How to Write a Winning Web Developer Proposal and Contract

Writing a business proposal to sell your web site development services and creating a legal contract to seal the deal might seem like a formidable task, but it doesn't have to be.

Proposal Kit will show you how to introduce yourself, highlight your services, outline your costs and help your clients understand you are the right person for the web design job.

Here's the key: you don't have to start from scratch, staring a blank proposal page on your computer. Using pre-designed templates, legal contracts and sample proposals can help you write your documents quickly and efficiently.

Writing a business proposal for web site development (including specialties such as SEO services, graphic design, social media integration, email marketing campaigns, multimedia creation and so on) is actually a pretty straightforward process.

Here's how to think about it: All these situations are examples of businesses selling a service; so all these proposals will fall under the general category of technical business proposals offering services.

Most proposals that offer technical services, regardless of the business type, follow a similar structure: first comes the introduction, then a summary of the client's needs, followed by descriptions of the services offered, as well as project details and costs. Then the proposal should be wrapped up with information about the service provider, including relevant credentials and capabilities.

New proposal writers sometimes make the mistake of sending out only a cover letter and a price list. A price list is not a substitute for a persuasive proposal. A proposal is a document intended to persuade your potential clients to give you their business. To be successful, you must gain the clients' trust and make them believe that you can deliver the services they need. A price quote is not enough to do that.

As a general rule for any kind of proposal, your first step should be to gather enough information about the client to present a proposal that is tailored to that client's specific needs. It's never a good idea to send every client an identical sales letter. A client is much more likely to accept a tailored proposal.

If you find yourself spending too much time courting companies who will not commit to a project or who string you along with only the prospect of getting future work from them, consider having them sign an engagement letter. If they won’t sign a simple engagement letter, then it’s a good bet they won’t sign a contract either, so you should probably drop them from your list of potential clients.

So, back to the general order of proposal pages described above. You should start out by introducing yourself and your proposal with a Cover Letter and a Title Page. The Cover Letter should be brief, provide your company contact information and deliver a personal introduction. The Title Page should introduce your tailored proposal and give a clear message about the project you are pitching.

From personal experience running a company, I will tell you that if someone sends me a boilerplate sales letter after I asked for a specific proposal, that boilerplate letter goes straight into the trash. If I ask for a proposal and I outline my needs and concerns, and then the proposal I receive does not specifically address my points, I won’t trust the vendor to listen to me down the road. Naturally, your proposal will include boilerplate material that stays the same from one proposal to the next, but if you want to actually win the clients over, you need to show them you are listening to their specific needs. At the very least, custom tailor the client-centered portions of the proposal to each individual client. This might sound like a lot of work, but keep in mind that your objective is to land more clients, not be rejected by all of them.

After the Cover Letter and the Title Page, add some topics that show that you understand the needs of your client. Depending on how large the proposed development project is, you may or may not need to include a detailed summary. For a complex project that needs a summary, this proposal section is normally called an Executive Summary for corporate clients, or a Client Summary for a less formal project. This summary is where you talk about your specific prospective clients and demonstrate your understanding of their requirements as well as their goals and desires. Be sure to mention any restrictions or limitations you are aware of. This is not yet the place where you talk about yourself. Put your client first.

Follow the introductions and client information with your Services Provided, Benefits, Services Cost Summary pages and any other topics you need to discuss. Your goal is to describe exactly what you are providing and how much your services will cost.

Some types of web development proposals may also require specialized topics. This is the proposal section where you would add pages with pertinent details, such as descriptions of the Project Deliverables, Timeline, Technical Approach, Hardware and Software, Production Schedule, Training Plan, Security Plan, Specifications, System Requirements, Product Visuals, Storyboard, and so on. You may also want to provide information about your staff members or about other organizations you will coordinate with to develop the project. This could help your clients to appreciate your team's skills and experience, and help them trust in your ability to successfully accomplish the project.

Proposals should reflect the complexity of the project and the diversity of services needed. A full service provider may have to deal with many different topics in one proposal, such as graphic design, copywriting, software development, web site hosting, search engine optimization (SEO), voiceover media, video product, photography, social media integration, branding, email marketing and pay per click advertising.

A small scale web site developer may just need to deal with a basic site design using some purchased templates and a 3rd party web hosting company, and so on.

An internal company project proposal may need additional sections to describe needs such as coordinating between departments, resource allocation, internal company support from supervisors, internal corporate security and data center issues, and so on.

