So,
you have a great idea for a project. As we all know, a "project" could
be almost anything. You might be thinking of a neighborhood project, like
creating a club where kids can safely hang out after school; an in-house
corporate project like teaching employees how to use a new document management
system; or a project for a client, such as creating a new commercial website.
No matter what sort of project you're planning, the odds are that you need to
convince others to approve your ideas and give you the job. That means that you
need to write a project proposal.
Don't
worry-writing a project proposal is not nearly as difficult as it may sound.
You probably already know most of the information you need to put in a
proposal. And you don't need to start off by staring at a blank computer
screen, either. There are great ready-made kits available that give you
templates, instructions, and samples to work with-that's a huge head start.
There's
also a basic structure you should follow when writing any project proposal. No
matter the type of project, you need to: introduce yourself and your project,
describe the need and how the project will meet that need, provide the details
of what you propose to do and explain the costs, and persuade your proposal
readers that you are the perfect choice to successfully complete the project.
Finally, you should end with a "call to action," requesting readers
to take the next step-setting up a meeting, signing a contract, voting for your
ideas; whatever makes sense for your project.
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The
most important goal of your proposal is to convince the people reading it to
approve your ideas and support and fund your project. This means that you have
to prove you understand the issues and plan to meet the needs of others. So a
good project proposal should never be all about you. Start off by imagining
yourself as the proposal reader. What do you already know about the project and
the proposal writer? What would you want to know?
First
of all, any proposal reader will want to know why you are proposing the project
to them. So gather all the information you have about your readers, and do
research if you need to fill in some gaps. You need to convince the readers
that it's in their best interest to support your project. You need to persuade
them that your project will benefit them.
In
other words, you need to write not a one-size-fits-all proposal, but a
customized proposal. Depending on how many people need to approve your project,
you may need to include information tailored to each type of person involved in
the approval process. Easy to digest summaries for executives, staffing and
resources information for managers and technical or logistics details for
project leads.
But
this doesn't mean that you need to start from scratch each time. You'll find
that most of the basic information stays the same, even though you are
addressing a particular reader and or group of readers in each tailored
proposal section. You may simply restructure the same information in a couple
different ways (bullet points for one person, expanded details for another).
Let's
work through the proposal structure in order. Start your proposal with a Cover
Letter, which should be a brief personal introduction of yourself and your
project, along with a mention of the action you want them to take after reading
your proposal. Be sure to include your contact information, so readers can
easily find you if they have questions. Next, create a Title Page with the
title of your specific proposal (for example, "Streamlining Our Order
Process," "Rehabilitating the Parkview Playground," or
"Converting XYZ's Corporate Fleet to Hybrid Vehicles."
If
your project is long and detailed, you'll add a Table of Contents next. This is
where a proposal kit can really help, because the library of topics they
include are extensive enough to cover all types of specialized proposals. Each
template will become a topic page, which will then be listed in your Table of
Contents. You can't compile a Table of Contents until you have written the
proposal, but remember that your TOC should be placed right after the title
page.
Now
you have completed the introduction section. Next comes the section where you
describe the project needs, goals, and objectives, always keeping the readers'
point of view in mind. For an internal company proposal or a complex corporate
proposal, you will probably need to start off this section with an Executive
Summary, which is basically a list of your most important points. Keep in mind
that an upper-level decision maker may read only this Executive Summary.
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Next,
outline all the need for the project. You might include pages like Needs
Analysis, Project Background, Goals and Objectives, and other details that
explain the current need or opportunity.
Next,
explain what you propose to do and the benefits your project will provide. Of
course, given the variety of the thousands of potential projects, each project
proposal will differ dramatically from the next one. The complexity of the
project will determine the length of the proposal: your proposal might be only
5 pages long, or more than 50. This is where the topics included in a
ready-made kit's extensive library will be incredibly useful. Odds are that you
will find a pre-written template for every project detail. There are hundreds
of topic templates, so there's no way to list them here. The names shown below
are only a few of the most commonly used topics.
For
general project information, you can use topics such as Opportunities,
Benefits, Project Plan, Project Methods, and so on.
Depending
on the type of project, you might need pages like Project Management,
Volunteering, Personnel, Supervision, Outsourcing, Facilities, Production Plan,
and Schedule topic pages.
You
might need evaluation topics such as Expected Results, Evaluation, Acceptance
Criteria, Measures of Success, or summary topics such as Project Summary and
Recommendations.
If
your project is very complex or technical, you may need detail pages such as
Documentation, Diagrams, Definitions, Schematics, and Studies.
Any
project has costs, so you will probably add financial pages like Budget,
Project Cost Summary, Cost/Benefit Analysis, and so on.
To
show that you have considered all aspects, think about adding topics such as
Assumptions, Risk Analysis, Contingency Planning, Coordination, Project
Oversight, and Accountability.
After
you've provided all the details for your project, it's time to persuade your
readers that you're right for the job. Add topics to describe your
Qualifications, Credentials, Company History, and Experience, and be sure to
include any Referrals, Testimonials, or Awards you've received. Finally,
conclude with a Call to Action, specifically asking readers to take the next
step in approving your project.
Those
are all the basic steps for writing your proposal. Now you should take some
time to make the proposal look good by adding your company logo, choosing
special fonts or bullets, or using colored borders on your pages. Be sure to
match the style of your proposal to the style of your organization and the type
of project, and keep in mind your relationship with your readers.
Spell-check
and proof every page before you send the proposal out. It's never a good idea
to proofread your own work, so try to find someone else to do the final
proofreading pass.
Finally,
print the proposal or save it as a PDF file-whatever seems appropriate for your
project and your readers. Then deliver it using the method that's customary for
your organization. It's common to email PDF files, but these days many people
receive so much email that a PDF attachment might be easy to overlook. If you
decide to print a complex proposal, make sure the pages are easy to flip
through, and add tabs if needed. For an internal company project, you might be
sharing editable Word versions using collaboration software.
You
can see now how the content of each project proposal will vary widely because
of the variety of organizations and types of projects. But you can also see
that all project proposals should follow the same basic structure.
Want
to speed up the process of creating a proposal? Then use a per-designed
proposal kit and get a head start. Pre-designed templates found in kits contain
easy-to-understand instructions and examples that will guide you to add
appropriate content to each proposal page. A good kit will include a variety of
sample project proposals, too; studying these can give you great ideas on what
to include and how to format your own proposal.
Much Success,
Presented by: Jamil A. Massengill
Company: JAMAIA Financial Marketing Group, Inc
Direct Phone: USA 1-910-578-0338
Skype: jamaiafinancial
