3 THINGS TO CONSIDER WHEN WORKING WITH CELEBRITIES TO PROMOTE YOUR BIZ

It is so easy to be starstruck. We have fulfilled orders for musicians, athletes, actors and actresses. Obviously, it never got old. There is a difference between fulfilling a celebrity's order and actually working with one to promote your products, services, brand, business.

I worked with our PR agency to woo celebrities and also worked on our own to achieve a contract with a celebrity to promote our product. I learned along the way many things, including: celebrities are gaining from the arrangement and so should you. Businesses have just as much leverage as a celebrity, and don't shortchange your worth for the glitz surrounding the deal.

If you are thinking about working with a celebrity to promote your business and possibly enter into a product or service collaboration, consider the following:

1. Find a celebrity that you feel 100% comfortable promoting your brand and collaborating with, as what they stand for is also something you can get behind.

2. Have everything in writing. You have expectations of them to promote the brand, and they have expectations of your business, from mostly a financial standpoint. Also have a get out clause, should they get bad press for something. Protect yourself!

3. The experience should be organic and authentic, so your potential and existing customers will believe the relationship. They don't want to think you just bought your way into the deal, they want to believe it!

Don't forget to have fun with it, as these deals are usually short lived. But they make for great stories.