Table of Contents
As a start-up, you need to build your business plan before launching. This is an essential part of the process that can’t be done without knowing how much money and resources you’ll have at your disposal to execute on it. The Business Plan template below will help give you a leg up in this important task by making it simple and easy for even novice entrepreneurs to create their own customized plan as they take off with their new venture idea.
The “business proposal template pdf free download” is a business plan template that you can use to create your own business proposal. It includes a cover letter, executive summary, and appendix.
A business proposal details how your company will handle a client’s issue, as well as cost, a projected timetable, and the Areas of Responsibility. Downloading business proposal templates allows you to save time and expedite the proposal creation process. Use our free business proposal templates to close more transactions by customizing each part to fit your company’s brand and sales procedure.
Download Free Business Proposal Templates
Free business proposal templates are available in PDF format as well as MS Word, a more visual Word document, and a PowerPoint version appropriate for digital company proposals. Each template specifies the material that must be included in each area of a proposal.
After you’ve adjusted the text of each part, you can tweak the document’s look to match your company’s identity. Continue reading for more information on how to adapt these business proposal templates for your company and use them to win more sales once you’ve downloaded one or all of them.
A Business Proposal’s Components
Your organization’s business proposal template should make the case for your company while also allowing prospects to effortlessly explore and absorb important information. Once the major components of your template are in place, you can quickly change and update the material whenever you need to create a new proposal for a potential customer.
Cover Page
Your proposal’s cover page is the first thing a potential customer sees, and its design may set it apart. Colorful graphics and photos might be used, or you can keep it plain. Your business proposal’s cover page should include the customer’s name (“Prepared for”), your company’s name (“Prepared by”), and the date it’s being submitted to the client, regardless of design style.
Contents Table of Contents
To make it easier to navigate the proposal, a Contents Table of Contents should list the sections of the proposal by page number. Create your Contents Table of Contents after the proposal is finished, since developing each section is likely to cause changes to page numbers. The Contents Table of Contents can be on the first inside page of the document or added to the cover page, especially if you’re sending the proposal digitally.
If you’re sending a digital business proposal, we also recommend linking each Contents Table of Contents item to the corresponding section of the document. This allows readers to quickly navigate to a particular section by clicking on the section name in the Contents Table of Contents.
Body
The body of a business proposal comprises all of the essential information that prospective customers would be interested in, and the elements that should be included are outlined below. The reader may see an overview of their issue or requirement, as well as the solution you provide, as well as its projected cost, Areas of Responsibility, and timeline.
Appendix
An optional appendix section with citations, tables, research, photos, and other extra resources may be included. This part is often required for projects including aesthetic aspects, such as building, interior design, web design, and engineering. When mentioning an appendix item, be careful to mark it and cite to the label.
For example, if you’re describing how a home will look after construction by using a picture of a similar house, you can label the picture as “Appendix A,” then cite “As seen in Appendix A” in the text of your proposal so readers know where to look. Similar to the Contents Table of Contents, for digital proposals, you can hyperlink the words in the body of the proposal to jump to the corresponding appendix section.
Sections of a Business Proposal’s Body
The body of your business proposal is made up of these components. However, in certain cases, it may be preferable to include some of these sections or pieces in the appendix. If your overall Estimated Cost includes numerous sub-items, for example, it may be appropriate to present the entire cost in the body and add line item pricing as a spreadsheet in the appendix.
Introduction to the Business
When writing your business proposal, the first section in the body is your Introduction to the Business. This is where you briefly introduce your business, its mission, and its unique value proposition, awards, or industry breakthroughs. You could also reference your company’s founding and add photos of your founders or leadership for a personal touch. Keep it relatively short, from one to two paragraphs at most.
See the below example of a Introduction to the Business:
ABC Corp. was created in 2009 with the goal of providing cost-effective and comprehensive cybersecurity solutions to small enterprises. We’ve focused on delivering exceptional service to our small company customers from the beginning, educating them on the current cyberthreat scenario and providing 24/7 support.
Summary of the Report
The Summary of the Report describes the main takeaways of the entire proposal. If the prospective client was to only read this section, they should be able to get a basic understanding of what is being offered.
Below is a sample of an Summary of the Report in a business proposal:
For XYZ Inc., ABC Corp. suggests developing a comprehensive cybersecurity program. We think that by using the latest security technologies and focusing on staff awareness training, XYZ Inc. may become the industry standard for cybersecurity culture. This project will be fully implemented over the course of 12 months at a billable cost of $250 per hour.
Areas of Responsibility
The Areas of Responsibility section of your business proposal details the needs and pain points of the client and your company’s proposed solution. Depending on the project, this could be a lengthy section indicating exactly who, what, where, and how you will complete the Areas of Responsibility.
Below is a breakdown of the elements of the Areas of Responsibility that should be addressed in this section:
- What the Areas of Responsibility is: Defines what the Areas of Responsibility will be based on the client’s stated needs and desired outcomes. If you are responding to a request for proposal, the client may already have indicated part or all of what the Areas of Responsibility should be.
- Who is responsible: This subsection identifies the persons, roles, departments, and organizations responsible for completing the Areas of Responsibility items. Keep in mind this may include personnel from your organization, partners or subcontractors, and even individuals in the client’s organization, such as someone responsible to approve incremental work in order to move to the next phase.
- Where will the work be done: Work may be done on-site at the client’s location, remotely, or a mix of both.
- This section discusses how the work will be done, as well as the deliverables that come with it. Use enough information to show how you’ll handle the client’s issue and how your recommended solutions vary from those offered by competing contractors.
