When you’re looking for funds or investment for your startup company, it’s important to remember how vital first impressions are and how you’re presenting yourself. Get it right, and you’ll be well on your way to success. Get it wrong, and you’ll need to start from the beginning.
This all starts with a funding proposal, a professional document that aims to do three things; build trust in your plan, show you’re capable of carrying it out and building financial trust.
To achieve these three things, here are the seven steps you need to take when drafting a funding proposal for your startup.
#1 – The Summary
Just like online content, you’ll need to start strong with an opening summary. This will describe you as a startup and what you plan to do but in a brief way that catches your reader’s attention and makes them what to read on.
If you can’t catch their attention here, your proposal will be discarded, and you won’t receive any funds whatsoever.
#2 – Introduce Yourself
Now you’ve got your reader’s attention; you can now start talking about who you are by introducing yourself. Talk about your name, your company, where you are in the world, where you operate, and the missions and values that your startup has.
You’ll want these to be relatable and resonate with the investors you’re reaching out too. Give some examples of what you’ve achieved so far and what you’re capable of.
#3 – Set Out Your Objectives
You’ll then want to think about your goals for the future and where your startup is heading. Try to set realistic and achievable goals and be sure to set timeframes on them. For example, you could write about how you want to have 1,000 customers by the end of the year, or how much you want to be making.
#4 – Tell Them Your Plan
Next up, you’ll need to mention how you’re going to achieve the goals you talked about above. Basically, break down each objective and talk about what you’re going to do in order to carry it out.
Also, research potential questions and answers you’ll need to know relating to this plan you’ve detailed.
It’s also important to remember that your funding proposal needs to be accurate. If your proposal is full of mistakes and errors, the reader won’t believe you’re serious or will develop a negative first impression with no results.
Here are some tools and services you can use to achieve a high-quality proposal;
Via Writing / Writing Populist – Use these two blogs to improve your general grammar usage to ensure you’re using it correctly.
Academized / UKWritings – These are two online proofreading tools to help you identify and correct any errors in your work, as reviewed by UKWritings review.
State of Writing / Simple Grad – These are two blogs full of advice you can use to improve your general business writing skills.
Essayroo / Boomessays – Use these two online editing tools to help structure and format your funding proposal into a professional document, as recommended by Australian Reviewer.
My Writing Way / Let’s Go and Learn – These are two websites full of writing guides on how to enhance your overall writing abilities.
#5 – Explain Your Metrics
When you start moving forward with your venture, you’ll still to plan what kind of metrics you’re going to be tracking. This is so you can track your success and prove that you’re meeting the objectives you set out to achieve, as stated above.
You’ll need to discuss these metrics and analytics within your plan, so your investors know how they’re going to get their return and what facts you’ll be providing them with.
#6 – Define Your Budget
Of course, when it comes to a funding proposal, you’re going to need to talk about your budget. This involves how much everything is going to cost, how much funding you require to get off the ground and what kind of investments you’re going to be making.
“You’ll also need to talk about how you’re going to make the money back, your projected forecast and how long it’s going to take to get the money back, and the process behind how you’re going to do this,” shares Dan Taylor, a business journalist for Paper Fellows.
#7 – Finish Strong
Once you’ve discussed everything, you’ll want to close off your proposal in a strong way. Be sure to thank your readers for their time, and be sure to leave contact information for yourself, as well as at the top of the page, so they can easily follow up with you about your proposal.
For example, reiterate once again what your mission is all about and why you’ll believe the social media plan will work.
Conclusion
As you can see, following these seven simple steps is a great way to create a captivating funding proposal for your startup that gets results. Take your time, be honest and present yourself in a professional way in order to succeed.
Grace Carter is a tech editor at Assignment Writing Service and Big Assignments websites. She helps with content management, creates presentations and curates interns. Also, Grace teaches business communication at
