When the original Nexus was formed and we entered our second year, we were sitting atop a support program worth about £150,000 ... sounds a lot and that's because it was; but that figure was made of all areas of support from markers, cash, paint, ancillary products, free training costs etc etc etc ...
We were competing in the NPPL [5 stateside events] plus the Millennium and also a few outside events and so we had one helluva program to fulfill ... I suppose the backbone for all that support was PGi, the magazine I was working with at the time and we managed to underscore all our sponsors with a pretty good exposure in the magazine which for the most part, kept everyone happy.
As for loyalty? - I gave my word to Dave Youngblood from Dye we would use his gear, and going into that second year we were approached from a rival company who offered to pay us double what Dave was giving us ...that was an awful lot of money I can tell ya ... I declined the offer in a heartbeat and thanked the guy for making the offer.
Loyalty pays because when Dave found out [and he found AFTER I had declined the opposing offer] he upped our sponsorship support as a gesture [and he didn't have to do it] and so, loyalty pays in my book ....
Mind you, it came back the other way because we were offered a lot of money to drop Planet as our marker sponsors and that would have meant we increased our total sponsor program by another 45,000 dollars but once again I had given my word to Ledz [who was also a close friend anyway] and kindly declined the new offer immediately ... these figures sound maybe like BS but they are true figures, it's just we have all moved away from those halcyon days of sponsorship into these new days of financial hardship ..
Stay loyal and it will pay dividends, maybe not immediately but people will respect and remember if you are loyal to them.
