Entrepreneur's Guide to Writing Business Plans and Proposals

Entrepreneurs—and entrepreneurial companies—live or die by the quality of their plans and proposals. Whether it's to get funding for a new product line or business from a client, writing hard-hitting prose that answers essential questions and makes specific requests is an indispensable skill. Entrepreneur, ad man, and writing teacher Dennis Chambers shows how entrepreneurs can persuade people, through skillful writing, to pony up capital or contracts. This ability—which can be learned—is rare in today's media-saturated world. But it counts more than ever if an entrepreneur wants to make it over the magical five-year hump and on into lasting business success. Numerous examples and exercises ensure that entrepreneurs understand how the writing game is played—and that they play it well.Unfortunately, most don't play this game well. Most business writers mistakenly believe their task is to inform. They write to fill an information gap or to update the reader on a particular project. Or they write about what's important to them. What these writers do not take into account is that the speed of today's work world has reached overdrive. The typical reader simply doesn't have time to ponder dense, poorly organized information and intuit the appropriate action. And readers don't give a hoot about what's important to the writer—they want to know what's in it for themselves. Business writers need to use all the tools at their command to persuade, inspire action, and in general move a project forward. This book is about how to be persuasive in two key skills in business: writing proposals and writing business plans. Step by step, Dennis Chambers illustrates the techniques of effective business writing, with numerous examples throughout. Whether the objective is to secure financing from an investor, lay out a marketing strategy, or secure a large contract, getting results requires crafting an effective structure for the proposal, and using words that sell. Chambers is an able guide in saving entrepreneurs time and undue effort while reaching the goal of long-term business success.Examples and practical guidance, all geared toward the entrepreneur/small business owner. Exercises, templates, cases, glossary, and model letters and plans.

"In this well-written book, Chambers takes the position that developers/writers of business plans and proposals need to focus on the value proposition--the "what's in it for them" of the reader. He argues that persuasiveness and clarity are the virtues that will accomplish the objective, no matter if it is securing venture capital or financing, closing on a large contract, or laying out a marketing strategy: words that "sell" are more important than those that fill information gaps or update previous information. Chambers writes with the insightful clarity that he espouses and provides many practical examples of plans and letters, as well as exercises, templates, and cases. His advice provides a useful compendium and is somewhat an Elements of Style (the classic on good writing by William Strunk Jr., 4th ed., 1999) for business plan and proposal writers. This reviewer could not help but sigh in agreement with the author's preference for hard copy rather than electronic format for some processes; while this may pass, the practical wisdom of the author will endure. Highly recommended. Lower-division undergraduate through practitioner collections."-Choice

K. Dennis Chambers is Founder of Chambers Communications, specializing in advertising and marketing communications, project management, and technical and business writing. He also serves as Adjunct Instructor at Endicott College, and as Lecturer at Emerson College and the University of Maryland. He is the author of Writing to Get Action.