In “The Athlete’s Guide to Sponsorship: An Athlete Entrepreneur’s Guide to Dreaming Big, Racing Smart & Creating a Reliable Brand for a Long, Successful Career,” I talk a lot about the importance of treating sponsorship like a job, and to me, a big part of that means staying super organized. There are a few free online tools that I love for keeping things organized and looking super professional, and I wanted to share them here. Whether you run a club team, manage your racing team, or you’re personally a sponsored athlete, these tools are AWESOME for getting things organized and looking super pro. Note that these are all FREE.
Also note: I didn’t mention any social media channels on here. That’s because it a) depends on your goals and b) I don’t consider them part of staying organized.
PAYABLE
We love Payable as an easy add-on to let you collect cash in a Google Form, and we actually worked with this start-up closely for a couple years and helped them design a ton of free Google Form templates for coaches and athletes. Great if you need to collect cash for team jerseys or uniforms, solicit donations for your weekly ride/fundraiser, or even get sponsors to give you cash for your upcoming season in an easy way!
CANVA
For: Creating a professional, clean athlete resume or business card. (You can learn more about what to put in your resume in the book, but remember the main rules: Clean, simple, 1-page max, and with a great photo to make you stand out!) I think this one is worth the premium fee to get access to stock images, but the free option is awesome as well.
TODOIST
I love this for creating simple to-do lists for projects for different sponsors, assigning them due dates, and being able to check them off as I go. Super simple and easy to use.
GOOGLE CALENDARS
I don’t need to explain this. But especially if you’re running a team or coordinating with other people, having all of your travel, race info, training, and even sponsor commitments like social posts listed somewhere is super important. (PS Todoist integrates with Google Calendars to make life more organized.)
VISTAPRINT
For: Printing your business cards, a personalized thank you card or holiday cards for sponsors, plus DIY swag like a personalized mug as a thank you gift. (Also great for making posters if you want to have your family holding them at a race to create buzz around your name… Only kind of kidding about that!)
The service is free but you obviously pay for products—but pay attention to the sales and discount codes and you’ll save a ton!
GOOGLE SHEETS
For: I’ll say it one more time for the people in the back: You are a business as an athlete and need to stay organized. I used Sheets for planning travel, doing season budgets, creating a race schedule, and keeping track of sponsorship dollars, duties, and so much more. It’s way more multi-functional than any other app, and I am personally a fan of using it before trying the fancier ones. Keep your organization as simple as possible.
BUFFER
A free way to schedule out social media posts so you never miss a sponsor’s post again.
GRAMMARLY
For: The extension that will save you from spell-check and grammar-check hell. Just download it and promise me you’ll use it?
EXPENSIFY
For: Depending on how serious you are about tracking finances, both of these options are great. Expensify is good if a sponsor is willing to reimburse you for travel or other costs, and a great way to keep an eye on your cash flow. Again, I think most people can do this with Google Sheets, but if you like apps, these are great ones.
WORDPRESS
For: When it comes to having a simple website as an athlete, I personally love WordPress.com for super simple sites, WordPress.org for slightly more advanced ones. Opt for premium to get your own domain (your name) if possible.
PIXLR
For a free version of Photoshop for all of your photo editing needs, Pixlr is ridiculously powerful for an in-browser free tool.
UNSPLASH
If you need free stock photos, Unsplash is a fabulous resource (that’s where the feature photo for this post came from!)
Found this helpful? For more info and stories like this, get “The Athlete’s Guide to Sponsorship: An Athlete Entrepreneur’s Guide to Dreaming Big, Racing Smart & Creating a Reliable Brand for a Long, Successful Career” here!
(Also available in Canada and the UK!)
