A business proposal consolidates enormous amounts of data and information into a meaningful, persuasive narrative. However, many professionals tend to enthusiastically rush through the process because they are excited to get started. As illustrated below, a business proposal is like a resume, in that they both must be perfect and clear to read. Use these tips to help your business start off right, and give yourself a little push in the right direction.
Content Quality
Most job hunters know that HR professionals will immediately reject any resume that has spelling, grammar, or punctuation errors. Similarly, business proposals must be free of mistakes. Many business professionals also forget that style and content quality are equally important. When investors review a business plan, they don’t expect the writer to have a degree in English, but do expect to be impressed and persuaded to learn more and take action. Business professionals should always ask a qualified and experienced acquaintance to review their business proposal rough draft before submitting to decision makers.
Content Presentation
Business proposals are outlines used to guide a formal presentations later. Your proposal must offer a comprehensive package of information which means charts should be properly labeled, tables must have headings, and technical terminology must be clearly defined. The business plan should be designed to allow investors to quickly scan pages in order to get basic information. Bullet points, summaries, and key highlights are important to separate. Investors may also want detailed information, so this should also be included below the basic outlines. All business proposal parts should be equally represented, such as sales, marketing, customers, operations, and management. Don’t leave one section thinly written if the others are full of a lot of information.
The Devil’s in the Details
Sometimes entrepreneurs have too much passion and not enough organized, fact-based information. While they may have an amazing idea, or unique market service, dreams do not persuade investors to take financial risks. This can be difficult for inexperienced entrepreneurs or app and software development techs who want to propose a project that concern foreign concepts. Your proposal writers should work with other professionals, like software developers in Utah, who have the technical or operational background to help explain and illustrate the important information. Detailed technical information may also overload investors with unfamiliar vernacular and technical syntax. The plan should summarize the technical information and direct readers to an appendix with the appropriate details for better organization.
Never Assume
Sometimes a business plan may be based on an assumption about the market or industry that may unexpectedly change. For example, a software developer that bases their business plan for an innovative app on unrealistic market expectations may experience failure later on. To avoid this problem, business proposal writers must adequately research through both fact-based and human-based sources.
In the end, competition is fierce and a business proposal must be perfect in order to attract the attention of potential investors. Business proposal writers should ensure that the style and content is engaging, informative, and easy to present.