Create Effective Project Proposals

No matter how much prospects and clients seem to crave uniqueness, when it comes to the printed or online communications they get from you, quirky individualism is the last thing they’re looking for. Even if they don’t consciously know it.

Despite how much they love your edgy or offbeat image, clients expect proposals, statements of work, status reports, invoices, and even email messages to follow formats they can understand. Sure, you can add any kind of kooky graphic elements or off-the-wall quotations you like. Just make sure the reader can make sense of your communications. After all, most of your communications will be about projects and money.

You don’t want any confusion about either of those items.

Setting Client Expectations

Over the next few posts, I’ll be talking about setting client expectations. A direct and simple way to set and reinforce expectations is to use detailed and well-organized communication mechanisms.

Project Proposals

To start with, let’s talk about your proposals. I’ve included links to a sample proposal at the end of this post. I put together the proposal for an imaginary web designer. You could easily customize this proposal for writing projects, SEO projects, application development projects, accounting projects, or any other type of professional service proposal.

The proposal is both the bare minimum you can get away with and probably the most you’ll ever need. Some of you might think it’s overkill, but if you’ve never had a client refuse to pay you, or string you along while getting you to do a thousand little tweaks that you didn’t expect to do, or complain that you didn’t perform as advertised, you’ve been very, very lucky.

Establish and Reinforce Professional Credibility

An effective, professionally prepared proposal helps reduce or eliminate these kinds of problems. For one thing, it reinforces your credibility as a professional. Solopreneurs who just wing it will sometimes get lucky through a combination of talent, high demand, and luck. That won’t always work. Reputation management does work. And having a professional approach to project proposals and other communications helps give you a professional reputation.

The proposal should be used in combination with the Statement of Work, which I’ll talk about tomorrow. I’ll also post a sample Statement of Work that complements this proposal. In the next few days, I’ll discuss email communications, final presentation documents, invoices, and post-project follow up. In the meantime, download the sample proposal. I think you’ll find it very useful.

Download PDF: Sample Proposal PDF

Download Word Doc: Sample Proposal Doc