How to Write a Travel or Tourism Business Proposal

Do you have a great idea for an adventure travel expedition, or do you want to develop the tourism appeal for your area? It’s generally not enough to simply talk about your ideas; if you want to get funding or management approval, you usually have to describe your vision in writing. That means you have to write a proposal. But don’t worry if you’ve never written a proposal before—it’s not as hard as it might sound, after you understand that all business proposals have a definite structure to follow for success.

Although individual sections will vary in content and length depending on the complexity of your proposed project and the types of information you need to supply, every good proposal should follow a standard four-part sequence: introduction,  reader-focused section,  description of your proposal plan, and finally,  a section that explains your credibility and ability to fulfill your promises.

First of all, consider who you have to sell your ideas to. In other words, who will read and judge your proposal? It’s crucial to always keep your readers in mind; all good proposals are focused on the recipients, not on the party submitting the proposal.

So, let’s start with the introduction section. The very first item the recipient should see when opening a proposal package is a Cover Letter—this is essentially an introduction to your proposal, so simply state who you are, why you’re submitting this proposal now, state what you would like the reader to do after considering your proposal, and provide all the contact information the reader needs to follow up with questions or approval of your request.

Now for the proposal itself: create a Title Page. Name your proposal something straightforward and logical, like “Proposal for New England Fall Foliage Tour,” “Plan to Create a Tourism Bureau for Whatford County,” or “Using Our Town’s History to Attract Tourists.” If your proposal is short, that may be all you need for an introduction section. But if your project is more complex, you may need to come back later and add a Table of Contents and an Executive Summary, which is basically a list of the most important points you make within your proposal.

Now for the reader-focused section. Consider the party to whom you are submitting this proposal—is this a town council? A potential business partner? A prospective client? The management team at a tour company? What do the readers want to know? What will their concerns be? Do they have a list of requirements to be met? In this section, you need to prove that you understand who you’re pitching to and what their needs and desires are.

Most important of all, you must explain how your proposal will benefit that party. In this section, you will include pages like Needs and Benefits, and if you’re answering a stated need or responding to an RFP, you might also need pages like Requirements, Budget, Schedule, Deadlines, and so forth. Keep in mind that in this section you are describing the needs of and the benefits to your potential partners, management, or investors, not your own goals and desires. A winning proposal should remain focused on the reader, not on the party proposing the project. If you are selling personal travel services to clients you can include topics such as What you Can Expect or It's All About You.

After this reader-focused section comes the section where you describe your proposal in detail and explain what it will cost. This will most likely be the longest section in your proposal, because it should contain all the topic pages you need to explain your ideas. Be sure to include all the details your reader will want to know. Depending on your proposed project, you might have pages describing Services Offered, Products, Costs, Timeline, Venues, Facilities, Tours, Tourism, Destinations, Transportation, Strategic Relationships, Customers, and Advertising—the list is endless because your goal is to include all the topics you need to describe everything you propose to do, how you plan to do it, and what your expenses will be.

You may need to include financial pages, such as a projected Return on Investment (ROI). As always, put yourself in your readers’ position—what questions will they have? The more specific you are, the more likely your proposal is to persuade the readers that you have done your research, have a good plan, and can fulfill your promises.

In the last section of the proposal, you get a chance to brag about yourself. Here, your goal is to include all the information you have that will convince the reader that you are trustworthy and can carry out the plan you detailed in the previous section. At the very least, you’ll want a Company History or About Us page that explains your background. You can use pages like Experience, Projects, and Clients Served to show your experience with similar projects. You might want to explain any special Training or Credentials you have, or list your Staff or Team Members, and even add Resume or Biography pages. If you have Awards or Testimonials, you should include them, because it always adds credibility when you can show that others value your ideas and services.

That’s it! Doesn’t sound so hard, does it? But after you have all the words on paper, you still need to do two things before you send your proposal out:  proofread it carefully to ensure there are no grammar, punctuation, or spelling mistakes, and inspect each page to make sure it looks neat and professional. You might want to add colored borders or special fonts or bullet points to add visual interest.

Want a head start on writing and formatting your proposal? Consider purchasing a dedicated product like Proposal Kit, which is specially designed for writing proposals. Proposal Kit includes all the topic pages mentioned above, as well as hundreds of others, and blank pages you can use for any topic. Each topic page (or template) includes examples and suggestions about the information to include on that page, so you’ll never be stuck looking at a blank screen and thinking “What goes here?”

