Business Tips

How to Write a Business Proposal in Nigeria

Published

2 years ago

January 7, 2023

One of the easy ways to make your business succeed this year is for you to learn how to write a business plan and business proposal. These two are very important as they help to attract customers easily no matter the state or area you are in.

In today’s article, we will be guiding you on how you can write business proposals whether for your own business or other people’s businesses. This article will be your go-to guide because we will make every step simple and easy to understand.

What is a Business Proposal?

A business proposal is a documented offer from a seller to a prospective buyer or sponsor. It describes how a company’s products and services can satisfy their customer’s needs. The real aim of a business proposal is to convince prospects and increase sales.

Types of Business Proposals?

There are two different types of business proposals in Nigeria.

1. Solicited Proposals

These are proposals that are demanded by customers that want to patronize your business but do not know what they stand to gain before going ahead. Solicited proposals are not commonly used as it is only a few organizations or individuals that need it.

2. Unsolicited Proposals

These are proposals that are written for the general public to educate them about your company’s goods and services and the advantages of the products over competitors.

How to Write a Business Proposal in Nigeria

Below are the steps you can take to write a business proposal yourself.

1. Start with a Title Page

The first step to writing a proposal in Nigeria is to set up your title page. A title page is like the cover of a storybook. It contains a few words – majorly the title and the author. On your title page, also known as your cover page, you need to introduce yourself by writing your name, the name of your business, and the proposed date that you want to submit your proposal.

Your cover page is very important. This is why you need to do a lot of work on it. You need to use the right fonts, colors, and spacing. For example, the name of your business should have the biggest font followed by the products you sell. After doing all these, your name can be at the bottom of your cover page.

If you are using a colored photocopy machine you can play with colors – knowing which one matches or you can simply add the colors used for your logo.

2. Create your Table of Contents

This is the second step to writing a business proposal in Nigeria. The table of contents is used to describe the contents of a book chapter after chapter. Doing this in your proposal makes it easy for your prospects to know the content of each page, thus making them know exactly where to look when they are looking for specific information.

If your business proposal is an electronic one this even makes it better because when a specific title is clicked it takes the reader to the clicked page immediately. The table of contents should not be underestimated in the making of business proposals.

3. Write your Executive Summary

Why are you sending a business proposal? What do prospects stand to gain when they read your proposal? What are your products and services? Why do they exist? Which problem do they solve? All these answers need to be written in this chapter. You need to pick the questions one after the other and answer them well.

Elaborate properly why you are sending a proposal and why your solution is the best option available for your prospective client. Your prospects must be able to understand your executive summary and must be able to make a decision at this stage.

Many customers-to-be usually go to this part of the proposal to quickly understand what your business is about so in order not to bore them make sure it is not more than a page.

4. State the Consumer’s Problem

It is important you do your homework at this stage. You need to do your critical thinking and conduct your research here. Take a look at the specific problem your clients face that you can solve. For easy understanding, you need to state the consumer’s problem at this stage.

You can use bullet points to create an overview. This is to help prospects read faster.

5. Propose a Permanent Solution

At this point, you need to explain in detail the solution to the problem. If the proposal is a solicited one, you need to understand the client’s specific problem and propose a permanent solution. However, if the business proposal is an unsolicited one, you need to list all the problems of the average customer and all the solutions hoping that either of these points will convince the prospects when they go through it.

6. Share your Qualifications

Asides from sharing the problem and what your products can do you need to also write about your qualifications. How many years have you been in this and do you have some certification that goes along with the qualifications? All this you need to mention in your business proposal to make you stand out from the competition.

Your qualifications, whether little or many, gives you a marketing edge over your competitors so it goes a long way if you can highlight them and explain how they have helped you in delivering better products to customers.

7. Give a Breakdown of your Charges

Depending on the kind of business you run whether it is a service rendering business or a buying and selling business, you need to give a breakdown of your prices or charges. If there are discounts you need to disclose them next to prices.

This is to give prospects an idea of what your regular prices are when you are not giving discounts. For different reasons, the prices of goods and services change often. Due to this, you will need to update your prices regularly in your proposals to keep new customers updated.

8. Summarize

After all these steps, it is important for you to give a summary of your business proposal in a few sentences. This should not be more than three paragraphs maximum. Be brief on your qualifications and why you deserve to be patronized. If you will only be available on certain days, you should list the days you will be available followed by your contact information.

9. Clarify your Terms and Conditions

It is important to always state your terms and conditions in your business proposals. Doing this shows transparency. In your terms and conditions explain your pricing, payment schedule, and project time. Asides from this, you need to provide a space for your prospects to sign if they agree.

Conclusion

All these steps are vital when it comes to writing a comprehensive business proposal in Nigeria and anywhere in the world today. When typing your business proposal, do not forget to use big fonts so that the reader can easily read without stressing their eyes.

These are all the necessary steps in writing a business proposal in Nigeria but if you feel following these steps will take too much of your time and you need help? You can reach out to us through our official email address: [email protected] to write for you at a discounted rate.

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