Need help with a business proposal
 

If you can/are willing to help, please shoot me a PM.

It's a very small/straight forward product improvement proposal, but i'm out of my element and i don't really know what to say....so....

Help?

:D

Bill

It is easier than you think.

1. Identify problem/need.
2. Propose solution - features & benefits & cost
3. Why only YOUR product/service will solve the problem/need.
4. Testimonials/references/reviews etc that back up you and/or your product/service/solution.

Remember your audience & write it so THEY can easily understand it.

I can help but today I am crunching some training videos & then I will be in Montreal Sun-Wed.

Ian

Ian, your outline is almost exactly what we use at our office for both written and improv verbal proposals.

Snipe, let me know if you'd like a standard MRD outline; market research document--which lays out some steps to get done to verify that your idea can actually sell. That's usually the hardest part of any business and fairly important. Jack ;)

Thanks bro!

It's for a big multinational corp, so i'm a bit intimidated.

I should have all the raw materials i need, including professional quality photos.

I definitely need any help you great fellows are willing to offer.

It boils down to just a suit behind a desk.

Then lay it all out. Use point form & break it into the rough segments above. Add some positive & succinct prose around it. Make it flow. Intro. Facts. Sell. Conclude. Thank.

Print it. Read it to yourself out loud. Did it work? Did you explain the need & your unique ability to solve it? Would you buy it?

Boil it down & if you still need help, I will PM my email. But I am buried until at least Thursday. I have to go absorb knowledge, fine food & Cuban cigars in Montreal . . .

Ian

OK, i'll shoot you an email friday. I really appreciate the help!

When I hear the words "business proposal" I think of a specific type of document, which describes in detail a business that does not yet exist or exists only as a bootstrap startup and is in need of capital from an investor, i.e. the document explains to the investor why they should invest in the business, how the business will operate and what the business will make.

When you say "it's for a big multinational corp" and that it's a "product improvement proposal" I think you may be talking about something different, like a product or innovation which you think would be valuable to an existing business e.g. you invented an awesome new shoe lace and think Nike would be interested in using your innovation. If that's the case, you need to protect your work via patent or at least demonstrable prior art before opening your kimono to the corp.

The Real Doll was already invented Snipe.

Prestige Worldwide? :D

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The term the multinational used was "business proposal."

I have demonstrable prior art.

PM sent.

Do your proposal then get a friend or two and make your presentation to them. Tell them to pick it apart. Better to have someone you know help you "fine tune" it than stumble a couple of times when you are face to face with the person who is making the final decision.

Bill, my wife and I are both the suits behind a desk who decide whether to buy into a product. Whether it's for my law firm, a manufacturing client, or one of the business units my wife manages, the suit behind the desk will always make the decision based on the answer to one question: How is this going to make me money?

Follow Ian and Jack's outline above. At the end of the presentation you need to be able to look the suit in the eye and give a brief closing (think elevator pitch) with 100% credibility that says "This product makes (saves) you X cents per unit. Your volume will be Y. You'll make Z the first year of productions and increase five time per year until year five. If you buy my product your company will show a top line increase of _____ and a bottom line profit of _________.

If you can do that and your numbers make sense, your product will sell. If not, there's nothing you can do to dress up your idea.

Thanks for the advice guys.

"It's for a big multinational corp, so i'm a bit intimidated."

Be really careful - get a lawyer in your state to read over the contract. It'll be worth $200.

It's not just a suit behind a desk -- it's that suit hiring law firms to draft a contract in their best interest. Don't go into it ith just a popgun (no lawyer review).

Good Luck.

I'm not really looking to make money so far as i am looking to have what i am proposing made so i can acutally have one myself.

Of course they don't know that....

LOL

The other thing you don't do is start shooting PM's back and forth to people you don't really know without a Non-Disclosure agreement in place.

Any sort of improvement or proposal worth its salt is worth sitting down with an IP counsel for an hour. Good ones will give you an hour for free (I speak from experience.)

So what are the odds that the business proposal includes a photo of the P7? :)