proposals

I haven’t blogged here since OCTOBER??? WHAT? The problem? My desk really had been overrun. I had book, papers, mail, checks….all sorts of things scattered all around. This is not the norm. What happened? Life. A few project deadlines crept out from their dates (other people moving them, not me) and I’d let it get to me and the order I like to impose. “If your mind isn’t clouded by unnecessary things, then this is the best season of your life.” ~ Wu-Men As Leo Babauta wrote in his newest book, Focus: You’re at your computer, making it happen, at a desk piled with clutter, surrounded by clutter on the floor and walls, in the middle of a noisy workplace, phones ringing. A notification pops up — you have a new email — so you open your...

Seriously, I’m on over 80 hours of work this week, so far (4 proposals delivered, and no, they were all originally due on different weeks, love extensions, really I do…)…we’re not counting tomorrow and Sunday yet. I’m tired. I should be asleep, but I’m still up working and the hilarity ensues on the email trail of the current proposal. (I’m also totally taking some time off..and toying with the idea of taking myself off to Europe for a week at this point…and no, not kidding….) And for the record, I’m not counting gym time, family time and CASA Court time in those hours…those are PURE, client focused, billable hours this week. So, I had to share this compilation from tonight…or at least, how...

A Guest Post by Olessia Smotrova-Taylor, President/CEO OST Global Solutions, Inc. We have had a wonderful winning streak in the past year and a half winning literally every proposal we ran, but all of a sudden, our fortunes turned. A new client engaged us to help them prepare a proposal. They agreed to provide to us some key inputs such as subject matter expertise, raw past performance data, resumes, and a compliant price volume that they decided to prepare themselves. We went through our regular steps in educating them about the proposal process, held a kickoff, developed a schedule with plenty of contingency time and a goal to deliver the proposal a day early, provided guidance and templates, and prompted and waited for the promised information. The deadlines...

I deal a lot in confidential information, secure projects and the like. That's fine, it's pretty standard. The two most frequent items I'm asked to sign? Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA) - outlines confidential material, knowledge, or information that the parties wish to share with one another for certain purposes, but wish to restrict access to by third parties. Non-Compete Agreement – a term used in contract law under which one party (usually an employee) agrees not to pursue a similar profession or trade in competition against another party (usually the employer). I never take issue with NDAs. Of course I'm not going to share your confidential information. Hello? I don't want you airing my secrets, personal or professional, to everyone...

I've been running proposals from line edits to full fledged ‘harass people into getting their writing done’ to delivering the darn proposal to the client for a long time. So, I have to remember to take a deep breath when someone wants to learn everything I know (over the past 12+ years) in a matter of minutes or degrades writing skills by asking for a lesser rate for the actual writing of content (that will be a later post). This isn't just recent, it's been happening over the course of years. It just seems relevant to write about now. Everyone is trying to get something for a lesser rate, or soak up your knowledge with in the trenches training. I don't write this to belittle the questions or the honest curiosity or desire to...