By Felix Stapleton at February 28 2020 15:34:40
Finally, to wrap up your proposal, persuade your client or funder that you are the right choice for the job by adding pages like About Us / Company History, Capabilities, Our Clients, References, Credentials, Awards, and Testimonials. Include everything you need to convince your client or funder that you can be trusted to deliver on your promises. Conclude your proposal with a call to action: ask for the client's business or support, tell the customer where to subscribe or purchase your goods or services, or request a meeting for further discussion.
The truth is that it is not rocket science. Even a working knowledge of the key focal points will improve your finished product greatly. Writing a business proposal is a logical process which can't be done is 8 hours or completed in 1 day, at least not if you hope to truly understand it and communicate it effectively to external parties. In actual fact writing a business proposal is a very rewarding experience and if you are serious about starting a business and attracting funding into that business there will be associated pressure to perform well. Going through the business planning process will train you to be a more pro active and strategic business person and will ultimately improve your chances of making your vision a reality by analysing your business properly and consistently.
They lead to entrepreneurs skimming over the research component leading to a proposal that is disjointed and fails to make a cohesive business case. Having a sample business proposal as a guide detracts from the entrepreneur engaging fully in the business planning process in that they will have only a cursory understanding of the finer details of their proposal. It will not prepare the entrepreneur for detailed questioning around their business strategy and by association their financial projections. We have seen this all too often in presentations for equity finance. It is glaringly obvious when someone does not understand the proposal intimately and this devastates credibility and trust, virtually nullifying your chances of convincing an investor to part with their cash.
As a general rule to prepare for writing any kind of proposal, your first step should be to consider who will be reading your proposal. Gather information about the organization you're pitching to so that you can present a proposal tailored to your readers. Yes, that might take more effort than writing a generic version, but you will be rewarded by crafting a tailored proposal that is much more likely to be accepted.