Here are some examples of web development proposals created using Proposal Pack:

• Large Web Site and CD-ROM Project
• CD-ROM Development Proposal
• Small Business Web Site Project Proposal
• Micro Web Site Project Proposal
• Multilingual Web Site and DVD Sample Proposal
• Web Site Creation and Software Integration Project
• Web Hosting Business Plan Sample
• SEO Services Sample Proposal
• Selling a Web Site and Digital Assets
• Website Advertising Offer Sample Proposal

The final information sections you should provide in your proposal are your company details. This is where you would put your About Us / Company History, Capabilities, Our Clients, Testimonials or References pages. This information comes last in the proposal, and your goal is to convince your client (or boss) that you can be trusted to deliver the services needed.

After you have all the information written for your proposal outline and chapters, it's time to focus on making your proposal visually appealing. Add some color and graphics by incorporating your company logo. Consider using colored borders and selecting custom bullet points and fonts that match your business's style.

Proposal Kit even has some pre-designed graphic packs for your web development proposals.

Once you feel your proposal is complete, carefully proofread and spell-check all the pages. You should have someone who is unfamiliar with your proposal proof it as well, because it's very common to miss mistakes in your own work.

Finally, save your proposal as a PDF file or print it and then deliver it to your potential client. Your delivery method will depend on your business and your relationship with your potential client. Emailing PDF files to clients is very common; however, there are times when a printed, signed and hand-delivered proposal can carry more weight, because it shows you value that client enough to put in the extra personal effort.

When your client has accepted the proposal, both parties should sign a contract to protect yourself and your client in the event of problems. If something goes wrong without a contract in place, it's too late to protect yourself if you didn’t get the terms spelled out in writing up front. Make sure you protect your intellectual property and everyone knows who owns what, when things are due, what to do when the contract needs to be altered, and specifically what recourse there is if something does go wrong.

As you can see, a “web site development” proposal can mean something different to everyone who needs to write one, and everyone’s needs for what to include will vary between organizations and projects.
The good news is that all web site development proposals follow a similar format and structure, and you can find all the pre-written templates and contracts you need in Proposal Kit. And you will also find many sample web, software and IT proposals already written that can help you get started right away.

There are two popular Proposal Kit options designed for web site developers. The difference comes down to how many legal contract documents you need based on the type of work you are doing. If you want a full collection of material that will cover all of our web / IT / software / hardware situations get Proposal Kit Professional. If you only need a small collection of contracts for small scale web development get Web Freelancer Contract Pack. If you already have your own legal contracts and only need to write a proposal all you need to get is the Proposal Pack.

How to Write an Event Planner Proposal

Writing a business proposal to outline your event planning and management services doesn't have to be a difficult task. There are plenty of resources available to show you how to introduce yourself, showcase your services, outline your costs and help your clients understand you are the right person to trust for the job. Using pre-designed templates and samples can help you write your proposal quickly and efficiently.

Writing a business proposal for event planning (including specialties such as wedding planning, event management, entertainment, food catering, corporate retreats and so on) is pretty straightforward.

All of these situations are examples of businesses selling a service; so these proposals will all fall under the general category of business proposals offering services.

Most proposals offering services, regardless of the type of business, follow a similar structure: introductions, then a summary of the client's needs, followed by descriptions of the services and costs and information about the service provider and their credentials and capabilities.

For event planning proposals, you will also usually need to include detailed information pertaining to the specific event, such as the venue, entertainment being provided, amenities at the site, schedule, and so on.

If you are new to proposal writing, one thing to note is that a price list is not a substitute for a proposal. A proposal is a sales document meant to help persuade your potential clients to give you their business. To do that, you must instill trust that you can deliver the services that clients need. It's not all about just giving them a price quote.

Before you start creating a proposal for your client, you should gather enough information about the client to present a proposal that is truly tailored to that client's needs, as opposed to just sending every client an identical sales letter. A tailored proposal stands a much better chance of being accepted by the client.

So, following the general order described above, you should start out with a Cover Letter and Title Page to introduce yourself. The Cover Letter should be a brief message that shows your company contact information and delivers a personal introduction. The Title Page should introduce your proposal and name the specific event you are discussing.

