For those of you who may not know, I started my professional career as a college recruiter back in 1989.  I thought it would be a great professional business opportunity for me to get involved with.

I played basketball on every level so I thought with the knowledge I had, I could use it to help other student athletes reach the college level.

Back then, there was basically no information available on how to become a college recruiter. There were no college courses to take, no information on the Internet, basically there was nothing available.

There are so many people out there who are fascinated with the entire process of being a college recruiter that I wanted to provide my perspective on the things you will need to do to become a college recruiter.

GO TO CAMP.  One of first things I did as a college recruiter was go to camps. I started out with basketball because that was the sport I played all my life.  By going to camps all over the country, it helped me to get a greater understanding of what parents are seeing and thinking about when it comes to their kids and college recruiting.

Going to camps also helped me gain exposure to college coaches and build up a strong network.  I felt that if these coaches knew who I was, then I could develop some kind of professional relationship and a level of trust.

I believe it’s critical for all new college recruiters to be seen by parents, players and especially the college coaches. This will help build your reputation as a college recruiter.

LOOK THE PART. Being a college recruiter is just like any professional business; you need to look the part.  If you’re serious about being a college recruiter then get yourself some clothes that represent the fact that you are a college recruiter.

Maybe get a polo shirt or some kind of athletic-looking gear that has the name of your company on it.  Also get your fat, out of shape ass in the gym and at least look like you played sports by having an athletic body or something close to it.

I’ve been all over the country to many tournaments, exposure events and camps and have seen many of these wannabe college recruiters who look like they’ve never picked up a ball in their life.  Get in shape! Look like something out there.

GET THE EQUIPMENT. To be taken seriously as a college recruiter you’re going to the need a blog.  I would choose a blog over website because you can update your blog with NAIA news and fresh information all the time and it’s easier to use than the old-fashioned websites.

Get a domain name that says you’re a college recruiter and then your company using something that’s short and catchy.

It’s important to get all the necessary tools and equipment to be taken seriously as a college recruiter.  Get business cards and hand out to every athlete and every parent of an athlete.

Also your email should be off of your domain name and not one of those freaky mail services. Again, it’s all about professionalism.

Technology is critical so get a cell phone with plenty of minutes on it so you can be available to your clients 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Computers are, of course, just as important as anything you would ever need in your business. Go out and get the best computers available, in your price range of course.  I believe it’s important to have at least two desktop computers and maybe later a laptop or Ipad.

Your computers are the engines for your business because this is where you will write your athletic profiles on high school athletes, email back and forth with college coaches and your prospective clients.

For me personally, I have two desktop computers that I use in every aspect of my business.

GET BUSINESS TO COME TO YOU. It does not matter how smart you are, what college you went to or even what college coaches you may know. If you cannot get businesses to consistently come to you every day, then you’ve got nothing.

Just because you want to help high school athletes get into college doesn’t mean a damn thing if you cannot get a huge number of student athletes to talk to each and every week.

You must advertise your business in order to get business, you must find out online and in the newspapers where the student athletes and their parents, who are most critical in this process, will be.

I believe it’s easier to reach a larger number of parents of high school athletes over the Internet because that’s where they’re going to look for information on how to get recruited for college.

One of the best resources available to market your business is on the Internet. Message boards that talk about high school sports or websites or blogs that talk about high school sports are the best places to advertise your business.

The most important things to remember is you DON’T want to spend your advertising dollars on a message board or website that has very little traffic and little exposure. You want to advertise on message boards that are extremely popular with the parents of high school athletes.

You are marketing your business to the parents of high school athletes because they’re the ones who will pay for anything their child needs on their way to getting recruited for college.

IN CLOSING. I believe these are very important steps in the process of being a college recruiter.  When I first started, I went out to camps and exposure events for years. Even though I was a former high school athlete, a college athlete and then a professional athlete, I felt I needed more inside information on how the college recruiting process worked.

Keep in mind, there are no college courses available on how to become a college recruiter.  What I did was go out and I talked to people.  I talked to the parents at the camps that I attended, I talked with the players at the camps and I made a point to get as much information as I could from college coaches.

My opinion of the college recruiters out there today is that many of them do not know what they’re doing and they only care about the money and not about getting the kids in college.

I think it’s important to think about how you can best help the parents and the student athletes get into college and you will make a lot of money because you will have a great reputation of service to others, so you will get paid.

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