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Ask HN: Freelancers and consultants, what do your project proposals look like?

42 points by stevage ↗ HN
When you send a proposal for a project to a new client, what are the headings? How long? How pretty is it? Can you share an example?

I've been freelancing for a few years now, and am pretty ad hoc about the proposals that I write up. I'd love to see examples of how others approach this.

FWIW, my headings are usually: - background (summarises my understanding of what problem the client has) - vision (what they have asked me to build, in a sentence or two) - solution (gets more specific about technologies, etc) - features (details the specific things it needs to do) - other considerations (browser targets, mobile, data management etc) - out of scope - optional extras (sometimes extra sections describing bits that they would have to pay extra for) - pricing and timeframe: how much I'm charging, how quickly I agree to deliver, and milestones for payment/review

I don't think it's perfect. In particular, I think I'm missing a good way to communicate the quality I'm (not) promising, what kinds of iterations/feedback/bugs will be acted on, and various other assumptions.

10 comments

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i_have_an_idea
I don't send proposals. Clients come to me with what they want, we send a few emails back and forth to clarify things, I build it. I charge an hourly rate for however many hours it takes me to build it.
vbsteven
This works fine when all goes well but can quickly turn problematic when shit happens. Do you have any form of contract/agreement with regards to payment/scope and what will happen when you or the client cannot fulfill commitments due to whatever reason?
i_have_an_idea
Only worth doing with brand new clients where I've not vetted them yet and there's no mutually established trust and respect.

For clients where I've worked with them for many years, these are just a waste of time. I know they'll pay me. They know that I'll deliver. I am careful to not agree any work that I won't be able to do. And they are very careful to not ask me to do work that they can't afford.

If they really can't pay me, then I know they've went bankrupt, so no amount of contracts will make my invoice recoverable. I accept that as the cost of doing freelancing.

brudgers
Good clients are better than good contracts. Both of course are ideal. But bad clients make a contract irrelevant. Once you are pointing to the contract, the problem is the relationship, not the contract.
cdhdc
This is my general structure.

* Background/Overview

* Project Scope

* Requirements (System level, or feature level)

* Requirements (The things I require from the client)

* Project Timing and Cost

* Out of Scope items or items that maybe addressed in a future phase of the project.

I found this book on writing a single page proposal to be quite helpful https://www.amazon.com/One-Page-Proposal-Business-Pitch-Pers...

I haven't ever succeeded in keeping it all one page but it is a great goal.

Closi
Our proposals are:

- Who are we and what do we do (establish credibility).

- Who have we worked for that is a similar industry.

- Who they are and what the project is (i.e. what are we delivering).

- How we will carry out the project (by phase) along with key deliverables/stage-gates at each phase.

- Who will carry out the project (CV's / Bios).

- Pricing (with scope exclusions)

- Case studies (sometimes before pricing)

- Summary

stevage
Ah, interesting - quite a few bits I hadn't thought of. What scale of pricing are we talking here? Mine are mostly $5 to $15k USD.
adamhp
I'd be most curious to hear from folks how they go about getting first clients and starting cold. I loathe the idea of starting on Upwork.
desertraven
When I was getting started I would research local businesses who had shitty websites, or whom I had a good idea for their existing website/business.

I’d either send a short cold email (personalised) letting them know I’m local and I exist - briefly talk about what I do.

The other option if the organisation is small enough is to just walk in and talk to them in person.

It’s not comfortable, but if you’re being genuine, people tend to receive you well (or let you down easy).

I found a hit rate of about 5% using this method. Keep the email short and friendly.

adamhp
Thank you for the information!