Next, add some topics that show that you understand the needs of your client. Depending on how large an event you are presenting a plan for, you may or may not need to include a detailed summary. For a complex event that needs a summary, this proposal section is normally called an Executive Summary for corporate clients, or a Client Summary for a less formal project. This is where you talk about your specific prospective client and show your understanding of their requirements as well as their goals and desires, and any restrictions or limitations you are aware of. This is not yet the place where you talk about yourself. Put the client first.

Follow the introductions and client information with your Services Provided, Benefits, Services Cost Summary pages and any other topics you need to discuss that describe exactly what you are providing and how much it will cost.

Many types of event proposals may also require specialized topics. This is where you would add pages with pertinent details, such as descriptions of the Events, Venue, Amenities, Entertainment, Performers, Presenters, Samples, Equipment, Rentals, Schedule of Events, Fundraising, Volunteering, Security, Permits and Licenses, and so on. You may also want to provide information about your staff members or about other organizations you will coordinate with to stage the event.

A wedding planner may have to deal with many different topics at once, such as catering for pre-wedding or post-wedding meals as well as receptions, flowers and other decorations, rentals of facilities and furnishings, professional hosts and/or musical performers with their associated equipment needs, and setup and post-event cleanup for multiple venues.

A concert promoter may have to deal with performers, scheduling, security, permits, a venue, equipment rentals, sound crews and equipment technicians, ticket sales, and so on.

A music DJ for small parties may only have to deal with equipment and samples of his work.

A corporate event planner may have to deal with hotel amenities, conference facilities, transportation and parking issues, scheduling, presenters, staffing, and so on.

Examples of event planning proposals created using Proposal Packs:

• Event Party Planner Services Proposal
• Food Services Catering Sample Proposal
• Wedding Planner Services Sample Proposal
• Music DJ Sample Proposal
• Hotel Facilities Services Sample Proposal

The final information sections you should provide in your proposal are your company details. This is where you would put your About Us / Company History, Capabilities, Our Clients, Testimonials or References pages. This information comes last in the proposal, and your goal is to convince your client that you can be trusted to deliver the services they need.

After you have all the information written for your proposal outline and chapters, you should focus on making your proposal visually appealing. Add some color and graphics by incorporating your company logo, using colored borders, and selecting custom bullet points and fonts that match your business's style.

Proposal Pack even has some pre-designed graphic packs for your event proposals. 

Once you feel your proposal is complete, make sure to carefully proofread and spell-check all the pages. Have someone who is unfamiliar with your proposal proof it as well. It's very common to quickly scan your own work and miss mistakes.

Finally, you can save your proposal as a PDF file or print it on paper and then deliver it to your potential client. Your delivery method will depend on your business and your relationship with your potential client. Emailing PDF files to clients is very common; however, there are times when a printed, signed and hand-delivered proposal can carry more weight. It shows you value that client enough to put in the extra personal effort.

As you can see, an "event planner" proposal can mean something different to everyone who needs to write one, and everyone's needs for what they should include will be different.

The good news is that all event planner proposals follow a similar format and structure, and you can find all the templates you need in a Proposal Pack. And you will also find many sample event planner proposals already written that can help you get started right away.

20 Reasons Why You Didn't Win the Project

Writing a winning proposal is much more than simply filling out documents and putting them in front of a prospect. There may be many reasons why your proposal did not make the final cut.

If you are new to creating proposals, try to look upon each proposal submission as a learning experience, and be prepared to adjust your strategy and presentation as needed along the way. After you've been informed that you didn't get the job, you should attempt to politely interview the potential client or customer. If possible, speak directly to the person responsible for selecting the winner.

Explain that you want to understand why your proposal was not selected so that you can improve in the future. Thoughtfully consider what the person has to say and thank them for speaking to you. Keep in mind, however, that the person may not tell you the real reason behind the decision. Some people may be wary of sounding too critical, and of course there are always those instances where a friend or relative was selected for the job instead of using a true competitive process.

Although you can learn from failure, you should try your best to succeed with every proposal. Don't let sloppy mistakes keep your proposal from rising to the top. A failure to land the job or get the grant is often due to the following common reasons:

• Writing style: yours did not appeal to the reader.

To avoid a mismatch, do some research to find out about the style of the person and/or organization you are targeting. For example, if you are creating a proposal for a financial institution where all employees dress in formal business attire, it would not be a good idea to write your proposal in a folksy, casual style.

• Incorrect target: your proposal was not sent to the right person.

Take the time to call the organization and find out the correct individual to address your proposal to. Make sure you spell that person's name correctly and get his or her title correct, too.

