How To Write A Business Proposal
Most service oriented businesses as well as goods-supplying ones necessarily need business proposals to thrive. A business proposal is a written document that offers a particular product or service to a potential buyer or client. Businesses are meant to serve customers. It is the business proposal that introduces a service provider or product supplier and their suitability to people that need their product/services. A business proposal is clearly different from business plan, and should not be understood as interchangeable. In fact, a business plan may include business proposal (s) as the case may be.
Business proposals are generally of two types:
- Solicited Business Proposals are those written and submitted on request by potential clients in need of such services/ products.
- Unsolicited Proposals are written and submitted to potential clients or customers without their request. It is given out as a result of perceived need of the potential client and the readiness of the proposing service/product provider to solve the problem.
Business proposals can be submitted to or requested by government agencies, companies, religious groups (churches and mosques), clubs, organizations, families, individuals. These people can be in need of your products/ services.
Although writing a business proposal may be tasking, it is necessary. Below is a guide to doing it yourself. Otherwise, for additional time savings, and faster turnaround time on your proposals, software like Bidsketch goes a long way to help. Other more focused tools like Docsketch (an electronic signature app) help close deals faster. There are also firms that assist companies in preparing business proposals but not without pay. You can prepare one yourself.
Parts And Constituents Of A Business Proposal
Title Page
This should precede every other thing on the proposal. It should bear basic pieces of information, such as your company’s name and contact information, your company logo, your potential client’s name and contact information, the date, and a title. It tells how organized you are in your business dealings, and makes your proposal come off appealing and pleasant.
Cover Letter
You need a cover letter to introduce yourself, your company and your intention in the proposal. In a friendly tone, acquaint the potential client with brief background info about how your company came to be, and a short overview of what makes your company better than the rest. Encourage them to refer their questions to you. Sign it off after a salutary closure. You can shape your cover letter to have a visible and impressive mark of what you provide. You may as a graphic designer give the client a glimpse of your handiwork on the cover letter.
About Us
It is good to be modest, but there is need for you to sell yourself and your company. This is where you show off what makes your company the best and why you should be preferred to other ones. Flaunt the personnel and technical strength of your company. If your company or a member of your company has won any award, make it known: it will boost the brand of your company and trust will be cultivated. It means that the world knows about your company. Make it feel like your potential client is getting to know your organization by including brief bios and photos of the people they’ll be working with. Include information about your past successes and the compliments from former clients. You can talk about prior experience in general terms.
Table Of Contents
You may need to include a table of content before the main body of the proposal. This is for ease of location of certain parts of the proposal. The client may wish to skip some parts or rush to a particular one. The table will guide them. It also helps the reader to know what to expect in the document. If sent in soft copy, you can make the table of content clickable in such a way that a click on any of the subtitles can lead one to the part it is contained in the document, thereby navigating automatically through many pages. However, the table may be unnecessary if the entire business proposal is brief.
Executive Summary
Here you give a summary of the entire content of the proposal; starting from the first page to the last. Let the reader get to know what each part or subtitle contains. This should be done in a very terse way and avoid details which should be found in the appropriate part.
Problem Statement
One of the things that will make the client seek your services is your demonstration of knowledge and understanding of the problem the organization is facing. You cannot claim to be a solution to a problem you know nothing about. If it is a solicited proposal, do well to study it closely to find out the entailment of the problem or need of the organization. Be sure that it is something you can solve. Because you have done further research on them and the nature of their facilities, make it evident at this point. Let them understand that you have put yourself in their shoes and have taken the problem as yours. Show a good knowledge of and understanding of their problem, including how you got to know.
Solution And Methodology
In this section, show the client your proposed solution to their problem. Let them know the anticipated result of the project if your services are sort. Specify the requirements of the project, where each thing can be got and how you intend to do the work. If there are hands you will employ, let them know as well as the credibility of those hands. Give them a time frame. This will make you a master of your job.
Pricing
This is a very important part of a business proposal. The client would need to know what the entire project will cost by your standard. Make your financial requirements as detailed and clear as possible.
You may use a table to make it easy to understand. Include in your pricing the following:
Start-up costs or initial set-up, labour costs, supply costs, ongoing monthly charges and maintenance costs. Give the various qualities and quantities and their financial requirements. This is to allow the client decide from various options. Don’t hesitate to give professional advice on this decision.
Include in this section, contract terms. Tell your client how much is paid on signing, out of the entire cost. Show also penalties or interests assessed for late payment. Share at this point cancellation policies. This is important in case of a breach of contract. Give the specifications and the involved penalties if any.
Anticipated Challenges
As a master in the field, discuss any anticipated opposition. There is no project that does not encounter difficulties. From the vast of your experience, share with the client the possible dangers awaiting the project. Some business proposals might face opposition. For example, if your business proposal is to help a business by identifying which employees they could fire, then you can expect opposition to arise. Also, if you propose to help the company rebrand, then others in the company might object. You need to identify and then counter any anticipated opposition. Also show how you intend to tackle those oppositions. Let them know that you will handle the challenges satisfactorily and succeed in executing the project.
Conclusion
In the conclusion, reemphasize the gains in choosing you for the job. You might also want to include a deadline for the prospective client to respond and hire you. This is no longer in vogue anyway. So use your discretion in including such a deadline. But if you will truly be engaged from a certain time or will be taking up another job from a particular period if theirs is not forth coming, let them know about it. It will announce the integrity of your business and your regard for delivery as agreed. Also remember to encourage the client to contact you with questions and to visit your website if they would like to see more information about your business. This means you should be present on the internet already. Start with LinkedIn at least.
References
If you made any reference to some books or publications, acknowledge them duly by documenting them before the appendix. Make your business proposal original and genuine by referencing your sources. Including a list of sources also allows the client to easily find what you are referring to and confirm the accuracy of the information. Format the references in a choosing style and be consistent with it. You can use APA or MLA documentation style.
Appendix
You may wish to append/attach samples of your previous works as well as former client’s comments. These things may serve as motivating factors to the potential customer. Seeing they say is believing. When they see what you have done and possibly where you did it, they may get more courage to opt for you. A photographer can add some appealing shots taken either at events or just of nature. Remember you are not the only person that needs the job.
After The Draft
Go through your work again. Do not be in a hurry to send out the document the moment you finished the draft. After a day or two, go back to it. Look out for typographical errors and other lapses. Read again and again from the beginning to the end. Ensure that the figures you wrote especially in pricing are correct. Count the number of zeros and redo the calculations for accuracy. Go back to the document that bears the need of the potential client and see how much your proposal answers the worry there. Make sure your business proposal does not miss anything on the need. If possible, make the proposal short, not without the required details anyway. Try to consider your reader’s time. A business proposal read in less than ten minutes will grab the attention of the client.
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