[KyleH]

I have some advice to offer about the money and business side of a FRC team.

I would recommend getting companies to sponsor you and to apply for as many grants as you can to ensure that you can buy all of the things necessary. Beware that after about 2 or 3 years, the grants that you can apply for go down quite a lot, so it is best to gather a solid group of sponsors before the grants run out. Any company can sponsor a robotics teams whether they provide food for long build days, tools and equipment to build the robot or money in general. Don't limit yourself in asking just for money. It would also be a nice gesture to send a letter or an email to the company to thank them for sponsoring your team. The company will be more likely to sponsor you in the future and it maintains contact with the company.

I would also make up a general budget of how much money you take in and spend and to keep track of it and to document it. This will help you in the future so you can show the evolution of your your team's financial aspects and how much you spend as your team grows.

I also would make some type of a Business Plan just to use as a guideline of where you want your team to be. You can also keep track of your team's stats such as student and mentor participation as well financial stuff. This will also benefit you in the future when you want to look back at this kind of stuff to chart the overall growth of the whole team.

One last thing to recommend is to try and come up with a team image. Things like team colors, a logo, official document templates will all help your team keep a consistent and professional image.

My apologies that this is so long but there is quite a bit to talk about. If you want, I'll be able to send you some examples of the things I talked about so you can look at them in greater detail.

Good luck from team #862, Lightning Robotics!