Last week, we talked about finding conference sponsors from your local network, working with local businesses. Today, let’s talk about being your own sponsor.
 |
| Adele McAlear shared her experience with local sponsors on last week’s post |
Why put your conference attendance into someone else’s hands? Take charge and send yourself to the event. If it is worth attending, isn’t it worth sponsoring yourself?
Here’s how:
1. Total up all your expenses for the trip.
Airfare or transportation, hotel, conference registration, meals, pocket money, and anything else that you’ll have to pay.
2. Figure how much you’ll need to save per month.
Count the number of months between now and the conference. Divide your total expenses into monthly amounts.
3. Make a plan to get there.
Figure out a way to dedicate some revenue to your conference fund.
- Offer a special sale.
- Put one item on sale, and dedicate profit from it to your fund.
- Set aside a percentage of all your sales.
- Commit to an extra hour of work each week.
- Make and hold one extra selling appointment per week.
Let your customers know what your purpose is. You’ll be surprised who is willing to spend a bit extra to help out, while still getting a good deal for themselves.
4. Not enough time? Start now for next year.
Yes, a full year out. If that’s what it takes, do it.
How do you find the money to attend conferences?
Next week: How to earn your conference costs back, or getting the most out of conferences and events before you ever leave the house.
New to SmallBizSurvival.com? Take the Guided Tour. Like what you see? Get our updates.
- About the Author
- Latest by this Author
Becky started Small Biz Survival in 2006 to share rural business and community building stories and ideas with other small town business people. She and her husband have a small cattle ranch and are lifelong entrepreneurs. Becky is an international speaker on small business and rural topics.
Becky-
The title brought me here. “Sponsor Yourself!” Those two words are enough to elicit a cheer from me. Strange to say, though-such are the dynamics of “thought”- as I read this post my mind turned in the direction of finding other sponsors for my work of bringing my Mozart recordings into the environments and ears of more children. I just haven’t “gotten out there” enough. And although this is not exactly the same as creating a fund for sending myself to a conference, there are parallels- Woke me up, well, Wayne, if you are after getting such sponsors for your “Mozart Goes to School” as you had in California, you had best shake yourself loose and contact the same organizations here as you did there – speak to Rotary, Kiwanis, Mayors’ Breakfasts, and more-go into local businesses. Together with such sponsors we succeeded in placing a 5 CD Mozart set in each and every classroom in each and every public school in many cities in California. I am dragging butt on this here. Why? Well, I pretty much have to overcome some inertia!
Well, I got way off subject, but somehow not off track.
Thanks for the occasion to give myself a pep talk.
Wayne
This is so timely! I was just advising a friend (and client) yesterday that she should start saving now for BWE in the fall. Needless to say I just forwarded this on to her. Thanks, Becky!
Wayne, I think you are right on target: you know what you want to do. Now make the plan to get there. You might find some other ideas you can use in the post on finding local sponsors from last week.
Merlene, thank you for sharing it! That’s exactly why I wrote it.