Rarely, rarely will you be able to take anyone else's business proposal
sample and copy it. You will need to amend even the very best ones to suit
your business.
FINDING GOOD BUSINESS PROPOSAL SAMPLES
The link above will take you to some of the best business proposals that we
know of. Hundreds of different industries are covered, with lots and
lots of styles and presentations.
But there is another great place you can look as well: annual
reports.
Businesses spend hundreds of thousands of dollars every year developing
annual reports that "sell" their business to the public, to the potential
investor. And that is just what you want to accomplish. You want
to sell your business to a potential investor, whether it is an angel
investor, a venture capitalist or your local banker. It is still a sales
job, just like an annual report is a sales job.
So where do you find these wonderful epistles?
Try a local business library, or a business section of a main community or
university library. Failing that, ask a local stock broker. Or,
write away to some large public companies in your field and ask them for one.
By law they have to send it to you.
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| Your 7-Step Business
Plan series contain links to free business plans that you can
review. You get the best of both worlds: examples that others have
done, and a great template in MS Word so that you can create your own
top notch business plan.
Click on the book covers for more information. |
SAMPLE BUSINESS PROPOSALS AND YOU
So you've got a good sample business proposal in hand. Now what?
You certainly don't want to copy it exactly. But here are some things
that you can do:
1. Study the structure. What comes first? What's
hidden in the middle? Read the first sentence of each paragraph to get a
feeling for the flow the business presentation.
2. Look for super terminology and phrases. When a
sentence or paragraph reads exceptionally well, what are the phrases that tie
it together? What pieces are especially descriptive? You can use
that terminology and those phrases in your own business proposal.
3. Study the layout. Look at the graphics and the use of
color. Odds are pretty good that there is restrained use of color.
That's not just to save on printing costs, although it does. It is also
a way of using color to highlight the sections that are especially important.
4. What's in their future? All good sample business
proposals will include a hint at what is to come, teasing the reader into
believing that a bunch more great stuff is just over the horizon. What's
in the future of your company? Is it anything comparable?
5. Most importantly, from what you know of the company, study the
types of information that are actually presented. There is no law
requiring that all the dirty laundry come out in an annual report, and it
doesn't.
The same holds true for your business proposal. Focus on the
positive, on the "mission accomplished" and the missions yet to come.
I am often asked if an entrepreneur should state up front if there have
been financial difficulties in his past. I am solidly against it UNLESS
it can be phrased in such a manner to demonstrate that the entrepreneur has
learned a great deal from that experience.
You are writing an introduction to your company, to your idea, and to
yourself. When you introduce a friend, you don't say, "Hey, by the way,
Fred declared bankruptcy three years ago." Neither should you say it
about yourself.
MAKING YOUR GOULASH
You've got all the ingredients now ... the idea, the structure, the color,
the style. And you know where you are going.
There just isn't anything more that anyone could ask of sample business
proposals. You are on your way.
