Any VAs here familiar with this type of service for their clients. I want to really get involved in more in-depth offerings for my clients.. BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU ASK FOR.

So I received a 108 page RFP from a potential client, she has never done a RFP before - she has never had to. So she needs serious help.

While I'm pretty confident that I can do a good job. I've never done one from SCRATCH by myself. Alot of the information needs to come from her.. (i.e. the scope of the project, pricing, etc.) Remember she has never done one!

Are there any VAs out there who have facilitated requests for proposals for your clients. If so, what was your approach.? Where do you start?

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Tamika R. Johnson, MBA, Principal
administrative partners, llc
www.administrativepartners.net | http://adminpartners.blogspot.com

I haven't written RFPs for clients but have in my day job. It is quite an undertaking but if you follow each item and gather the necessary information before you start the actual writing, you should be OK. Above all, don't procrastinate. You don't want to find you need a critical piece of information the day before the due date. Also, a lot of these offer a conference call to assist in preparation. If this is available, take advantage of it. Let me know if I can be of further assistance.

Jenny

Thanks Jenny,

I think whats making me nervous is that she has never done one before, so I don't know how good she is going to be with providing direction. She needs to provide the bulk of the information, alot of which she needs to write or have written (i.e. her technical and corporate experience). I don't want to get in over my head and cause her to miss out on this opportunity.

A friend of mine has put me in touch with a proposal writer. I think I might enlist his services or put him in touch with my client. I would like to be involved as much as possible so that I can learn for further projects.

__________________
Tamika R. Johnson, MBA, Principal
administrative partners, llc
www.administrativepartners.net | http://adminpartners.blogspot.com

Originally Posted by Offsite Office Professionals

I haven't written RFPs for clients but have in my day job. It is quite an undertaking but if you follow each item and gather the necessary information before you start the actual writing, you should be OK. Above all, don't procrastinate. You don't want to find you need a critical piece of information the day before the due date. Also, a lot of these offer a conference call to assist in preparation. If this is available, take advantage of it. Let me know if I can be of further assistance. Jenny

Let us know how it goes.... I just wanted to add my $0.02 - I couldn't agree more re: procrastination. I don't know what kind of proposal this is, but in my past RFP coordination, if you actually need pieces of info from consultants, you'll need to give them time to get it to you. Of course, most people already have marketing bios ready to go, but still. This was ALWAYS a major issue so the sooner you can get started, the better b/c I always had to format any outside info to our standards prior to submission.

Again, since I don't know what sector the RFP is relating to, I'm not sure of the tasks involved - but the proposals I coordinated were for architects seeking design projects so various things were expected like: An Intro Letter tailored to the "owner"/specific request; Business Profile Summary; Design Team List w/ bios; Current Project/Client List; Past Project Experience (preferably related to the current RFP); Awards List; Etc. All RFPs should state what's expected & have length restrictions as well so they should be fairly clear to follow. It's just the actual writing (aka coming up with pretty words) that can be daunting. lol So as you said, it might be a good idea to enlist a proposal writer, or just hit one up for some pointers if you do decide to take it on.

Let me know if I can answer anything else - HTH!

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shana
www.shanafore.com