Squeegee Kids – Entrepreneurs?

When we moved to Montreal, it was the first time I had actually lived right in “the big city”. Originally I’m from a small town just outside of Toronto, and later in a commuter town just on the outskirts of the the M25 in London England after I got married.

Needless to say part of me is thankful that I don’t have to have day to day dealings with the squeegee kids and homeless anymore here in Quebec since moving “off the island” unfortuntatly it leaves the other part of me being a tad blase about it, I blame that on having always lived so close to the big city. In the past (specifically on this blog) I’ve admited to pretty much being a snot-nosed stuck up holy-ier than thou heartless bitch. And heck I’m not afraid or ashamed to admit it again.

The downtown core of Montreal, espeically near the latin quarter (Think St Catherine and St Laurent) There are a ton of squeegee kids. In your face and abrassive squeegee kids. I’ve found that the random times I need to go right down town to pick up or drop off Colin as soon as I get off the highway I lock my doors, and make sure my windows are rolled up. Why? Not so much out of fear, more because I’d prefer not to have any confrontation.

I believe there is a big difference between homeless people and squeegee kids. The main difference, is obviously where they dwell. So many of these squeegee kids are young people looking to make some cash, most have a place with mommy and daddy to go home to. I’m not saying this as gospel, I’m saying this out of experience.

Recently, on one of my last jaunts to the city to get my husband I got stopped at the corner of Sherbrooke and St Laurent – right by the Just for Laughs theatre. There to my ammusement was a very clean shaven, newly hair dyed squeegee kid with a brand new squeegee, expensive trainers and designer jeans. He got to the window of my car and I flagged him away. He wiped the car windshield anyways and stood waiting to be paid for an job I didn’t want him to do. I watched him wipe his wet hands on his designer jeans. I sighed, thinking about my sister who had saved to buy the same pair of jeans a few months eariler for a friend who was a boy or a boyfriend of hers. I remembered my sister, who is a tad bit more into the label scene of fashion, and I as we stood motionless, heads pressed back stared up at the denim wall for a short eternity. humming and hawwing, and then finally a decision was made and a pair of jeans was purchased. At the till the friendly wrurrring of the register alerted my sister to her total, $257.45. Why does this squeegee kid need the coffee and tea soaked rusted pennies inside the drink holders of my car, heck I can’t afford designer jeans, I should have asked him to spot me a tenner.

Then there are the homeless, in major cities like Montreal – and especially in Canadian cities, there isn’t much reason for one to be actually on the street. Without a home of your own, sure. But on the streets, no.I watched a show on the news last year talking about how only half of the beds in shelters are used.I find it difficult to be sensitive to street people for that reason. Get yourselves off the street, get a good meal, get some training, get a job. . . . There is no overnight solution for homlessness – and they’ll have to work on it, but the services are there, they just aren’t making use of them.

I also think there are two tiers of homeless people, people down on their luck who have the motivation to make change. And then secondly, the people who abuse whats given to them, and berrate those who have better than them.

An example of the later is the one-armed, one-legged homesless man in Montreal. Montrealers know the guy by face. He is one of the most imfamous homesless people in Montreal, next to the Spoonman in front of Oglives. During the evenings he stands outside the exit doors of the Paramount movie theatre downtown near Peel metro. He stands close enough to the doors to be hit or nudged, so you have to as a polite human say ‘excuse me’ or ‘pardon me’ or sorry if you hit him. He has perfected his stance and stare and gives you a burning look if you don’t drop toonies and loonies into his worn hat. I suspect in a night he gets $100 or more. Maybe I should ask him for a tenner!

A little over a year ago, in one of my quests to ‘pay it forward’ I decided to give the homeless young people at the park at the corner of St Catherine and Berri, near Place Dupuis, a couple coupons for free bags of dog food for their dogs. (All of them had at least one dog!). The head of this group looked at the coupon for one of those grocery store dog foods and said to me in a crossed voice “We don’t feed that crap to our dogs”. This bothered me for a slew of reasons 1) Beggers can’t be choosers, if they were homeless, they really did need that food 2) If they were homeless, they would have though about the fact they could have returned the food for cash! 3) What the heck were they feeding these dog in the first place if the “best” grocery store food was considered crap? Perhaps they to have a secret stash of cash, maybe I should have asked them for a tenner.

Now all that being said, you can obviously see that I don’t give money to homeless kids with dogs, homesless people in general, and most definalty not to the squeegee kids. I do however quiet often throw a few tuppances into the boxes of street performers and buskers. Why? Because they have a skill and are doing something for the money, and most do it out of love of their hobby and not of of spite or just for the heck of it. . . I might even be inclined to give them a tenner!

Spamerator

Today I got SPAMMED on my Blackberry.  I never get spammed on my Blackberry. I received 657 copies of the same email from “Tom Flores” about getting cheap Cialis and Lunesta.

Well, I appreicate that Tom felt it was so important that I know about this fabulous deal of only $4.99 per 200mg!!!!!!  Isn’t that a bargin!

