Effective Proposal Writing
December 9, 2009 | Posted by Peter You need to be good at Proposal Writing in order to secure money for your business development project. You visit investors and maybe venture capitalists to see if they will invest money in you and your business. An investor views your project as a pure investment and has no emotional attachment to your dreams and ambitions. You need to write a proposal that is structured around the investor’s needs, not yours. What may interest you may have no relevance to your potential funder. You need a business plan that is ‘investor-focused’.
An Investor Focused Business Plan
An investor focused business plan contains relevant information about your project. It addresses their concerns, questions and should allay fears that any potential investor may have. It should meet their needs exactly, because investors exist to make substantial returns on the capital they invest. They want to see a good return on their investment, and the way to do that is by compiling an investor focused business plan, so that it is clear to investors that you understand your business, you are focused, prepared to meet the challenges and competent.
It is always useful to prepare an ‘Executive Summary’ or abstract from the proposal. Then, in 500 words, or less, give the essence of your proposal so the reader understands your plan. As a rule, if the investor can get their minds around what you hope to accomplish, and how, from reading just your summary, and assuming it is a workable plan, then you should have a good chance of getting the investment you need. If the reviewer is at all confused after reading your abstract, you quite probably will not get the funding. In many ways, the ‘Executive Summary’ is the most important part of your entire proposal.
You can safely assume that the investor has seen so many poor proposals that people threw together without thinking them through, that they already believe that you have not put in the effort to think through your implementation plan. The investor wants to give you the money, as long as they can see there is a solid potential return.
There are four areas that need to be addressed by your proposal:
- Management Responsibility
- Know Your Markets
- Know Your Product
- Know How Management, Markets and Product Make Money
Management Responsibility
The strength of management assigned to the project can make or break your proposal. Investors need reassurance that you can manage their money. They will want to see a demonstrable track record in areas specific to the project you are pitching. The ability of management will be tested so be very prepared.
Know Your Markets
Your proposal writing will show investors where your income will be coming from. Your company must demonstrate a strong understanding of your customer base and be able to fulfill their needs. Your plan also must address the issues of any potential new or growth markets. Illustrate any research you have conducted to emphasize this so they can gain a feeling of your understanding of the market you are in.
Know Your Product
investors will want to fully understand your product. They will want you to demonstrate how the product that they are funding will attract customers. The information in this section must be extensive and also feature any potential expansions or upgrades that your product will feature. This will show that you have thought about long-term growth.
Know How Management, Your Market Knowledge and Your Products Make Profits
You must demonstrate that your management ability creates the links and paths between customers and products that make money. This element of your proposal writing must be very strong as ambiguous information, or assumptions will scare off any potential investor. Good proposal writing will create a step-by-step guide of how sales will be achieved and how the profit margin will provide the return on investment that the investor needs. This has to be clearly shown.
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Source: Proposal Writing at www.your-career-change.com
Categories: Contract Negotiations, Negotiating To Win, Negotiation Skills, Proposal Writing, Win-Win Negotiating | 
Tags: Proposal Writing, writing proposals | 
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