• Bad timing: your pitch was not made at the right moment.

Generally speaking, it's not a good idea to send a proposal 'out of the blue.' The best proposals, of course, are those that are solicited through RFPs, but if that's not the case for you, then try to link your pitch to something concrete like a recent event or news article so it will seem relevant.

• Slipshod writing: your spelling or grammar was incorrect.

If your proposal doesn't look or sound professional, why would the prospect think that your work would be any better? If spelling and grammar are not your strengths, then hire someone to perfect your proposal language before you send it.

• You failed to address the prospect's fears and objections.

Your prospective client wants to be confident that you will do what is right for his organization. Prove that you have listened to his concerns and have the solution for each of his problems.

• Your personal appearance and presentation did not match the prospect's 'style'.

Take the time to scope out the organization or individual you will pitch to. Does the decision maker wear a suit, or jeans and casual shirt? Show up similarly dressed and that person will automatically feel comfortable with you.

• Internal politics at the prospect's company influenced the decision.

There's not much you can do about this one, but if you are aware of internal issues before presenting your proposal, try to address them within the proposal.

• Hidden agendas at the prospect's company influenced the decision.

Odds are that you'll never even find out about this reason.

• Your project estimate was too low or high.

Many clients simply choose the least costly proposal. But more experienced ones may actually reject a proposal with an unreasonably low estimate, because they fear that the proposal was made by someone who didn't truly understand the project or was too inexperienced to estimate accurately. An estimate that is too low may also indicate to an experienced client that substandard materials will be used or quality will be sacrificed.

• You were too persistent or not persistent enough with the prospect.

It's never a good idea to harangue a prospect; you wouldn't appreciate someone who called you or showed up every day, and neither will your potential client. But it's also not a good idea to simply mail a proposal and never make contact again. If possible, call or set up a meeting in advance to get as much information as you can, and then, after you've submitted the proposal, call to make sure it was received and ask whether the prospect has all the information needed from you to make the decision.

• Your proposal didn't instill confidence.

First of all, be sure your proposal looks and sounds professional. Next, let others speak for you. Be sure to include references, referrals, descriptions of similar projects that you have previously accomplished, awards, professional certifications and memberships, etc. - in other words, include everything that demonstrates that others believe you're trustworthy and professional.

Read more on how to win proposals by instilling trust.

• Your proposal did not show a clear understanding of the client's needs or business.

Do your research. If possible, interview the client and ask specifically about needs. If you received an RFP, read it carefully and make sure you address each of the requirements listed. Find out all you can about the business so that the solutions you propose will match their needs.

• Your solution was not the best value for the price.

Another proposal may have offered more for the same price. If you discover this, consider whether you can match the winner's offer in the future.

• The competition outdid you.

This might be in terms of presenting a better proposal, or simply a better package for less money. Consider how you could do better next time.

• There was miscommunication between you and the client.

Be sure you understand what the client wants, address the client's concerns, and present the information she is looking for.

• Competitors trashed your solution in their proposals.

The only defense against this is to keep your proposal as confidential as possible, and as professional and complete as possible.

• A consultant working with the client had ties to one of your competitors.

Again, presenting the most complete, most professional proposal you can is your best protection against this result.

• The client wanted the "safe" choice, not the "best" choice.

Sometimes this means that the client wants to work with someone he's worked with in the past; sometimes it means that he wants to work with the most well known organization for that project. Make sure you include your experience, awards, referrals, and credentials so that the client will understand that you too are a "safe" choice. Sometimes this means the executive who awards the winner does not want to risk their job and goes with the solution that is the safest for their job position.

• The RFP was written to favor a particular bidder.

There's nothing you could do about this. The decision was made before the requests were ever sent out; the RFP was only for appearance's sake.

• You did not follow the instructions given.

If you are given specific instructions to follow when submitting a proposal, especially an RFP, make sure you follow all of the guidelines to the letter. Many government agencies and businesses issue RFPs that allow you some leeway in how you write your proposal as long as you follow the guidelines they provide. If you violate the RFP guidelines your proposal may be disqualified regardless of how well it was written.

This list is by no means a complete list of every possible reason why you may have failed to land the client. There will always be situations that you have no control over. You may never know the reasons why either. Focus on the things that you can control, and use good common sense. Sometimes the key to winning can be as small as a personal touch – in a world that is increasingly becoming automated.

