Proposal Reflections

Business development is stressful work. Proposals are critical revenue drivers and job sources for many companies—so a lot is on the line. Because of this, proposals can mean long hours and time spent away from family and friends. However, maintaining these high levels of stress for too long can lower our morale, negatively affect our health, and lead to burnout. But no part of the proposal process is more important than our health, so maintaining balance is critical. Here are six strategies I use to manage the stress: Start out Each Day Right Remember to Take Breaks Write Things Down Decompress Regularly Get Enough Sleep Make Time to Get Away 1. Start out Each Day Right This one is very difficult for me when I have an early rising proposal team; however, I personally perform much better when I start out the day with a healthy breakfast and a short morning workout. Here are my tips, especially for those of you who, like me, are not morning people.

As I have noted over the last couple of weeks, this article series started largely as a joke between a good friend and me. This friend, who recently had a baby, joked that her poor baby would fall asleep to RFPs instead of bedtime stories. As we laughed about this, we thought, how cute would it be if we made an ABC Book for our future little proposal manager? And that turned into, well wouldn’t that just be a unique and fun format for a proposal blog? So here it is, in its final form, “The ABCs of Proposals: Part 3.” If you missed the first two articles, you can read those here: https://www.proposalreflections.com/2019/04/the-abcs-of-proposals-part-1.html and https://www.proposalreflections.com/2019/04/the-abcs-of-proposals-part-2.html . R is for Request for Proposal (RFP) A government RFP is the Government’s call for a response from industry to government needs. RFPs are the Government’s best attempt to describe the nature and extent of the goods or services it wish

This article started as a joke between a good friend of mine and me. This friend—who is also in the proposal industry—recently had a baby. At first we joked that the poor child would fall asleep to her mama reading RFPs aloud to her. Then we thought, how cute would it be if we made an ABC Book for our future little proposal manager? And that turned into, well wouldn’t that just be a unique and fun format for a proposal blog? So here it is, in its final form, Part 2 of 3: The ABCs of Proposals . If you missed the first article, you can read it here: https://www.proposalreflections.com/2019/04/the-abcs-of-proposals-part-1.html . J is for Joint Venture (JV) A JV is a business entity created by two or more parties, generally characterized by shared ownership, shared returns and risks, and shared governance. JVs can be a useful alternative to subcontract agreements in certain situations; for example, to leverage a teammate’s past performance where subcontractor past performanc

This article started as a joke between a good friend of mine and me. This friend—who is also in the proposal industry—recently had a baby. At first we joked that the poor child would fall asleep to her mama reading RFPs aloud to her. Then we thought, how cute would it be if we made an ABC Book for our future little proposal manager? And that turned into, well wouldn’t that just be a unique and fun format for a proposal blog? So here it is, in its final form, Part 1 of 3: The ABCs of Proposals . A is for Attachment Request for Proposal (RFP) Attachments contain useful solicitation response information. This may include relevant drawings, statement of works (SOWs), and other pertinent contract documentation. Be sure to review all RFP Attachments thoroughly before responding. B is for Best Value Tradeoff As the name suggests, best value tradeoff allows the Government to balance the tradeoff between quality (technical competency and/or past performance) and price/cost.