the purchase of parts, but if they’re on a race machine, it signifies that you’re a sponsored rider and you are a part of the company that you represent. Your words and actions while sporting those stickers and logos show people what you and the company are all about – this is something that Sponsors focus on when choosing riders, your character.
But how do you get those stickers?
One word: Sponsorship
Easy, ya? Not exactly. When starting out, it can be tricky to navigate how to create a resume. You can find examples, but usually for corporate jobs, less often for race resumes. When you do google racing resume, you get a boatload of boring word documents with nothing spectacular that grabs your attention. Imagine having fifty, a hundred, a thousand of those sitting at your desk.
So how do I make a sponsorship resume – that gets looked at?
Almost every company, especially those in the industry, have a sponsorship budget. If not that, then a marketing budget. There is a person or team usually dubbed, Rider Support, who make the selection on racers who will best represent the company. There are usually levels or tiers of sponsorship ranging anywhere from discounts to free product to factory support – obviously the most sought after.
The goal for any of these is to keep your resume in their pile and out of the garbage.
Let’s start with the basics:
- Name
- Email Address
- City
- State
- Phone Number
It’s important for racers to tell a company how to get in touch with them, but even more, who they are. A short bio about you as a person, you as a racer, what drives you, and WHY you deserve a sponsorship.
First of all, do not even consider handwriting your resume. Make sure you at least use a good word-processor and spell check it.
You can’t expect a company to put in effort and money toward you, if you aren’t even going to put in the best effort for yourself.
Before you write down that your biggest passion is racing – stop. Everyone’s biggest passion is racing. This isn’t going to make you stand out. What is your second biggest passion? Bonus points if its charity based, or an activity that aligns well with the company. Find how you’re different and talk about that.
Then talk about your few biggest accomplishments in racing – the best racers are not the only ones who get sponsored, believe me, so you don’t need to get into all the nitty, gritty details of every single win you’ve had or why you didn’t make the podium that time.
Another extremely important thing to include is high-quality photos. Ideally, a headshot, one of your machine, and an action shot. Do yourself a favor and do not screenshot these photos or save them off of Facebook. People notice quality and will respect the effort you put in for a few good photos.
Companies typically are assessing their next year’s expenses and where to spend their money between October to December. The sooner you get your resume in during that timeframe, the better, but its not impossible to get success with a late submission.
Go the extra mile
You’ve collected your best photos, your best accomplishments, and written about the best parts of yourself, so how do you take it to the next level?
Be sure to mention where you will be racing next season. For example, if you’re planning on racing the full GNCC schedule, then put that. If you aren’t participating in a full series, put that you’ll be participating in selected National competitions.
Some of these series have demographic and turn out numbers – these are important to companies so they know what the audience looks like. For example, Lucas Oil Offroad Racing Series has a large majority of truck owners – Would be a nice thing to include if you were looking for a sponsorship from a tire company, right?
When designing our Deluxe Resumes, we work with our contacts In the series to ask for this information to include on the resume.
Want to punch your resume up even more? Write out how you plan on promoting your potential sponsors. Will you share their products on Instagram? Talk about them at the track? Wear their gear? Don’t forget that your job is to help companies just as much as you want them to help you. This is a partnership. Not a “give me money” relationship.
Review
Send your resume to someone or even a few people to look over. Spelling errors, weird sentences, and incorrect information isn’t a good look when you’re trying to look your best. It’s easy to miss something when you already know what you’re trying to say. A fresh set of eyes an help catch mistakes and make sure it’s perfect before sending out.
Voila!
You’re more or less ready to send this bad boy out!
Stay tuned for our blog on the ins and outs of sending your resume!
Seem like a lot of work? It is!
That’s why we’re offering to do it for you. Click the button below to get started.