The templates are professionally designed, so your proposal will look good, too. You can select from a variety of specialty design themes, or add your own business logo to personalize your pages. There are plenty of instructions for use, as well as helpful articles and tips on writing proposals. And to give you great ideas, every Proposal Kit package includes dozens of sample proposals, so you can see how a proposal similar to yours might look and what it might contain. If you want help with assembling your proposal and creating a Table of Contents, you can purchase the optional Wizard program. You’ll find that Proposal Kit is a great buy for writing proposals of all kinds, as well as reports and other general business documents.

How to Write Your Business Proposal in a Foreign Language

Many markets are global these days, so you may need to translate your business proposal into multiple languages. With the assistance of computerized translation programs or professional translators and the use of proposal writing programs that include multilingual support like proposal kits, translating or creating a business proposal in any language is not as difficult as you might imagine.

The basic structure of any proposal should be the same, no matter which language it is written in: introduction section (Cover Letter, Title Page, Summary, etc.); reader-focused section (the recipients’ Needs Assessment, Requirements, Deadlines, Budget, Concerns, etc.); project description section (your proposed Services, Products, Schedule, Cost Summary, etc.); and the provider-focused section (your Experience, Education, Recommendations, Qualifications, Capabilities, etc.).

When planning for translations, simply write the proposal in English (or your most-used language), using clear and concise wording and leaving out slang terms and examples that do not translate well. Also, it’s best to keep text out of graphics; save it for captions so words can be easily translated without needing a graphic artist to change the lettering. Many foreign languages require more words than English, so leave plenty of space on each page to accommodate that need.

If you are writing your proposal for a foreign language from scratch you will be doing most of your writing in your own language – instead of translating an English language version of the text.  You can use a pre-designed proposal kit  to assist in writing your proposal. While the stock text provided will be in American English to start, find one that can translate parts of the stock templates and phrases into a variety of foreign languages for you.

You will still use the stock layouts, logo designs, graphics, proposal assembly and overall structure of a proposal system no matter which language your final document will be in. Just make sure you use a package that does not lock you into a restricted environment that doesn’t allow complete customization of every single element of your documents.

The background art and page formatting found in Proposal Kit will easily transition to any language, because there’s no text involved in the background designs and many of the graphics.

The most common languages supported in a proposal kit are American English, Canadian English, British (UK) English, Australian English, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, Italian, French, German, Romanian, Russian, Arabic, Chinese, Korean, and Japanese

Proposal Pack Wizard - Expert Edition software will assist in foreign language translations by auto-translating some of the elements of the documents for you, such as all the page headers and short phrases in the Cover Letter, Title Page, and so on. The software is there to assist you, but instructions are usually in English, so you’ll need to be comfortable with using commonly used proposal kits in English while you are use the package to create your final proposal in your own native language.

How to Write a Ranching Business Proposal

Do you run an eco-friendly, humane, free-range animal ranch and want to use that fact to help sell your beef, chicken, or buffalo? Or maybe you’re running a nonprofit international organization and you want to help the poor in other countries start a piggery or raise goats or turkeys. Perhaps you are working in the research or veterinary field and need to get a project approved or funded.

Whether you're already running a ranch and seeking new outlets for your livestock or meat, or whether you are seeking funding to start a ranch, expand a livestock operation, or fund a research project, sooner or later you will need to master the art of writing a business proposal.

If you can run a ranch, you can certainly write a proposal. You know ranching. You know what you want to do with your business. So you’ve already got a good start on the content for a proposal. Now, you need to add one vital element: knowledge of your potential customer or funding organization. You need to keep that person or organization in mind while you write your proposal.

Successful proposals are custom tailored for their recipients. So before you start writing, not only should you gather all the facts and figures and internet links you need to describe your organization and explain what you propose to do, but you should also gather some data on your proposal readers. For example, what’s the history of the organization you are pitching to? Have they approved projects like yours in the past? Do they have a particular interest, such as organic farming or humane treatment of animals? What do they already know about you? What questions are they likely to have? Knowing your prospective customers or partners will help you include the right sort of information that will persuade them to support you.

