THE real financial payback for Michelle's Smith wonderful Olympic performance will begin next month. The triple gold and one bronze medal winner is set to begin a busy schedule of guest appearances and product endorsement work come the end of the August holidays, says her manager Kathy Stapleton.
The swimmer is also in demand for corporate "motivational speeches" and sales incentive meetings.
"September is looking like it will be quite a busy month, both here and in Britain," said Ms Stapleton.
"And we are just finalising an agreement for a book on Michelle's own story, which will be out for the Christmas market."
The deal is with a British publishing house and covers worldwide sales. The book will be ghost written by an Irish male writer, whom she will not name.
In October, Ms Smith will travel to the United States, where she will be guest of honour at a US Chamber of Commerce dinner at the Waldorf Astoria, New York.
Some 1,200 people will attend the dinner and Ms Smith is to be presented with a special award.
"We will be staying in New York for a week and have a number of meetings set up," says Ms Stapleton.
"We are already in the middle of negotiations with a number of companies on appearances and we are confident that in a number of months we will have made significant progress in the United States."
Ms Stapleton manages Ms Smith's commercial activities as well as organising such matters as flights and accommodation when she is travelling to sports events.
She is working on a number of offers related to "pan European campaigns". It is still "a little bit early" to say which side of the Atlantic will provide the bulk of Ms Smith's earnings.
The Irish market is obviously limited by its size. However, a significant amount of work will happen here and Ms Stapleton is anxious that people don't presume that Michelle Smith is beyond their resources because of her Olympic success.
The structure of fees which existed before the games has been changed "but the increases have not been outrageous".
On the reports that she looked for £20,000 from Lisburn council for Ms Smith to attend the opening of a leisure complex, Ms Stapleton says this figure was mentioned by her in a "roundabout" way when she was being asked "roundabout questions" by the council. She later confirmed to the council that if they wanted Ms Smith for an afternoon, the cost would be £9,500.
The reported offer of a multi million pound film contract for Smith had been turned down because the person making the proposal could not supply adequate information about the deal, Ms Stapleton said.
She will not reveal Michelle Smith's structure of prices nor will she discuss the amount of money which Ms Smith is expecting to make in the coming year. "There's no point in trying to discuss the outcome of a race before it is run," she says, although she confirmed that a projection does exist.