A Proposal Kit Customer Success Story (with a Promotion)

How John Used Proposal Kit to Land New Clients then Landed a New Promotion

Three years ago I was working in the warehouse for my present employer. A member of our sales staff was assigned the task of creating a proposal for a potential client. The proposal was reviewed and submitted to the potential client. Sadly the proposal was not accepted. We were permitted to re-submit within 30 days.

My curiosity and competitive nature got the better of me. And the fact that I really believed that I knew what the client(s) expected from our business. Not knowing exactly what a proposal was, or for that matter how to create one. After all I worked in the warehouse. I did some internet searching, on my own time.

The Internet searching proved fruitful. I now had an understanding of the construction and format of a proposal. Now came the hard part, putting all of this new knowledge on paper. I knew our businesses capabilities.

Some more Internet searching, for a program, template or something to help me pull this all together. I found many possible solutions, one of them being the Proposal Kit. After trying a few of the other trail downloads, Proposal Kit won out. I made the purchase and composed my version of a proposal.

After completion (took me about a week) I converted the proposal from a Word doc to a PDF and burned it to a CD. I asked my supervisor if he could send the CD to the salesman that did the original proposal through inter-corporate mail. My supervisor asked what it was, I told him it may help with creating the proposal needed for the potential client that we needed to bring on board. He asked if he could take a look at it. I told him that he could.

My supervisor had seen me at the time clock punching out, he told me that he had sent the CD to the person that needed to see it.

Two days later there was a piece of paper clipped on my time card, telling me to report to the office receptionist. I notified my supervisor as to where I needed to go. His reply was "hurry back, I need to talk with you." On my way to the office I was wondering, Oh boy! What did I do? I bet that I stepped on some ones toes - it was nice working here.

The receptionist said someone will be with you shortly. Seconds later a woman told me to follow her. After a short walk, she stopped pointed to a door and said go in there he's waiting for you.

The owner of the company was on the other side of the door, sitting at a conference table. My CD was on the table. The owner told to have a seat. He asked me if I did the proposal that was on the CD. I told him that I did. "Do you still have an editable file of the proposal?" I answered, "Yes I do." "May we use this proposal of yours?" I said, "Yes absolutely". He then told me that my supervisor needed to speak we me, and thanked me for coming in.

Having my supervisor speaking to me was a little curious. He said, "If it's alright with you, I have to let you go." I said, "What? What do you mean if it's alright with me? What's going on here?" He said, "Well I'll have to let you go, because if it's alright with you, you'll be part of the sales team starting tomorrow. Right now you need to get that proposal of yours back here ASAP."

After retrieving my proposal and returning to work. I was sent to the sales offices. I walked in told the first person that seen who I was and what I had with me. The salesmen stood up and were clapping. The salesman that wrote the original proposal came over to me shook my hand and said "That is a great piece of work." Ushering me to a desk saying, "You can use this desk. There are a few changes that need to be made to the verbiage of your proposal. I can help with these. You're office will ready tomorrow morning."

After the changes were made to the proposal, it was proofread by the owner and all of the salesmen. The proposal was sent to the client. Here's the really good news, the proposal was accepted, and two days after the client received it. We got the contract. And quite a few more followed.

I am by no means saying that I had become proposal writing guru in a week or two using Proposal Kit. What I am saying is that, I had the knowledge of the Who, What, Where and How of the clients product moving through our system and distribution. And why using us to distribute their product would benefit them.
Proposal Kit is the tool that I used to compile that information into a straight forward proposal for the clients approval. And so far we are averaging eight out of ten acceptances.

Pros: Covers nearly any type of proposal you may need. The ability to add more or create your own "themes" and "packs" for your own specific industry or product/service is very powerful. Instead of purchasing a whole lot of what you don't need, purchase only what you do need and grow from there.

Cons: Little bit of a learning curve to get up and running with the application (you need to/should know something about proposals.) But, this is to be expected with any new (to you) application.

Summary: Great application that is very powerful and saves a significant amount of time once you are up and running. Create with ease a very simple or complicated/comprehensive proposal. Our clients have been very impressed at the attention to detail of our proposals as well as the professional and unintimidating appearance of the document. Imagine your clients legal department/lawyer approving your proposal two days after receiving.

John Moskala
Renaissance News Inc.

John worked in the warehouse before taking the initiative and using Proposal Kit to write a proposal that not only landed his company new clients but got him promoted to the sales department.