 The only thing that concerns me about this great deal (besides the fact that in truth the Cialis is wasted on me, as I don’t have the equipment or the dysfunction to warrant its use) is the fact that if I did need it, and I was also using the Lunesta as well- I might be too tired or even alseep to even enjoy the Cialis. . . .what a shame!

What ever Happened to the Good Ol’ Traditional Christmas Card?

Don’t you just love opening your mailbox seeing all the brightly coloured envelopes, fancied with stickers and other glitter. . . . .I love getting mail!

I’ve been quite disapointed this year with the number of Christmas cards I’ve received. . . .but for the record, its not that I have been forgotten. . . .

I have gotten a HUGE number of ‘Email Greeting Cards’ this year. . . .

WTF!

Do people just not have the time, the money, the resources? Man, if I can find the time to do them, it should be easy-peasy for anyone really. . . .Or should I be proud that the special ‘older’ people in my life choosing to embrase the internet revolution?

I pride myself on having personalized Christmas cards made, (with pictures of the moggies of course) each with a quick little handwritten message.

Each card stamped, sealed, stickered. . . . I even have Colin sign them. (I sign for the cats)

My opinion is that email Greeting Cards are an “extra” you send your family or friends, or something you send to your ‘cyber’ friends. . . .They shouldn’t be sent in lieu of a card to your family and friends . . . . .

Immigration.

I’m going to get all controversal for this posting. And I believe I have more right to have this opinion because I have been an “Immigrant” myself.

Canada is too lax. Canada lets too many people into the country.

I moved to England when I got married. I was an immigrant in a ‘forgien country’. Now granted I had an advantage that most immigrants don’t have – I spoke the countries native language as my own first language.

Now that being said, I had to make a VERY conscience choice on the wording I used, and had to change many saying I said so that people understood what I was saying. I also needed to learn how to pronounce things out, again, so the natives understood me.

I went to great lengths to make sure I was not making communicating with me difficult for anyone.

The first place I lived in when I was in England was a primarily Muslim community (In fact, I lived less than 3 minutes from the largest Mosque in Europe), and although I did have issues with the neigbourhood, let me first start off by praising a few things I loved about it. The weddings, everyone looked so gleeful and the celebrations were very lavish, up and down the streets with everyone following like a parade. Lots of fireworks. They were all very devout, the community as a whole really did work hard at their spirtual lives.

The negatives, because I am a ‘white person’ in their ‘neigbourhood’ they would not look at me in the face, nor would they move aside on the sidewide when I passed them. They also would not speak English to me in the convienence stores.

In retrospect, if Colin and I had know that about the area before we moved in, we might have looked elsewhere to live.

As an immigrant in the UK I had to wait in huge lines to get visas. (I believe by my calculations I spent a total of 20 hours in lines waiting at customs over the few visits I had to make) . I was also treated in some instances like a second class citizen because I was not British. . . even to the end of my time there, with a steady paycheque.. . . they still held all my cheques for 10 business days to clear.

Now back to Canada.

I am totally frustrated at the lack of respect these people have for this country.

Canada is very respectful to their native culture and customs, and very generous rules have been created to allow these people to keep an identity.

I think its important to always remember where you came from, but its VERY important that you make things easier for the people who are actually from that Country.

The language divide is bar-none the thing that frustrates me the most. Canada even gives you two options for language. . . .

. . . . . .will add more later. . . . .

Can the Spam

My beef with Spam is not that I receive it. Believe it or not.

I work in customer service and some of the addresses for CS for our various products are set to go to my inbox, and many of those addresses are available right online and because of that I get on average 500 emails a day, I’m not complaining, its a nessasary evil. Honestly I don’t mind.

What I do hate, or perhaps what I don’t understand, is why I get hundreds of emails about Viagra, Hoodia, Cilalis or penis englargments and no way of contacting said company if I am trying interested in getting the product.

No links or Phone numbers and of course the reply email doesn’t work. How do people buy their stuff?

What about the emails just don’t make sense. . . three lines of jibberish key tapping, followed by something about a blue monkey, dishsoap and a bent spoke from a bike.

What do these type of Spam messages mean? Who is gathering information? Should I be wearing a helmet made of tinfoil?

The other one that gets my goat are those ones where they have discovered I’m a long lost decendant of some prince in a African country, and they need to me to basically SMUGGLE money into my country.

I’ve actually emailed several of these back, telling them to remove my F*&#ING email address from their lists. Little did I know that would make them spam me more. Once, someone replied to me saying I didn’t need to be so rude and I could have simply just ignored the email. The nerve.

Anyways, I’m off to make a SPAM burger.

Hey Gift Horse, I’m Looking at You. . . .in the mouth!

Ok, I know its poor Blogging ettiquette to blog about work on a personal blog, but I’m already guilty of it, so why stop now??

I got my Christmas bonus today.  And it blows.

