Business and Marketing

Overview

• Powercat Motorsports is more than just engineering! We need as much help as possible on the business and marketing fronts too! Each year the Business Team is responsible for processing receipts, assist in creating a budget, provide cost analysis, aid in communication with sponsors, and establish fundraising events to ensure the health of the club. As the car is built during the year, our available funds steadily decrease. So the Business Team provides their perspective on what is most important to allocate our funds towards, keeping in mind we must have enough funds to travel to the competitions in May and June. In respect to competitions, we calculate the travel cost of taking the COE's truck and trailer per mile, hotel accommodations, and other travel costs.

Positions of Need:

• Positions that we would love to add include:
  • Apparel Design
  • Budgeting
  • Fundraising
  • Graphic Design
  • Journalism
  • Logistics
  • Marketing
  • Photography
  • Presentation
  • Social Media
  • Sponsorship Communications
  • Videography
  • Video Editing
• The list goes on, and we hope you get the point. If you're a business student and are looking to venture outside of your comfort zone, then Powercat Motorsports is just the right place for you!

Competition

• At competitions, 18% of the team's overall score comes from the Presentation and Cost Report events.
• The Presentation event tests the team's ability to develop and deliver a comprehensive business, logistical, production, or technical case that will convince outside interests to invest in the team. Scoring of the event is based on the speakers' physical appearance, how they speak, powerpoint visuals, and the ability to respond to various questions the judges ask. The contents of the team's presentation are determined by the concept given by the Formula SAE rulebook, which is a new concept each year. An example of the 2019 Presentation Concept is as follows (From the Formula SAE Website):

  • Your company {insert company name} is currently supplying FSAE cars for weekend autocross enthusiasts across the country at a rate of 50 cars delivered to customers per month. Due to your company’s success over the last 7 years, class rate at the national autocross events has increased by 150% and local events have increased by 200% making it the largest class at almost any given autocross event over the same time period. This has forced the attention of key members of the national karting series and because of the reliability and driver oriented nature of the {insert company name} cars; a vote has taken place and karting tracks around the country will now have a FSAE class to go along with the Lo206, Rotax, and shifter classes starting with the first race at each track in the 2020 calendar year. You (as senior management) at {insert company name} have been tasked to address how this news will affect the organization and make a 10-minute presentation at the annual stock holders meeting with the proposed company actions.

    Additional Information:

    • Already supplying cars across the country via an established dealer network
    • Oldest cars are 7 years old
    • Current build capacity is 55 cars per month
    • Stock holders consist of personnel from every background (engineering, manufacturing, sales, marketing, materials…etc.) and varying amounts of experience in respective fields
    • Due to past growth your company currently has only enough cash to cover current operations, so any expenses incurred to increase capacity will require additional financing.
• Teams that place among the Top 3 in Presentation get to show off their presentation to all the teams at the Awards Ceremony Saturday evening.

• The Cost Report is as follows:
• Throughout the year the team has to consider budget, production methods, and efficiency of production as an integral part of the design process. At competition, we present a detailed report of the total cost. During the event, a real case scenario is given by the judges as well. Then scores are based off of overall cost, real case scenario cost, and the quality of the presented report.