Overcome Writers Block with Proposal Kit

These days, like so many businesses, my company is asking all its employees to take on more tasks. I write catalog descriptions and the company newsletter and the occasional help topic for the product support guys, so I suppose it was natural that my boss thought of me when the board decided that someone needed to write a proposal.

The sales department handed me all sorts of statistics and company data, as well as some pertinent facts about the client and the project the bosses wanted to create a proposal for. At first, I felt a little flattered by the assignment, but then, when I sat down to begin, panic set in.

I suddenly realized I knew nothing about writing a business proposal. Writer's block threatened to paralyze me into complete rigor mortis. I quickly fired off a few emails to close friends who I knew wouldn't advertise my ignorance. (Writer needs help!!) One of them advised me to check out ProposalKit.com, a web site that sells products made for proposal writers.

Yeah, right, I thought, like a web site or a software package is going to help me get words on all those blank pages. But I went to the ProposalKit.com web site, and I have to admit, I was pleasantly surprised. Actually, I was more than surprised, I was encouraged. Heck, I learned a lot from the web site itself. For one thing, there's a whole section called "Proposal Writing Tips, Tricks and Best Practices" that contains all these informative articles about - guess what? - how to write a proposal. They actually explain the process and how to do it the best way, right on the web site!

I found out that the product includes over 800 proposal topic templates. I clicked on that link to see the list. Wow! The templates were even grouped into categories like Introduction, Goal-Centered Topics, Project-Centered Topics, Financial Spreadsheets, and so forth. Okay, now I started to see not only a whole bunch of proposal topics that I needed to include in my proposal, but I could envision the structure that my proposal should have, too.

I clicked on one of the proposal template titles, and it displayed the description for that template, which told me how I should use that page in my proposal. This is true for every proposal template page in the product - it not only tells you the typical usage for that page in a proposal, but it suggests all sorts of information that you might want to include on the page. Just by reading the descriptions, I made a list of data that my boss hadn't given me that could make the proposal much stronger. The boss - and even his boss - was going to be so impressed when I made suggestions about information to include that the board hadn't thought of by themselves.

I could see that I could select a whole bunch of proposal template pages from the library in Proposal Kit and then follow the suggestions on each page to create the proposal for my company. Yes! I was not alone in this undertaking; Proposal Kit was actually going to help me.

On the web site, I also noticed a section that described a library of sample proposals. Now that sounded intriguing, so I clicked that link. OMG! The product contains over a hundred samples of proposals from every conceivable type of organization about almost every conceivable type of project. ProposalKit.com even let me look at a couple of complete sample proposals for free, and let me check out truncated samples for any of the others on their long, long list. All right! I was really getting the hang of this proposal writing gig now; I could see what sorts of pages other companies put into proposals and how they sell themselves to prospective clients. As a matter of fact, it was looking like it might be a whole lot easier to write this proposal than the boss had led me to believe. I looked over my shoulder to make sure nobody was watching my Proposal Kit investigation, and I jotted down a few notes to myself about tone and style for my company's proposal.

There were even reports and studies and special applications - like pages for all sorts of contracts - among the samples. Hey, I could use those in the future, too. The boss was going to be oh-so-amazed when I talked to him about writing up feasibility studies within the company and the potential for government contracts that we might be able to secure for the future. I wrote down details about all those things, too.

Proposal Kit has a program called a wizard that assembles all the pages into a professional-looking proposal, and the company also sells all kinds of designs, called graphic skins, that we can choose from. So I jotted a note about how the proposal should look and 'feel' to the readers—should we choose a sophisticated design scheme created by a pro (Proposal Kit), should we put our own logo on every page, or both? I will sound so knowledgeable when I run that query past the boss.

After an hour or so, I had a list of information I needed to collect and questions I needed to ask others within the company, as well as advice that I was going to pass along. I could see the proposal writing path laid out before me like it was lit up with runway lights. Of course the writing was going to take some time, but I could see exactly how I needed to do it. Proposal Kit was going to make me look like a genius.

I had to get my hands on the Proposal Kit products. They were very reasonably priced, so I just told the department that I needed Proposal Kit and the Wizard for my writing projects, and with their permission and the company credit card, I placed my order and downloaded the products. I'm already half way through writing the proposal and I'll easily finish before my deadline. Now, my hardest decision is whether to share my discovery of Proposal Kit with others in my company, or keep it my own secret weapon. Either way, I'm expecting to get a big raise when review time comes around again.