For anyone who knows me, my work ethic, the amount of time I’m at the office (I work 9-5, but I generally hold hours of 8-6 at least),  the weekends I’ve come in to get extra work done, the times I front calls at home from my warehouses (weekends, 11 o’clock at night) and my general need to produce good work – I think you’ll agree that $127.84  is an absolute kick in the teeth . . . . .

Perhaps I should mention this is after the bloody taxes have been taken off . . . or does it really matter in this case?

I’m very disapointed and speechless I have nothing I can say.  So I’ll leave it as that.

Licence to Live??

I’ve been mulling this idea in my head for a while, trying to figure out how I wanted to branch it for my Blog.  In the end the ever popular mantra of “just wing it” took hold.

I think there should be more things that we have manditory training, testing and licences for.

Serveral examples are:

• Driving – any vehicule (Training should be manditory, same with repeat testing)
• Parenting
• Pet Ownership
• Marriage/Committed Relationship
• Citizenship

Although I agree that some testing might become subjective – such as “disipline” if that was a testing item for parenting – these aren’t the types of things I mean.  I’m thinking more along the lines of common sense.

I can hear you now saying if its common sense then why bother?  Simple, people commonly don’t use their common sense.

I believe that if they were trained in these nessasary “life” things,  then tested (and perhaps re-tested as a refresher later on), and given a certified licence to do said life thing, I think we would have a heck of a lot less “Jerry Springer” moments.  There are enough Jerry Springer episodes on TV to last a life time.

Imagine training people to have a dog, or a cat.  I bet the amount of puppy mills  and back yard breeders would drop as well as the overpopulation crisis.  How about the number of abandoned pets?

I’m sure the number of marriages that fail would be way less if you have periodic tests about relationships.  The Catholics have got that one right, making parishioners do “marriage classes” before their wedding.

I think people who immigrate to other countries should be re-tested for their citizenship, and quizes given to people who are naturalized to the country.  I bet patriotism would go up, people’s knowledge of history would increase and the hangers-on who truly don’t deserve to take comfort in another country would be returned to where they came from.

How about having a licence to procreate.  Only people who meet a certain test score on the “common senses” of parenting would be granted a licence to make babies.  If we only screened all parents like we do would-be adoptive parents!!

Because you’ve been granted a licence to do these things, of course there would be a chance that by breaking the laws that governed  that licence you could have it stripped away, or have fines/other punishments put onto you. 

I know there would be skeptics to this idea, citing this is another bid for a “big brother” society, but I believe that if you live well and as virtuous as you can, then you really have nothing to hide or fear about this idea. . .  . .

Conspiracy Theory: Charitable Donations.

I make make some enemies for this theory. But bear with me, I’m not all cold-hearted.

This is my rule for donations: If I make a donation to a charity, I don’t donate directly to ‘dieases’, and I much prefer local charities to national/international charities.

The reason why? I like to have some control of where my hard-earned money goes, and (the part people will hate me for) I believe there are already cures for all these diseases. (That would be the conspiracy theory part)

What if someone like Sir Richard Branson, Bill Gates, Sir Paul McCartney or any of the 48 Saudi Princes got AIDS or Cancer. How quickly do you think they would be ‘cured’?

These diseases are almost ‘natural selection’ weeding out people and controlling populations.

And then there are the jobs. Millions of people around the world make their lively hood by working in Research and Development of drugs and treatments. The doctors, nurses and therapist who deal with the sick. There are a thousand different sectors who work directly or indirectly with these diseases.

Then there is this very cynical & skeptical part of me that questions if this charity is in fact who they say they are. Think about all the ‘charities’ that popped up after the Tsunami in Thailand, or after Katrina. They say over 9 million dollars was raised by false charities after Katrina alone. And what about all the people who took advantage of the Red Cross ‘debit cards’ at the same time??

This time of year is especially rampant for charities collecting. . . my pointers are

• Donate locally whenever you can. You’ll be able to see your money at work.
• Donate to charities that your friends or family work directly with.
• Always get a receipt for your donation. Many ‘true’ charities will provide you with one, even if it cannot be used for tax purposes (usually only donations over $25.00 can be used for tax purposes)
• Donate ‘stuff’ rather than money. Clean out your cupboards of food you don’t need, clean out your closet of un-wanted clothes (launder first), shoes, books, media, old cell phones can all be donated)
• Choose a charity that is important to you and your family. Perhaps one that directly helped your family.
• Donate your TIME rather than your money. Volunteer.
• Pick a set amount you will donate for the year, choose a limited number of charities to donate to, and stick to your guns about it.

My main yearly donation is to Ronald MacDonald Houses of Canada (A House where families of terminally ill children can stay while their child is in hospital). I also donate small amounts to Children’s Wish Foundation of Canada, Children’s Literacy, Animatch Animal Rescue, and I alway buy a Poppy every year.

Switching Thanksgiving and Black Friday?

Wikipedia says that THANKSGIVING is:

Thanksgiving, or Thanksgiving Day, is an annual one-day holiday to give thanks (traditionally to a God), for the things one has at the close of the harvest season.