After you have all your information in hand, how do you begin a proposal project? By writing a Cover Letter. It simply needs to introduce your organization and your proposal, explain what you’d like the recipient to do after reading the proposal, and provide all your contact information. Next, create a Title Page. Choose a name that describes your proposal, like “Funding Request to Help African Villages Set Up Pig Farms,” “Plan to Add Buffalo and Ostriches to the High Country Ranch Operations,” “Pilot Program to Study Livestock Disease Resistance,”  or “Proposal to Deliver Fresh Free-Range Beef and Chicken to Cindy’s Down Home Restaurants.” The Cover Letter plus the Title Page, plus an optional Table of Contents and/or Client Summary (list of important points), makes up the first and shortest section of a proposal—the introduction.

The pages in the second section should describe what your potential customer or funding organization needs and wants from you, as well as any limitations, deadlines, or restrictions you know about. This section could also mention any opportunities that the readers may not yet have thought of. For example, local ranchers may not be supplying the demand for goats for traditional Greek Orthodox, Jewish, Hindu, or Muslim holiday meals in your area. Or perhaps you see a future need for more lean meat like beefalo, turkey, or ostrich. Or maybe you want to describe the need for milk, meat, and eggs in the diet of poor people, as well as the opportunity to make families self-sufficient with rapidly reproducing livestock. Pages in this section will have titles like Problem Statement, Needs Assessment, Market Demand, Opportunities, Requirements, and so forth.

If you are applying for funding or responding to an RFP, you probably have a checklist of information you need to provide, and you can insert your RFP Cross Reference and Compliance Matrix here, along with any other thoughts you have about future needs or challenges not addressed in the checklist.

The third section should be a detailed description of what you propose to do. This section could have any number of pages and topics, depending on your plans, projects, services, products and ideas. For example, if you plan to sell meat and poultry to restaurants or stores, you'll want to include pages describing your Products and a Wholesale Price List, and include Purchasing and Delivery Details. Be sure to include any details that help your plan stand out from your competitors, such as Organic or Environmental practices, your plan for Future Sustainability, and so forth. If you are starting a ranching operation, you should describe your Project Plan and Budget as well as your existing or needed Equipment, Personnel, and Real Estate. You might need to include a Return on Investment page.

If you plan to offer a service to existing ranchers, such as inspection, insemination, inoculation, castration, branding, transportation, butchery, veterinary, auctioneering or even bookkeeping services, then you'll want to describe all the tasks you will do. Each topic should describe how your project will meet a need or fulfill a demand and thus benefit all parties. Make sure you address all the needs, requirements, and opportunities mentioned earlier.

The fourth and final proposal section should explain why the reader can trust that you will fulfill your promises. This is your opportunity to brag about yourself, but remember that credibility comes from facts and recommendations from others, not from you simply saying you’re the best. In the final proposal section, you should have pages like About Us or Company History, Experience and Expertise, Team Members, and so forth. If you have successfully completed similar Projects, list them. Include pages describing any special Training or Credentials that would help to persuade the reader, and add Testimonials, Referrals, Awards, and recognition of Achievements from others.

That’s it—now you can see that the basic structure of a business proposal is introduce yourself and your proposal,  describe the needs, opportunities, and requirements,  describe in detail your plans and how they will meet the needs and requirements and take advantage of the opportunities, and finally  explain why the proposal reader should have confidence in your ability to successfully carry out your plans.

After you have all the information, facts, and figures in place, take the time to proofread each page. Simply running a spell check program is not enough. Polish the wording and the appearance of all the pages. You want the proposal to represent you at your professional best, especially if you have competition for contracts or funding.

Want to get a big head start on writing your proposal? Then consider using a proposal writing product like Proposal Kit, which comes with hundreds of professionally designed topic pages, including all those mentioned above. Each topic page contains instructions and examples of information to place on that page, so you’ll never sit looking at a blank screen. Proposal Kit includes dozens of sample proposals you can review to see which topics might go into a proposal and how the finished product could look.

Speaking of looks, you can choose different graphic designs with Proposal Kit, too, to make your proposal visually appealing. There are even a few contracts that you can adapt for your own use. Proposal Kit is great for general business use, too—you can use it to produce bids, reports, studies, and business letters as well as proposals. Proposal Kit can make even your very first proposal look and sound like it came from an expert.

Stay Out of Trouble Copying Proposal Examples – Win More By Writing Your Own

I received a packet of information recently in the mail. The introductory letter started off with some text in mismatched font sizes and types and the wrong salutation for my name.

