How to travel the world with a sponsor?

Wait a minute, do you think someone will sponsor you just to get around?  Did you come to read the article in that hope? Sorry to say that you're going to be a bit disappointed. But new hope must arise if you read the whole article. Well, why does the government give money to a doctor who has passed the BCS exam?  Is it just to stay in the hospital?  Or for what he does in the hospital, that is, for the treatment of the patient?  Just like that, no one will pay you for a lazy trip just for the sake of vacation, unless you can make the most of that trip!

The sponsor will give you money only when both parties win by traveling, that is, you will also win, they will also 'gain'!  How can the profit be now?  The calculation is very simple.  Their invested money is being spent in a good effort and at the same time it is also playing a positive role in the banding of the company / product, that is all you have to confirm by your travels.  Anyway, today's article is about how to get a sponsor and how to proceed.

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Suppose someone asks you for money. Now you must know or understand why you give him the money. At the same time, if you are a commercial donor, you must first know how much you will gain in return, Isn't it? This is exactly what your potential sponsor thinks. So reassure him and present to him an idea that you can reach out to a wider range of society.   Now let's make it clear.  Suppose you own a blog or write in a magazine.  Now the sponsor will try to understand how demand your writinghave in readers.  If you are 'special' here, the final handshake with the sponsor will be done. Be prepared mentally that sponsors won't give you money if you don't have very good qualifications.  Go ahead with it.  Suppose you will go to Everest where only the equipment will cost millions.  Now your sponsor 'Puma' / 'Reebok' will give you backpacks, gloves, jackets, jerseys, cargo pants, goggles etc. free of cost.  But this is not less than cash for you!  

Find the right donor company   Travel-blogger Francis Tapon applied to a company called Golit for world travel sponsorship. After the application was approved, he came to know that he was the first applicant in the 'Return on Investment' section. This means that many of us may not know that many companies have a section where they look for entrepreneurs to invest. In this case, they only want to recoup the investment money in exchange for the company's publicity. So be alert about that. In this case, companies prefer to invest in anything that is compatible with their product. For example, you are a prominent chef, cooking on TV. Now you may not get any sponsor from Adidas or Nike, but with a little effort you can get a sponsor from a spice company. You just have to make them understand that they are going to be benefited with their products. Maybe in every episode you will cook all the items with their spices.    

Similarly, some bicycles companies, or some Beverage or relevant companies will invest in your trip. Just go to them and highlight your promotional idea. In this case, you have to mention few things in your application and these are: · How to brand the product? How many people do you think you can reach yourself? Why should you be sponsored the money? Why is not another? Remember,  you are not a beggar when you are going to that company. You have come to give creative marketing-proposals to bring clients for them with in return of money. So make eye contact with them and talk confidently.  

Approach personal communication

Talk to all your familiar people, I repeat 'Everyone'. Talk about your special idea with everyone and ask them with a different way, how to work on it! This is a strategy. Who knows, one of them may have been able to get you in the desired sponsor.  

Be trustworthy In case of investment, everyone will avoid the risk of working with a beginner. So it will be better if you could show them that you worked with sponsors before and successfully handled projects like theirs or working on that type of projects.And if you do not have a record of sponsorship before, however, show a checklist of sponsorship and show the sponsors of your past works. Then they will not hesitate to trust you as well as to invest on your project.  

Emphasize on charitable activities

The charity program or charity is a place of great interest for the donors in sponsorship. Because their image is upheld by charity and they also get mental satisfaction. So you can collect money for your by adding charitable activities to it. But keep one thing in your mind very well that no one will give you money to spend a holiday. So you must clear your sponsors what part of your constellation money will be spent on private travel and how much funds will go to the charity. Thus they will also be satisfied with their investment and security.  

Try to relate celebrity

Another way of recovering of sponsors' attention or confidence is to use celebrities. It is very difficult to manage celebrity for a average person. But the method is very fruitful. Let's talk about Paul Archer of Britain. He would go to Sydney from London only by a taxi. He thought that if he could engage a celebrity to the promotion of this work, it would not be bad. According to the thought, he went to Sir Ranchin Finnes who was recognized as living world famous traveler by the Guinness. Unexpectedly he agreed with Archer and also got in taxi to travel with him! The media gave additional cuts to the name of Finnes and so sponsors also came forward. Thus you can also go to your nearest or  your favorite celebrity. Always you won't be lucky like Archer, but what's to loose in trying!  

Beat the drum loudly/ Make more and more publicity

You will have to tour the world!  Such a big work plan is yours!  Its campaign should also be that glorious.I will be so if you sit in the garden next to your house and call the local reporters and announce. After a strong campaign on social media, one day make a dare to call a press conference and appear at the national level.  Be confident. If you know how to make the dream look so big, you will get such a positive response from the media.    

Reduce single reliance on sponsors   Getting sponsorship is actually a matter of luck, you may not get it. Will this stop your dream?  Not at all. Do something, earn, keep increasing the amount of savings by spending moderately and that's all. Moreover, even if you get sponsorship, it may not be enough for the whole tour. In that case you will have to spend from your own. So increase your personal savings to make the tank heavier. You can also sell T-shirts, globes, old books, travel pictures, postcards, etc. There is an another way. Suppose four of you and your friends will go to Singapore with 10 lakh tk. Now each of you can buy gadgets with this money as per the maximum limit of customs and other restrictions. After that, you can return to your country and sell them in retail market for 14-15 lakhs and you can earn 4-5 lakhs.

If you borrow 10 lakh tk for travelling, it is being repaid along getting a new 4-5 lakh tk for the next trip.  However, you need to do a lot of market research to follow this method. You need to know which product is good in which country, what is the international market price, how much legal it is  to carry in customs. I am ending with a relevant story of a Croatian tourist friend named Tamislav Parco. Do you know why am I taking his name instead of so many inspirational stories? Because the story of his success started in Bangladesh. Everyone wants to travel, but everyone lacks money. So there is a fierce competition in the sponsor market. I want an unconventional idea to survive the fight.

Tamislav therefore chose Hitch-hiking. In other words, travelling over the world for free by getting lift with just moving your finger. Thus, with his own money, he used to travel to various places including Turkey and Spain and upload them on Facebook.   Thanks to the Facebook page, he was able to build a huge community. This was featured on the page of a Croatian daily. Basically after that the fate of Tamislav was revealed. The credit card company 'MasterCard' offered Tamislav a month to stay in Bangladesh for one of their campaigns. He successfully used Bangladesh Travel in all advertisements of MasterCard!  That's it. Now Tamislav is traveling the world with the money of MasterCard in. You can only succeed if you can use the sharpness of the head with the intensity of passion!

Written by, Fabiha Bushra

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