Wikipedia saya that BLACK FRIDAY is:

Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving in the United States, is historically one of the busiest retail shopping days of the year. Many consider it the “official” beginning to the Christmas season. Most retailers will open very early and usually provide massive discounts on their products, and offer doorbuster deals to draw people to their stores.

Let me start off by saying Happy Thanksgiving to everyone, and Happy Black Friday shopping.

Ok. . . .

I find Thanksgiving a hipocracy in the USA. It is nothing more that a day you get off work, and I’m embarrased for all Americans. All Americans.

Thanksgiving in its most tradtional sense doesn’t really apply to the average American anymore, unless you are a farmer, but the underlying theme of the original Thanksgiving meals was to give. . . . .*gasp*. . . . thanks. Heck, they built the darn work into the name of the holiday – this isn’t a hard one folks.

I watch the antics of shoppers on Black Friday on CNN and other news channels on and off every year. The profanities being shouted, the little old ladies who drop their shoulders and line drive into crowds like a defensive lineman in football scrimage, the herds of people willing to trample over their own if they lag behind. Only the strong survive!!!

Its a very very sad state of affairs. And why?

So this is what I propose. Switching the days of these two ‘holidays’. Americans would now adopt “Black Thursday” and have turkey on Friday, this would mean no break in the work week and truly a ‘long weekend’.

This would also mean that when you are sitting around your table, now nursing your ‘battle war wounds’ from a day of shopping, you can truly be THANKFUL for something. . . . . .

. . . . . Thankful you didn’t get runover, punched, kicked, knifed, shot, or simply verbally abused. Or perhaps you are thankful that you survived any/some/all of the before mentioned.

This would litterally mean putting the “THANK” back into Thanksgiving.

Its my opinion that the only people this would really throw off is Macy’s, who will now have to put their parade on one day later. . . . .

Sources:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thanksgiving

http://www.cnn.com

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Friday_%28shopping%29

I Know Who I’d Vote for if I Lived in Vermont

I’m very happy that this darn mid-term election fiasco is almost up. (What the heck are the mid-term elections for anyways?? Is that like a mid-term exam? Do they want to see how they are doing??)

Anyways, I was sitting in front of the tube with Manny doing some emailing and no word of a lie there was 10 minutes straight of elections commercials. . . .

How do Americans make an educated decision about who they elect with all that horrible drivel?

I think I’d vote for Martha Rainville. For no other reason than no one has made the Dorothy Hamill hair cut look good since, well, I suppose Dorothy Hamill. . . . .

God Hates Blogs. . . . .

Again affflicted with the Blog reading virus (while at work) I came across the below mini-article (originally posted on Cruel.com ). . . . .

Bloggers are going to hell one entry at a time, according to Kevin D. Denee of the Restored Church of God’s Ambassador Youth magazine:

Should teenagers and others in the Church express themselves to the world through blogs? Because of the obvious dangers; the clear biblical principles that apply; the fact that it gives one a voice; that it is almost always idle words; that teens often do not think before they do; that it is acting out of boredom; and it is filled with appearances of evil — blogging is simply not to be done in the Church. It should be clear that it is unnecessary and in fact dangerous on many levels.

Let me emphasize that no one — including adults — should have a blog or personal website (unless it is for legitimate business purposes).

Photo sharing is acceptable to the Restored Lord in some circumstances:

Some questions naturally arise: “Can I have a photo gallery?” For example, maybe you visited an exotic country and want to share your photos with close friends. This can be done, but certain guidelines apply. Of course, there should never be any inappropriate pictures (again, be careful of the appearance of evil); it should be private and password protected, and only shown to family and closest friends.

I’m in amazement of this statement. I feel almost guilty at this moment continuing my thought process about God (or Kevin D. Denee of the Restored Church of God’s Ambassador Youth magazine as it were) hating blogs in my blog.

I can see the value of not posting all your lifes inner workings or posting every single of the 625 personal vacation photos you took. . . .but the idea of God hating communication stumps me.. . .

I find Blogs a welcome change, a simple tidbit of daily life about someone you care about, love or are facinated by. I mean come on, how many of us really like getting great Aunt Gertrude’s 16 page Christmas letter about shuffleboard and gardening?

On a lighter note: I came across the following blog, that I have been enjoying for a few weeks now: WHAT WOULD JESUS BLOG Its a sightly satirical look at very common current issues and subjects. . .the author, Jesus,  puts it in ‘today and now’ wording. A worthwhile read.

Signal Left, Turn Right

Ok. I’ve lived in Quebec for well over a year now. I should just learn to get over it.

I just don’t understand the blatant disregard for the rules of the road here. Why can’t these people use their bloody signals?

I have made it my mission to NEVER let anyone into my lane or merge in if they don’t signal. My crusade thus far has yielded 6 middle fingers, 10 horns and 3 engine revs.

I will not rest. I will not let down. I will be vigilant.