As a business owner, I file packets like this in my recycle bin. Why? Because I can tell 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. But even if I hadn’t, 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 that they found on the internet?

I 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 receiving this packet inspire me to use the services of Hard@Work Temps? No way. It makes me think that if the company is this lazy and careless in sending out proposals, they’ll probably be that lazy and careless in all their business dealings.

I’m a professional writer and editor, and of course I re-use formats 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’m sending 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.

Proposal Kit is designed around best practices, and one of those is that copying samples is not recommended. Any proposal writing book 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 templates are full of suggestions and examples for you to follow. The sample PDF documents are not editable, but they provide you with great ideas of how to create your own proposal. Take those ideas and do what the sample writers did—use Proposal Kit’s templates to generate your own proposal.

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. A copied proposal just won’t cut it when your proposal is not the only one on the client’s desk. If you are absolutely in love with a sample proposal, 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. 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.

Boilerplate is Bad for Business - Templates without the Fluff

It used to be that most business was conducted face to face, or at least over the phone. Odds were that your prospective clients knew who you were, and your competition was from your own neighborhood - you knew who they were, too. In that local environment, it was possible to distinguish yourself from the competition by your personality alone. Others in your business community knew you by the reputation you had established there.

Now our world is global and we are all connected mostly by impersonal means via email and the internet. Whether you are vying for a job, trying to secure a loan or a business contract, looking for new clients or introducing your products to new customers, odds are that now your competitors will number in the hundreds - if not thousands - and they can come from anywhere around the world.

On the face of things, it seems easy to just find a “template” you can just put your name on, but unfortunately following that strategy results in proposals that contain a lot of fluff and wordage but deliver little in the way of useful data. Plus it won’t be in a writing style that matches the rest of your material such as your web site, brochures or other collateral.

And worst of all, when you use boilerplate forms, your proposal ends up looking and reading like hundreds - if not thousands - of others.

Imagine being the poor proposal reader who sees the exact same words over and over again; your eyes would glaze over in a hurry and all proposals would seem equal. But it's never in your best interest for your proposal to appear equal to everyone else's; you want to land the job or secure that loan. Using the identical form as your competitors greatly increases the odds that your proposal will end up in the slush pile instead of on the decision maker's desk. You need your proposal to stand out, not blend in.

Proposal Kit takes a different approach from this 'fill in the blank' style. Instead of giving you paragraphs of essentially meaningless boilerplate text, each of our templates provides you with instructions, constructive suggestions, and examples of appropriate information to put into each proposal page, as well as giving you a professional format to use to present your ideas. The words on each page come from you, and so does the tone and style of your presentation.

You may be worried that without a lot of boilerplate text, you will feel lost and sit staring at blank pages without a clue about where to start and what to include on each page. Without boilerplate text, will proposal writing be a lot more work? The answer is no. Don't fret! You're not starting from scratch.

Although you will be writing the words and supplying the information the decision makers need, you will never be perplexed about what to add to your proposal when you're using Proposal Kit. We have hundreds of template pages for you to choose from, and hundreds of suggestions on how to connect those pages and elaborate on important topics. No matter what type of business or nonprofit work you're engaged in, odds are that you can find the templates you need here. And it's easy to see how any page can be individualized for your specific requirements.

We understand that it can be difficult for a proposal writer to think of everything, so our templates recommend various items and ideas you might want to include on that page, as well as suggesting ways to structure that information. The suggestions not only include the text elements you might want to include, but suggestions for website URLs, graphs, blueprints, and diagrams, because we know that you want to present your information in the format that is most appropriate for your project and most useful to your readers.

We've designed Proposal Kit to be flexible enough to use for almost any sort of writing, too, so you can use our templates to create not only proposals, but in-house reports, scientific analyses, financial documents, annual reports, feasibility studies - almost any sort of document you might need in business. Even resumes are covered.

If you ever still feel stuck for inspiration, you can always get ideas from our samples. As well as hundreds of templates for proposal pages, Proposal Kit includes over a hundred sample proposals, studies, and reports from a wide variety of organizations for all sorts of situations. International shipping, manufacturing, software networking, child day care, food catering, nonprofit programs to house the homeless, publicity campaigns - almost anything you can name is in there. The list goes on and on.

