Like any other freelancer, I know you know that you need to go looking for business. It's not just going to fall on you. Because of this, my family is kinda tired of hearing the word proposal. But, I propose to you, that it is one of the greatest words you can use when it comes to contacting people for work. You can kinda consider a CV a proposal as well; Curriculum Proposal-us.

Now, I've sent out a few and for various purposes. When I wrote my first one, my friend was honest enough to tell me it fell far short. Not because it wasn't well written, but because I lacked the needed info to make a compelling case for what we needed. I had a few obstacles - 1) I didn't know exactly what we needed and 2) he wasn't into the idea of putting in a feature request to begin with (will leave why Top Secret and Classified - the reason is located under the period at the end of this sentence, LOL).

After going back to the drawing board, I knew I was in WAAAAAAAAY over my head. I needed help!

I googled how to write a proposal. I found quite a few useful tips, but the primary site that was of immense help was WikiHow.

(not the same one, but still great)

They had such a thorough article on what makes a good proposal and I used that, with so much leading from the HOLY SPIRIT and when I sent it to my friend, he was like: "YES! That's perfect! Send it as-is". Not in those exact terms, but pretty much! I was ecstatic beyond words, because the quality of the work won him over and the community it was aimed at! GOD is so good!!!

Recently, I wrote another one. I wasn't ready to send it, but when I reached a certain point, I felt the LORD compel my heart to send it. I was so NOT ready, I just went for a walk to calm down. Why? Because I had already spent about 6 months developing the idea. All that was now reaching "critical mass" so to speak. When I came back from the walk, I hopped back onto the computer and after climbing off, I started working on the proposal and sent it through with examples and the main idea. I hadn't made as extensive use of WikiHow for this one, because it was more along the lines of an AVScript than anything else. I sent it and promptly burst into tears, lol. Not because I was sad, and I rarely cry, but this was such a long build-up for one thing! All that pressure just suddenly released and I had no other outlet. Went for another walk a little after.

BUT, at the end I said that if they are interested in the project that they can contact me via email. Of course, that means I need to prep more info and this is where I got stuck again - the more businessy side of it. Off to google!!

I came across three fantastic websites:

Jotform:

Better Proposals:

Proposify:

My main goal was finding out what I needed to include, what I needed to leave out and so on. Enter the templates!

Through some templates, I found out what is excess and what I missed. While I didn't have much excess, I certainly had left out a few important things. I asked Rob from Better Proposals (they have a chat feature) how long it takes for someone to view a proposal and he was super nice. The template was so informative and he was so nice, I felt compelled to write this post and a social media post, recommending them. It's not free, but they are thorough and they have an affiliate program, which has a reward system.

Check them out:

I will certainly post about what happened with the proposal as soon as I am able to - it will be NDA when I get the green light until it's done, so it'll be quite a while! If I don't post anything about it, you know what that means! ;)

I want you guys to know that it's never a sign of weakness to ask for help. It's a sign of courage and that you know what your limits are and are smart enough to work around them. If anything, it makes you a better person!

This post was NOT sponsored - your use of these resources are entirely at your own risk.

Have a great one!!

GOD bless you!!!