I tell you, I grit my teeth with the gnawing feeling of road rage as it flows up through every part of my being to a near point of boiling. . . .Why does this get to me so bad???

Colin says I’m anal-retentive about the whole thing. I do however feel I must practise what I preach.

Colin is slowing becoming one of them. Forgetting to signal once in a while when turning corners, making lane changes without signalling. . .

I wonder if soon, if I too will be afflicted! I’m scared for myself.

How to Get your Team Sponsored. . . .or Laughed At

I get tons of emails every day from teams asking about how to get sponsored, or just plain looking for free stuff, some of these requests are just horrible. So one day when I must have been on my period I wrote a whole long rant about the crappy sponsorship requests I get and offered some help to teams that want to make a good first impression. If you want to see the original post made on Walk On Zone. You can find it here: http://walkonzone.com/vboard/showthread.php?p=80748#post80748

I have put the information in my blog as well (because I want to make sure I always have a copy handy for ‘cut and pasting’). Happy reading! Please feel free to repost, but please link this article as the source. Thank you.

——————————————————— ————–THE RANT————————
I know my company endeavors to answer every single sponsorship email – but sometimes you have to say to yourself ‘why bother??’
I thankfully have a sponsorship department that I can forward all the inquiries to, and wash my hands of them..I understand that you can’t bite the hand that feeds you. So in order to keep the paintball circle of life in constant orbit, we really have READ and reply to every message that comes through the in-box, even those from the poorly educated numpties in the emails I have posted for your reading ‘pleasure’ at the bottom of this blog entry . . . . .Some of these ‘requests’ are so poorly thought out; I’m embarrassed for whoever submitted it. The absolutely horrible grammar makes me cringe, although to be fair some just make me laugh!

Putting together a team is not only the preparation on and off the field for game play, its also how you present your team, how each of the members conducts themselves, and how you do (or would) represent your sponsors.

The more effort you put in each area, the more positive results you will see. . . . If you train more – your skills will improve. If you put work into a website, people (or even potential sponsors) will take notice.If you were the director at a large office 9-5 kind of company, and you had one job and two candidates perfect for that job – exactly the same in all respects – except one of them came in a suit, was neat, well groomed and spoke eloquently and the other has cow licked hair, dirty stained tube socks, crusty trousers and spoke like Cleetus the slack jaw yokel. . . .Who are you going to take seriously????Let’s just say there are a lot of crusty trousers around in the paintball industry. . . . . .

———————————————————

First thing first, think like

a Boy Scout

and BE PREPARED!

——————————————————— 1. Start off by making a list with your team:
a) what exactly does your team need? (Be realistic)
b) what sponsors would you like to have?
c) What your team can offer the sponsor in return? Stores and sites want to know what YOU can do for THEM . . .
Just putting their logo on your jersey is not really sufficient compensation. Can you do a trade stand at a local tourney series, can you work for one Saturday a month at the local field cleaning the equipment or marshalling? Can you convert all your friends to loyal ‘Brand X’ product users?. . . Sponsoring a team is not an inexpensive venture…. make sure you walk around in their shoes. . . .Also, think outside the box, no one said you have to only ask paintball related companies – and to be honest outside industry sponsors probably have more of a budget to sponsor sporting teams anyways. Remember you don’t have to take any sponsorship that is offered. Make sure you represent who you want to represent. Sponsorship without loyalty is worthless.

———————————————————

2. Create a team identity Present yourselves as a team and united front. Try to wear matching uniforms and try to coordinate your equipment. If you team looks very Rag-Tag then the potential sponsor will assume you are just a rag-tag team and that you aren’t serious players.

VERY IMPORTANT: Set out a team portfolio or website; include pictures, accomplishments, roster, equipment currently using, ages, team history, media articles, statistics, team beliefs and mantras. Training regimes can also be interesting.Be honest; don’t pad your portfolio with false information, its easy to spot.Remember you are SELLING your team. So make your portfolio as professional as you can. A website thrown together in 30 seconds will warrant a potential sponsor to spend no more than 30 seconds viewing it. I think the Dye/Proto approach is the best template for a team sponsorship portfolio.

Think of your team portfolio like a book report you did in school.Colour pictures, table of contents, a nice coversheet, binded folder. . . . .

Colour copies are inexpensive now, and most people have a publishing software at home (Use computer ‘wizards’ so you already have a report template and just fill in the blanks!)If sending your portfolio via email, make sure to convert your file to PDF format, this will allow all computers, (and even handhelds) to open your document. This will also allow you to reduce the file size so its nice and small to send. GOOD TIP: Have your parents, a teacher or other reasonably educated person read over your sponsorship portfolio before you submit it. A fresh set of eyes might catch an error you missed.