When identifying the team members, subcontractors, or partners who will be responsible for completing the Areas of Responsibility items, your client may also want to know their qualifications. You can add brief summaries in this section or add professional bios and company profiles to the appendix.
Schedule or Timeline
The timetable portion of the business proposal shows how long you estimate the task will take to finish. If you filed your proposal in response to a request for proposal (RFP), the customer may have their own timeframe and scheduling criteria. This part may either mention a total amount of time or be split down into individual tasks.
A thorough timetable offered in a business presentation looks like this:
Estimated Cost
Your company proposal’s price estimate should take into consideration all labor, material, and administrative expenditures. Make sure you do your homework to prevent overpricing or underpricing. Your proposal should spell out the pricing mechanism as well as the final cost, as well as if an advance payment is necessary and what (if any) part of the total cost is non-refundable.
Your cost estimate might be as basic as stating the overall cost or as complex as including a line item for each unit, rate, or service that will be billed. When it comes to pricing, your company could utilize a total price, incremental pricing like a monthly retainer, or fixed-rate pricing like an hourly or per-unit cost, or a mix of these.
Below are examples of Estimated Costs using various pricing methods:
- Total price: The total price for the Areas of Responsibility outlined in this proposal, including all costs of labor and materials, is $35,000, with a non-refundable 10% deposit ($3,500) to be paid prior to the commencement of work and the remainder billed after all portions of the project are complete.
- The price for completing all of the monthly deliverables outlined in this proposal will be $5,600 per month, payable on the 2nd of every other month, for each of the following five months: February 2022, April 2022, June 2022, August 2022, and October 2022.
- Fixed-rate: All work described in this proposal will be invoiced at a rate of $225 per hour, plus any materials, hardware, or software costs mentioned in Appendix B.
The income and opportunity targets in your company’ sales strategy should be reflected in the price for your business proposal. With free templates and a step-by-step method for developing sales targets and tactics to attain them, our how-to guide for building a sales strategy may get you started.
With a Call to Action at the End
After reviewing the preceding sections of your business proposal, provide a conclusion with a call to action. If the potential customer needs further information or is ready to conduct business with you, the call to action outlines the next actions to take.
A basic call to action in a proposal is shown below:
Thank you for taking the time to read this. Please contact our Security Consultant, James Williams, using the information below if you have any questions or concerns, or if you want to get started developing your cybersecurity program.
- james@abccorp.com
- 123-456-7890
Terms & Conditions
Terms and conditions are included in certain business offers to ensure that all parties are on the same page about processes, contingencies, and duties. For example, you may include responsibility and remedial mechanisms in the contract master service conditions. This part should also include the proposal’s and pricing’s expiration dates, as well as your company’s guarantees and return policies.
More Tools for Writing Business Proposals
There are additional tools available to assist your company save time and money with proposal design, content, and project management, in addition to our free business proposal template. These services and solutions are both independent and grouped inside customer relationship management (CRM) software.
Proposal Format & Design
Writing proposal content is simple for certain firms, but formatting and design may be challenging. Better Proposals solves this problem by providing prefabricated, professionally designed, and easily editable templates. Better Proposals also connects with CRM tools such as HubSpot, Agile CRM, and Zoho CRM, and is reasonably priced, with monthly subscriptions beginning at $19 per user for up to 10 business proposals.
HubSpot integration for better proposals (Source: HubSpot)
You may arrange proposals inside your opportunity management system by integrating business proposal software with your CRM. Your CRM can show you the income potential of your current open proposal chances and offer you access to all of the proposal papers in one place if you have a solid integration.
Software for Project Management
Creating a business proposal can be a long endeavor entailing extensive collaboration and complex task and schedule planning for a major project, which will, in turn, require robust project management. When managing projects you’ve won, you can use Software for Project Management to keep track of tasks that still need to be completed, generate incremental (or final) invoices for completed work, and see the status of all your open projects.
Zoho Projects and Airtable are robust project management tools that help manage both the proposal process and the Areas of Responsibility once a project has been won. Users of either platform can evaluate project progress using Timeline and Kanban views.
Similarly, Bitrix24 is CRM software that includes project management features and the ability to turn leads into collaborative projects. Pricing quotations and sales transactions may also be converted into professional invoices.
Bitrix24 generates an invoice from a transaction (Source: Bitrix24)
Bitrix24 Kanban board for project management (Source: Bitrix24)
Resources for Freelancers
Fiverr is a terrific resource if you need help with copywriting, editing, or graphic design for your proposal at a low rate. Fiverr links freelancers with businesses seeking for one-time or continuous projects. Fiverr vettings freelancers and gives clear prices and feedback for each freelancer.
freelance copy editing page on Fiverr (Source: Fiverr)
Part of a sales manager’s job is managing a sales operation by providing resources to their staff to elevate team performance. These resources could be anything from personnel found in freelance network platforms or through software tools like CRM or Software for Project Management.
Check out our definitive guide to sales management for additional information on how to put your sales force in the best possible position to succeed. This article will guide you through the world of sales management by providing you with tried-and-true approaches and procedures for forming, training, motivating, and managing sales teams.
Conclusion
A well-written business proposal demonstrates that your company has the skills and experience to meet the demands of your potential customer. You may save time and money by employing business proposal templates and expert design, copywriting, and project management services to help you manage the process from start to finish.
The “sample of written business proposals pdf” is a free download that provides an example of how to write a business proposal. The document includes the introduction, background and goals of your company.
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