Step 5: Secure Community Sponsors

Your Challenge

Community sponsors can help introduce you to new customers and can also help underwrite your initial investment. They help you make the case to others that your work is valued by people in the community.

Resources

You'll need your presentation manual. Phone and email. Lists of people, businesses and community organizations that might support the idea of your Meter Corps work.

Process

BASIC LEVEL: Talk to people about what you plan to do. Your message is simple. "I plan to help home owners and business owners save money on their energy bills by measuring their current use and making a plan for them to make changes to become more efficient."

You are asking the potential community sponsor: "Will you help sponsor my business?" There are three ways they can help:

Help me reach potential customers (e.g. put my poster in your business, make calls for me)
Be a loan guarantor for my small business loan
Sign up as a potential customer.

If the community member agrees, then have them sign a Forward Commitment note. Then you can upload the information on each note using the "Forward Commitment Form" button on this page. use one form per community sponsor. Finally, create a short summary document of which community members have agreed and post this in your eFolio as part of your business plan.

GRAB YOUR POINTS!

1. Log into eFolio. Place your work into your "Meter Corps" folder. Title your entry with [Your Name]-[Challenge title]-[Process Level] (e.g. David Gibson-Community Sposors-BASIC) so that we can credit you for your work!

2. Community Sponsor Forward Commitment Form.

Click on any of these links to go forward or back