Below is the Dye Portfolio information Template: Quote:

Originally Posted by http://www.dyeprecision.com/sponsorship.html Dye Paintball is always interested in associating our company with teams that represent the best in paintball. If you are interested in becoming a Dye sponsored team please submit the following information below. Please send the information typed and in the form of a resume binder. The requirements below are mandatory to be considered for a sponsorship program and you may add more information if you like.1) Team name, home location and captain information. 2) Teams general history. 3) Names, ages and playing years of each team member. 4) Color printed photographs of each team member. (can be scanned and printed) 5) Teams practice schedule and home playing location. 6) Future tournament event schedule. 7) Current head to toe equipment list of each team member. 8) Teams past tournament achievements. 9) Teams current sponsors. 10) Team goals for the future.

———————————————————

3. Get to know your potential sponsors Fields and stores want you to already be their customers. If you have never supported their business, how can you expect them to support you?

Do you already use the company’s products? How about your local site, do you play there every weekend? Have you checked out their website, forum or e-commerce site?Do you know the name of the person or the department you need to send your request to? Make friends with every team and field owner you meet other teams will either spread the “good” or “bad” word about your team. It’s ok to be feared if you good, but you don’t want to blacklisted for being jerks. Field owners are the backbone of paintball tournaments. Its always wise to get on their good side.Also, do not actively promote other companies that do not sponsor you (or you want to be sponsorsed by). It will make current sponsors feel cheated and it will tell potential new sponsors that you don’t really appreciate the sponsors you already have. *think Arsenal being dropped by Redz
A lot of companies offer you information right on their websites about sponsorship:
Such as:

1. WE DO NOT ACCEPT SPONSORSHIP SOLICITATIONS, a la Ed and Warped Sportz
2. Who to contact directly, like Procaps / DraXxus
3. Exactly what to include in your team portfolio, like Dye / Proto do
   http://www.dyeprecision.com/sponsorship.html
4. A Sponsorship Application, like Paintball Central
   http://www.pballcentral.com/sponsorship/default.asp
   http://www.pballcentral.com/files/20…pplication.doc

If they’ve gone to the trouble to make the application process easy for you, make sure you follow their directions.

——————————————————— 4. Contact the potential sponsor.

• By email
• By Phone

If you plan on calling said company, first make sure you know what company you are contacting – know what you want, and speak professionally. . . Speak clearly, and don’t mumble – please don’t speak in Ebonics, or ‘Shizzle’, or use ‘uh’ or ‘yo’ between every word. . . .And just so you know, companies never just give away ‘Free Sh*t’.Also, be polite to who ever answers the phone.If you are writing an email or letter, please, please, please, please, PLEASE – do the following.

1. Use capitals where warranted. Please don’t write an entire email in caps.
2. Use punctuation and spacing. Periods, commas and paragraphs are good.
3. Use ‘real’ words; do not use internet/chat room short forms. No one actually understands them, and if your potiential sponsor needs an ‘Internet Chat’ dictionary just to get through your request, can you say ‘delete’?
4. Same as above goes for slang.
5. Spell Check is your friend.
6. Learn to spell ‘S-P-O-N-S-O-R’ and Sponsorship. **a must**

Lay it out in black and white what you are looking for, no point on wasting your time – or that of your potential sponsor if you can’t get what you need/want.

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Be realistic in what you ask for. A brand new, 2 month old, 3 man Rookie team, who trains once a month, and has never competed in any tournament can’t expect to have all their entry fees paid for, or be 100% kitted out with everything from Gloves to Guns. . . . .Where this is common place for a high profile, established, winning Professional team.

Most companies and fields have a sponsorship assistance program – these programs help teams purchase equipment well under retail – these are realistic and obtainable programs for teams.Decisions cannot be made on one email or one phone call, most companies have a committee of people who decide where sponsorship monies are allocated, be diligent but not annoying. Be patient in waiting for a response, remember sponsorship is a serious request and most companies receive multiple requests weekly and in some cases daily. A lot of smaller companies and fields will not sponsor teams outside of their market area and often do not sponsor new teams, If you are a new team the best way for you to earn sponsorship is to play events and become known (paying your dues). You do not have to win events, but you do have to play hard and fair with sportsmanship.

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5. Say Thank You! (Even to those who turn you down)

Keep a detailed record of every company and person (by name) you have sent a request to. Send handwritten ‘Thank you’ notes to all of them. This may seem a waste of time (and money) to say ‘thank you’ to companies who said no, but think about this as a long term investment for the future of your team. That company is now more likely to remember you next year when you are looking for sponsors again.
Also, be sure to send a signed photo of the team, a jersey or some other ‘collectable’ from the team to those companies who do sponsor you. Let them enjoy your successes with you. This will also help keep you top of mind with these sponsors when you go through the process again next year.

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In the end you must remember: Be aware that most of your requests will not be accepted, you need keep trying and not get discouraged. . . . .Don’t forget that

SPONSORSHIP IS NOT FREE.