Even if we don't yet have a sample proposal for the specific type of project you have mind, you'll be able to find one or more samples in the list that are similar enough to get you started on the right track. We've done our best to provide sample proposals that will show our customers - from the individual entrepreneur to the largest corporation - the wide variety of documents they can create with Proposal Kit. By exploring these samples, you'll see how our templates can be easily used and assembled into a unique package, and you'll also get ideas on how to best present your ideas and sell yourself to your readers.

You want your proposal to showcase your ideas and highlight your experience, exhibit your personality, and above all, stand out from the crowd. Those are our goals, too. When you use Proposal Kit, your proposal will be easy to write, the result will be professional, and your presentation style will be your own.

You'll feel like an expert as you put your information on the pages. Your finished product will be well structured, easy to read, and written in your own words. Best of all, it will be a unique proposal that actually represents you. It will be a proposal that the decision maker will remember.

It’s All About Trust - Winning Proposals by First Winning Trust

It’s a big impersonal world out there, especially on the internet. The competition for attention is fierce. Anyone can slap a price quote and a cover letter and ship them off via email, but that’s not a strategy that’s likely to succeed.

So how do you create a proposal that will land the customer or secure that business loan or grant money? We all want to do business with people we trust. Your proposal must convince your prospective clients or donors that you are worthy of their trust.

If possible, add a personal touch by requesting a face-to-face meeting to present your proposal. Shaking hands with the other party can go a long way toward finalizing a deal.

But in-person meetings are not always possible, especially in the world of global business, so often your printed proposal needs to do all the work for you.

How do you inspire trust? And particularly, how do you inspire trust in people who don’t know you at all?

First of all, demonstrate that you have integrity and experience. To do this, provide honest, easily understood information about your background, your strengths, and your intentions. You could use a Company History, Credentials, Capabilities, and Awards and Achievements chapters to describe yourself or your organization. Use concrete, straightforward language to describe how your proposal will benefit everyone (add Opportunities and Benefits chapters).

Clarity is important. Be sure to set forth clear expectations that both parties can understand, with results that can be measured. You may want to use a Goals and Objectives or Expected Results chapters to provide a concise summary, and then use other pages to supply more explanation. Be as detailed as possible so ensure that you and the reader have a shared vision of what you are proposing. If you are responding to a request for proposal (RFP), show your thoroughness by carefully considering the information provided and by specifically addressing each requirement. If you are unclear about any requirement, get more information if possible so that you can include appropriate data instead of vague generalities.

In every proposal, you should encourage feedback from the other party, and explain that you are willing to listen and modify plans as needed to make the project successful for everyone.

Show your ability to complete the proposed project by explaining how and by whom the process will be accomplished. There are many chapters you can use for this purpose, such as Project Plan, Implementation Plan, Schedule of Events, and so forth. Describe the resources—such as equipment, financial backing, or experienced personnel—that you will employ for the project (Equipment, Facilities, Financial Information, and Personnel documents, just to name a few extra chapters you might use).

Be thorough. Demonstrate that you understand the complexity of the project under consideration. If blueprints, diagrams, or photographs would demonstrate your ideas better than words, be sure to add those.

Establish your reputation by listing similar projects you’ve finished and recommendations from your satisfied business partners (Company History and Endorsements, Referrals, or References chapters). If you have copies of complimentary newspaper or magazine articles about your company’s projects or history, you might want to include those as well.

We are all more likely to trust others who hold themselves accountable for their actions.

Legal contracts generally spell out the terms of accountability. You can also show your accountability by explaining how and when results will be analyzed. Some of the many possible chapters to add for this are Accountability, Testing, Evaluation, Acceptance Criteria, and Reporting.  Describe what you will do if wrongs need to be righted or the process needs to be changed.  You might offer a guarantee of satisfaction or a warranty to fix any defects in a product.

If you are already allied with respected brands or organizations, highlight that (add Brand Strategy or Strategic Alliances chapters).  Memberships in organizations with good reputations can go a long way to establish respectability—be sure to list any you belong to by adding an Accreditations chapter.

If it’s appropriate, you may want to demonstrate your loyalty to good customers by providing a volume discount or other special offer.

Finally, we all tend to trust organizations and people who are good citizens. Do you donate to charity, lead a nonprofit organization, or lend a hand in your community? If so, point that out using a Donations or Contributions chapter. Have you won any awards or experienced any publicity for your good deeds? Include any evidence that shows you are a contributor to a cause larger than your immediate organization.

