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PRI Attendees Profit From Seminars On Sponsorship, Marketing And Best Business Practices
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Savvy racing business and team owners devoted to taking their operations up a notch or two flocked to Saturday morning’s PRI Business Management Seminars, where record crowds learned about strategies for business growth through creative marketing, attracting sponsorships, and running a more efficient and profitable engine shop.
Those who realized that businesses don’t promote themselves took away a wealth of tips from “Fueling High Performance In Your Business,” conducted by Christine Corelli of Christine Corelli & Associates. The veteran industry speaker and business columnist led a fast-faced, interactive session examining critical factors for business growth, including easy, practical tips for marketing in the digital age.
Those who specialize in building race engines filled the seats to hear famed builder Jay Dickens’ “Running A Successful Race Engine Business,” to learn what has put Jay Dickens Racing Engines at the top of the dirt late model market
“You always want to find out what other guys in the industry are doing,” stated John Stefko of Stefko Racing Engines, Stouffville, Ontario, Canada. “I’ve been doing this for 30 years now, and all of us builders continue to learn a lot from each other.”
Coming at it from a younger perspective, Marshall Collins of Houston attended because he plans to open his own engine shop soon. A student at the School of Automotive Machinists, Collins, like most aspiring builders, has already started a small business out of his garage. “This guy has built a successful business, and I came to learn how he did it. This has taught me a lot,” he said.
It was standing-room only for renowned motorsports marketing mentor and sponsorship attraction coach Annamarie Malfitana-Strawhand, who presented a dynamic session titled “How To Attract All The Sponsors & Opportunities Racers Need.” Based on proven ideas from her books, videos and boot camps with up-and-coming racers, Malifitana-Strawhand served up a step-by-step lesson in what it takes to engage potential sponsors in a rapidly changing marketplace.
“You can’t just sit and wait for the good old days to come back, when being a good driver was enough to get a ride,” she said. “It’s all about showing sponsors who you are and that you have a clear plan on where you’re going so they want to go with you.”
Many parents and young racers attended together, including Richard Gerber and son Jarrett of McCreary Motorsports in Ashville, Ohio. Jarrett has just moved up from qurarter-midgets to sprints, and the increased costs led them to Malifitana-Strawhand’s seminar to learn to market their team more effectively.
“We’re spending 10 times what we were before, so we’re here to learn how to get some help for next year,” said Richard. “Jarrett has a great story to tell, he’s a brain cancer survivor and one of his big goals in life is to race a sprint car at Eldora. We don’t tell a lot of people about the cancer, but this showed us that it’s part of the story we have to tell sponsors.”
As they left the session, Jarrett told us he was ready to go home and build his own website, as well as meet with folks he knows at his local speed shop to test out his new self-promotion skills.
Those who realized that businesses don’t promote themselves took away a wealth of tips from “Fueling High Performance In Your Business,” conducted by Christine Corelli of Christine Corelli & Associates. The veteran industry speaker and business columnist led a fast-faced, interactive session examining critical factors for business growth, including easy, practical tips for marketing in the digital age.
Those who specialize in building race engines filled the seats to hear famed builder Jay Dickens’ “Running A Successful Race Engine Business,” to learn what has put Jay Dickens Racing Engines at the top of the dirt late model market
“You always want to find out what other guys in the industry are doing,” stated John Stefko of Stefko Racing Engines, Stouffville, Ontario, Canada. “I’ve been doing this for 30 years now, and all of us builders continue to learn a lot from each other.”
Coming at it from a younger perspective, Marshall Collins of Houston attended because he plans to open his own engine shop soon. A student at the School of Automotive Machinists, Collins, like most aspiring builders, has already started a small business out of his garage. “This guy has built a successful business, and I came to learn how he did it. This has taught me a lot,” he said.
It was standing-room only for renowned motorsports marketing mentor and sponsorship attraction coach Annamarie Malfitana-Strawhand, who presented a dynamic session titled “How To Attract All The Sponsors & Opportunities Racers Need.” Based on proven ideas from her books, videos and boot camps with up-and-coming racers, Malifitana-Strawhand served up a step-by-step lesson in what it takes to engage potential sponsors in a rapidly changing marketplace.
“You can’t just sit and wait for the good old days to come back, when being a good driver was enough to get a ride,” she said. “It’s all about showing sponsors who you are and that you have a clear plan on where you’re going so they want to go with you.”
Many parents and young racers attended together, including Richard Gerber and son Jarrett of McCreary Motorsports in Ashville, Ohio. Jarrett has just moved up from qurarter-midgets to sprints, and the increased costs led them to Malifitana-Strawhand’s seminar to learn to market their team more effectively.
“We’re spending 10 times what we were before, so we’re here to learn how to get some help for next year,” said Richard. “Jarrett has a great story to tell, he’s a brain cancer survivor and one of his big goals in life is to race a sprint car at Eldora. We don’t tell a lot of people about the cancer, but this showed us that it’s part of the story we have to tell sponsors.”
As they left the session, Jarrett told us he was ready to go home and build his own website, as well as meet with folks he knows at his local speed shop to test out his new self-promotion skills.