Real sponsorship is a serious request for any business. No company gives away anything for free.It must be earned, appreciated and respected.Two articles that all teams looking for sponsorship should read

http://paintball.com/features/story….369&clickon=DBhttp://www.68caliber.com/news/tourna…tory041841.phpA

Sponsor, as defined on www.dictionary.com is:

• One who assumes responsibility for another person or a group during a period of instruction, apprenticeship, or probation.
• One who vouches for the suitability of a candidate for admission.
• A legislator who proposes and urges adoption of a bill.
• One who presents a candidate for baptism or confirmation; a godparent.
• One that finances a project or an event carried out by another person or group, especially a business enterprise that pays for radio or television programming in return for advertising time.

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More links to other articles about getting sponsorship:

1. http://www.directpaintball.com/article_sponsorship.htmlhttp://experts.about.com/q/Paintball-1819/sponsored.htm
2. http://www.doompaintball.com/modules…ticle&sid= 49
3. http://www.armyoforr.com/faq.html#faq5
4. http://www.paintball-tips-and-tricks…-sponsors.html
5. http://www.biz-community.com/Article/196/48/7006.html
6. http://www.ehow.com/how_7319_start-paintball-team.html
7. http://www.warpig.com/paintball/arti…ps/index.shtml
8. http://www.warpig.com/paintball/arti…ps/index2.shtm
9. http://www.splatdogs.net/earmonwitspl.html

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An interesting company. . . . .I have no idea if it works though.

http://www.sponsorpaintball.com/

Quote:

Our goal at Sponsor Paintball is to match up teams of all skill levels with an appropriate company seeking the publicity gained from a paintball Sponsorship. Teams may enroll via the Sign up portion of the page, listing valid detailed information regarding their experience. Soon teams will be able to upload a portfolio for sponsors to view. From there, businesses may browse the archive of teams by statistics and other information provided. If a specific team should strike a Sponsor’s interest, they may then propose an agreement to the captain of that team and thus, a deal is landed. And of course, Sponsor Paintball is free to use for Businesses and Teams alike.

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Some of the many crappy requests I have received (besides removing names and team names these are unaltered!!!)Welcome to my life. . . . . . . .

Quote:

Me and my freinds just all started playin pain tball bout a year ago. Now we aren’t those little paintball players we were before. We are a brotherhood, and we will not stop until we make it to the top and play against xsv and dynasty. But there was one thing in our way, the coast of paint! We had been using to buying stinger paintballs for so long and it was so expensive! So one day when I was flipping threw paintball magazine I saw like 3 adds for draXxsus paintballs and how teams have won and won with there paint. Now I would like to makea propersition or e-mail me back and say no. If you can send us some paint, give us some stickers or a banner and we will slap those stickers on everyone we see down at ***********and ****************l. We just need paint and we will do anything you want. We have entered a contest at ************rookie leval. Last time we came in second! This year with your paint and banner we can take the cup from those kids who think they know how to play and pay $10000000 in paint. And since we are all 13 and 14 we know about 20 people who want to play and have just joined. So we give them some of your stickers tell them that your the best and, boom you make triple! I will tell my freinds about your website and say order some of there paint if you want! I might be 14 but, you must realize this too, invest in the new kids, invest in the ones that will be seen in the nppl in 5 years cuz ollie wont be playing then! Nor will xsv!

Quote:

Hi I am *************one of the 5 members of team ***** of *********. we desprately need sponsers if were gonna make it any futher then we have. we pratcie 3 days a week for about 8 hours a day paint is very expensive gear is also. we sold many of our own belongings to fuel our paintball team but recently most of us have gotten laid off due to school. we pratice after school though. if we dont get any help soon im afriad team ****** gonna break apart due to money issues. is really lame i know but i wouldnt ask for help if our team didnt need it. please contact me back at ********or email ***********thanks alot for reading =)

Quote:

Hi! I was wondering who I would email to talk to them about sponsership possibilities and just givin me da free paintballz. Thanks for your time.

Quote:

My name is *********and I am the captain of the *********paintball team from **********. We have been playing together for 6 months and are getting quite good. We just need help with getting paintballs and tournament entry fees and other necessary products for free. We have not been able to enter any tournaments yet but are hoping to enter a few tournaments around our area later this month and into the upcoming school year. We would be able to promote your products on our uniforms, banner and at our station at tournaments. We could also promote you on our website www.myspace*********. We would be willing to work hard at every every event and every time we put on our uniforms we would represent your company with dignity and respact. We practise at our local field ******** every Saturday or every other Saturday or sometimes on sunday or both satuRday and Sunday. And in the summers we practice whenever we can during the week. We love to play the game and work hard and play our best every time we pick up our markers. Pls give us free paintballs

Quote:

Hi we have a team called****** and we came in second place in a recent tournament and we were wondering if we could get some help out on the paint end and all the expenses that comes with paintball so we as a team were wondering if you could give us a sponsorship for free or heavily discounted paint for free

Quote:

hello My name is ********i am part of a 3 man team named*****wehave played in one tourney and finished in 4th im not going to be like other people and beg the crap outta you and im not gonna lie and saywere “uber awesome” were pretty good looking for our first sponsership of free bullets

Quote:

My buddies and I have created a Woodsball team. We are currently browsing for sponsors. How do I get free paint?