Presenting a proposal package that is full of errors will make even the best plans look unprofessional. Whenever possible, have others review your proposal and provide feedback, and get someone with a good eye to check your final version for grammar and spelling errors. Before you ship off the proposal, ensure that all pages are numbered appropriately and all pieces are present and in order. Prospective partners will have more confidence in your ability to complete a project when you show that you are professional in your planning and presentation.

Above all, be polite and show your respect in your cover letter by thanking prospective business partners in advance for their time and consideration and inviting their questions and feedback on your presentation. You may want to send a handwritten thank you note and follow up with a phone call.

Take the time to peruse the extensive list of documents in a pre-designed Proposal Kit.  A Proposal Kit package includes all of these chapters and will give you a big head start creating a trust-based proposal.

Establish your credibility and dependability with your prospective business partners.

Because it’s all about trust.

How to Write a Business Proposal that Wins

You’ve been given the task and now you’re wondering how to write a proposal. What is a proposal, anyway? At its core, there’s a need. And there’s a solution. That’s the basis of a proposal, which can be as short as a one-page letter or over a hundred pages long. As a proposal writer, sometimes you’re the party with the need, like when you write a proposal seeking a loan, a grant or some other form of support. At other times, you’re the one with the solution, like when you write a proposal offering products, services, or ideas that the other party needs or wants.

So obviously, statements of needs and descriptions of the solutions are major parts of all proposals. Sometimes the needs are stated in detail in a Request for Proposal (RFP), in which case you as the proposal writer will respond to each item in the RFP, in the format requested. At other times, you’ll need to convince the proposal reader that there is a need and that you have the solution, and the format of the information will be completely up to you.

How to Write a Proposal – Phase One: Plan It

Creating a complex proposal can seem a bit overwhelming, but Proposal Kit contains a number of checklists to help you stay on track. You can print these out and check off the steps as you work your way through the proposal writing process.

The first step is to get organized and do your research. Who will read this proposal? Get all the data you can on your prospective client or donor. Who are your competitors? You want to beat their presentations. Gather all the data you need for your pitch, too—any important history, contact information, schedules, website links, photos, product descriptions, and so forth.

The second step is to decide what you want to say in your proposal. You need to introduce yourself and describe your capabilities, products, or plans. Be specific, and if possible, mention awards or recommendations from others to add credibility. Check out the sample proposals in the Proposal Kit to get ideas on what to say and how to say it.

How to Write a Proposal – Phase Two: Get All the Data in There and Make It Perfect

Next, select the Proposal Kit templates that cover the topics you’ve decided to include in the proposal. The Proposal Pack Wizard can help you assemble all the selected templates into a single proposal document.

Now that you have the structure in place, take all your gathered content and flesh out the pages of your proposal, filling in the blanks, generating estimates, describing financial information, and so forth. Each template has instructional information to guide you, and you can use the included financial calculator spreadsheets to help figure costs, budgets and other numerical information.

Next comes the review stage. Use spell check, but don’t assume it can catch all errors. Have others check your proposal for grammar and spelling errors or for missing or misplaced information. This is particularly important if you copy content from samples or past proposals (see Why Not Just Copy the Sample Proposals? for a discussion of the risks of copying).

How to Write a Proposal – Phase Three: Send It and Then Follow Up

Now that you’ve perfected your masterpiece, create the final distribution copy. Print it out or convert it to PDF for delivery. Do one last final check and then send it on its way.

Whew! You’re done, right? Not quite. If you don’t hear back from your prospective client or donor, you need to follow up. If you receive a negative response, analyze what went wrong and ask for an opportunity to resubmit an improved proposal. Proposal Kit includes templates for follow-up letters and checklists for the post-submittal phase, too.

If you landed the job or won the grant, odds are that you’ll need to complete other documents such as contracts, work orders, non-disclosure agreements, change orders, development milestone sign-offs, just to name a few. Proposal Kit includes a large collection of pre-written contracts to help you with your obligations.

Now you know the basics of how to write a proposal. That means you know the basics of how to write a business proposal, how to write a grant proposal, and how to write a sales proposal. Each proposal type simply includes different information to establish credibility and provide the data that the client or donor needs.

No matter what type of proposal or business document you need to produce, Proposal Kit includes the templates, samples, and instructions that will help you succeed.