By Jade Austin

Stay Out of Trouble Copying Proposal Examples

Why you should not copy someone else's proposal example. A Best Practices article to help keep you out of trouble when you are writing your business proposal.

I received a packet of information recently in the mail. The introductory letter started off like this:

How Not to Copy a Proposal Example

Dear Mr. Beason,

We know that you sometimes need temporary office help at WildWing Press. Did you know that you can hire a construction worker for just a day or two to handle the extra work? Our temporary service is here to give you help when you need it. We've enclosed a list of our available services and prices, as well as some interesting information about some of our staff. After you've had a chance to read through our offerings, we're sure that you'll call Hard@Work Temps to learn how we can make your life easier.

As a business owner, after one quick glance at the contents, I file packets like this in my recycle bin. Why? Because I can tell right away that this is only a copy that is going out to thousands of other business owners. For one thing, I have multiple business licenses, so I got multiple copies, which shows the sender isn't very clued in to the ways organizations are structured. But even if I hadn't received several copies of the same information, I could tell that the sender has substituted only a few words—my last name, the word "office," and the name of my company—because he forgot to change the font so all the text would match. The sender clearly hasn't bothered to check that I am a 'Ms.' not a 'Mr.' And most telling of all, the sender forgot to take out the word 'construction,' and why would my publishing company need a construction worker? Does Hard@Work even employ construction workers, or is this a copy of another company's proposal, or a proposal example that Hard@Work found somewhere on the internet? The whole thing smacks of sloppiness and laziness. Why would I trust the sender to be any less sloppy and lazy when he does work for me?

It's not hard to recognize that the person who created this proposal was not a writer but a copier. I have no doubt that Hard@Work Temps is sending the same package to thousands of other companies. As a matter of fact, I'm sure I'll discover exactly that when I get together with local business owners at our next networking meeting. Did the sender forget that business owners are real people who share information and communicate with each other? With the proliferation of business networking websites, and all the email and instant messaging that goes on these days, it's easy for us to compare notes. The sender of copied information like this could quickly find himself classified as a spammer in the business community.

Do you think that receiving this packet inspired me to use the services of Hard@Work Temps? No way. Receiving this sort of information makes me think that if the company is this careless in sending out proposals, they'll probably be that careless in all their business dealings. Copying is hardly professional behavior, and I don't want my business to be associated with amateurs.

I'm a professional writer and editor, and of course I re-use formats, proposal examples and basic information where it's appropriate, but I start from scratch when I write and I always proofread carefully to make sure that everything I send out represents me and is intended for my specific client. Copying someone else's proposal would be like copying someone else's homework — it's not ethical and it's certainly not professional, and some telltale sign is bound to be left—mismatched writing styles, the wrong word, a name that doesn't belong. Also, remember what I said about networking and email? You never know when proposals are going to be passed around, or even posted on some website or bulletin board for everyone to read. If your proposal is an obvious copy, wouldn't you be embarrassed? Some institutions even use software that compares wording among documents to try to prevent plagiarism — how would you like to fail that sort of test? You'd hardly come out looking like a professional.

Proposal Kit is designed around the best practices in the industry, and one of those is that copying samples and proposal examples is not recommended. Any professional business owner or proposal writer will tell you the same thing.

Proposal Kit gives you all the tools you need to create good proposals and other business documents. The editable proposal templates are full of suggestions and proposal examples for you to follow. The sample PDF proposal examples are not editable, but they provide you with great ideas of how to create your own proposal. Use them for inspiration. Take those ideas and do what the sample writers did—use Proposal Kit's templates to generate your own unique proposal, writing your own words and highlighting your individual skills and strengths.

Proposal Kit gives you a big head start, but you need to do the work of creating a document that represents you and is designed for your specific audience. It won't be wasted effort. A copied proposal or proposal example just won't cut it when your proposal is not the only one on the client's desk, and if you're going to send out a proposal, you want to land the contract or secure the loan, don't you? Isn't that the whole point? If you are absolutely in love with a proposal example, you can copy and paste the text from the PDF file, but you run all the risks I mentioned above.

The competition's tough out there. You need to find a way to stand out from the crowd. Use Proposal Kit's features to create your own personalized proposal. Then at the next networking meeting, instead of laughing about the latest crummy copy they all received, your clients and potential customers will be raving about your fantastic proposal.

Pamela S. Beason
Writer/Editor/Business Owner