Quote:

My team, *******, was wondering if you could sponser are team. We already all have your VForce Profiler masks. We are a rookie team that has competed in 4 tournaments as a team and are all experianced tournament players that have been playing for 2+ years. We are currently planning on playing the winter season at our indoor fields. Next year we are going to be playing Chicago PSP at either Divison 4 or Young guns depending on how much we can get done this winter and the begining of next summer. Our team is currently on a practice schdule of playing atleast 6 times a week for two hours a day at our local ******** . We have been practcing hard all summer and has showed in our tournys by just missing the playoffs in all of our tournys by a marjin of about 5-10 points. As for our gear we all have high end markers.******** has a Generation two ICD Freestyle, ***** shoots a Virtued Pm5, *******shoots a Smart Parts Shocker and ****** shoots a Virtued Dm5 or a Virtued Naughty Dogs Intimidator. We are clean and don’t do drugs now.Thank you for your time and considering us.

Quote:

hey yo i was wondering if my team *****is able to get a sponsoarship from draXxxxus/procaps for the rest of the 06 season we are a yg/D3 team that has been together 4 months we have played 2 locals so far and practiced every week once or twice the two tourneys we have played we placed in both Pba tourney 1st out of 20 or so teams Wana Play Paintball Tourney 3rd out of 20 or so teams we will be playing in the next gpl event and love to shoot your paint by then and use any of your gear we can we will be finishing off the gpl events and maybe one psp or nppl event but next season we will be playing most of the psp or nppl events right now we are sponsoared by ****** and will be shooting there guns the remainder of the season we have a deal worked out with ******* and everything and then we are sponsoared by virtue paintball and use their boards in our aliens we will be getting customized jersays and if you sponsoar us we will be putting your logo on our jerseys your stickers on our hoppers and masks and the link to your website in out pbnation signatures and aim profiles also we will thank your company at award cermoneys and hold up your companys banner (we will need a fee banners to) we will only support draXXxxus/procaps in a nice and friendly manner by having good attitudes on and off the field we are a very competitive team that scrimmages D3 teams at our local field everyweekend we will deffinitly be on the podium alot and would love for your company to be there with us

This is the first email this kid sent me: Quote:

To Proto Paintball, I am writing to inquire about a possible spawnsorship of my young guns paintball team. We in return for a spawnsorship, will wear proto gear (which we already partially wear), and support Proto in any way possible or in any way in which you request.***** has been together playing tournament paintball for two years. We have played in ten tournaments and placed in seven of them. We practice at ******once a week, and sometimes during the week also. We have been spawnsored by *****for a year and a half and have helped them grow from a small shop to a larger shop and a field. We do our best to promote our team and our sponsors in a positive manner.*****is comprised of five players. All have at least a year of tournament experience, and are good players. Those players are *************************************************. For being such a young team in young guns(normally 15 or 16 and under) we have done suprisingly well. We are based out of **********, ******* and travel to tournaments all around us. We have played at fields such as *********** and *********** which are the larger ones in our area. We also plan on attending the PSP Mid-Atlantic Open this year in Charlotte, North Carolina.We look forward to your response and hope that something can be worked out between us.We also really like your paintballs, they are much better than everything else, like Diablo, Draxxxus and xballs.Thank you, *********

Well, as you can imagine, I replied to the kid that he sent this email to the wrong company. . . .(he even dissed my products in that email) he replied with: Quote:

I am terribly sorry for the mix up but would like to inquire to you the possibility of becoming sponsored by Procaps. It is a great company with great products and service. My Team was sending multiple emails to different companies and this one somehow accidentaly got into this email. We dont think your paint is bad, we just said that to get sponsorshipps. It would be an honor to be able to wear your logos on our jersey’s and shoot your paint, etc.

Quote:

Hi my name is ******* and I have a 5 man team. I am wondering if your company can sponsor us. What we can do to get your company out we will use your products and put your name on our banner, jerseys, and team site. We would also purchase your products i planned on buying some stuff so ill get it from you because you need to make money.

I just can’t make this stuff up. . . . .please have sympathy on me. . . . help me to help teams. Stop the madness!!!!Thank you!
Thanks for taking the time to read this . . . . . .Hugs and Kisses, Joey

False Start

I love to watch paintball, especially X Ball.

Ive always enjoyed the hooting and hollering of the stands, really makes the game feel electric.

Ive done my share of yelling profanities, screaming at refs, yelling at other spectators. . . .but one thing Id never stoop so low to is the false start.

When I was at the CXBL Eastern Conference 1st event, I witnessed numerous teams losing players to the false start. . . I asked the people in question not to do the false starts and I was told This is X Ball it doesnt fucking matter And I agree to a degree yelling and screaming during is fair game but the false starts. . .How un-sportsman like.

It made me very mad, so I told two people to fuck off. That made me feel better.