How do you write an effective Business Proposal?
Business proposal is crucial for anyone who needs to obtain capital for business. If you seek out Venture Capitalists or Angel Investors, most will not even talk to you unless you have a well written business proposal. One that gives them convincing reasons as to why they should invest in your business.
Many business ideas require a large amount of capital, and this capital can only be obtained from three sources. This is either through loans, using your own money, or getting an investor to invest in it.
For expensive business plans, loans and your own wealth will typically not be enough. You will need a wealthy group of investors, but they will not risk their money unless your plan is good. A business proposal is used to present the business plan and convince its feasibility to the investors.
Why Business Proposals are crucial to obtaining capital
A business proposal is a document which outlines the plans for a business. It will often include things such as the start-up costs, the size of the market, the demographics you are targeting, and how much you can expect to generate.
A good business proposal will also outline the competition that you face, as well as their strengths and weaknesses.
A business proposal is a solid document that can give potential investors a good idea of why they should invest in your business.
It can outline both the risks and the rewards, and if you write it and present it properly, you will be able to gain capital that could allow you to embark on a very lucrative venture. A good business proposal is crucial in any situation where you need capital for a business.
Techniques you can use to easily write a Business Proposal
In this article you will learn the techniques to write a perfect business proposal. Start off by using the “Five Ws.” What are the “Five W’s”?
The Five “W” are as follows:
1. Who
2. What
3. Where
4. When
5. Why
Who: You want to know who is going to manage all the work, and who is going to present themselves to the client. This is the first step in writing your proposal.
What: Knowing the problem that the customer wishes have be solved is the second step to writing your business proposal. You would also want to know aspects of the problem with every detail, and make sure you know exactly what the customers expect from you.
Where: You will want to know where you are to solve the problem, is it going to take place in our company or our customer’s company? When you are finally done with the solution to the problem, you will want to know where the product is to be delivered.
When: know the time-line in which your product will be delivered. Stand out amongst competitors with your time-line; challenge their delivery by being more prompt. You definitely want to notify the client when the work will be done and delivered.
Why: Explain why you have chosen the alternative as a solution. When explaining try your best to convince the client that your solution is the best since your company may not be the only one in providing a solution to the problem.
Include these five “W’s” to your business proposal, who, what, where, when, and why. Also, don’t forget to mention the “How” in your proposal, explain with detail the product’s functions and how it will work; this will certainly capture the client’s eyes.
When explaining the “how” you may include how such solutions will benefit the customer.
Business Proposal Application
When you begin your layout in a format form it is suggested to do the following:
• Use a typeface Times Roman
• Type in 11-12 Letter size
• Use color paper to help distinguish pages
• Keep your format layout simple
When you write a business proposal, being neat is crucially important, as it will allow looking up information to be easier. To have an organized proposal, you will need multiple subheadings.
A title for a heading can state the benefits, but it is important to have one for each section of the proposal. It is also important to avoid the use of poor grammar, for this is both unattractive and unprofessional.
You will also want to avoid using words that are not needed. If you can get rid of a word while maintaining the point, then do so.
When writing a heading, you will want to avoid titles which are boring, because there is a chance that you will lose the attention of your listener, something that you don’t want. Place an emphasis on explaining how the recipient of the message will benefit by working with you.
If you have a well written proposal, you will eventually be able to win over the recipients of your message. This is an important goal, because if such steps are applied to your proposal you will indeed have a proposal that is easy to read.
You will first want to break your proposal in sections. When you accumulated the data of the five “W’s” and the “How” you may want to include these in your sections. Begin with “Who”, which involves who is presenting the proposal and who is managing the work; this can be done in one section.
In the next section you may explain the “What”, in a statement describe what you will do or provide the customer with a way to solve the issue.
In mentioning “What” it is important to include the customer’s goal, what goals are being met and what is being done to meet such goals. When mentioning the goals you may want to rank the goals from the most important because the most important goal is the customer’s priority. The “Where” can be explained in the next section, explain where your work is going to be managed, and where are you delivering the product.
Next you may want to mention “When” in another section, explain when you are to start the project, when the project is to be finished and when the project will be delivered.
Finally, your last section may include “How”, explain your plan of how the project is to be managed and how the product will benefit the customer’s needs. Also explain the product’s functions and how the product works.
Before you begin with your proposal, you must remember not to leave important detail in your sections. An important detail may be the cost of the project, and the cost of the product. Another detail to mention is references of your work.
To many customers it is important to know where your work was based from, thus it is important to mention all your references of your work.
