I started writing this and thought, “Whiner!” But really I a noodlin’ and leaving this here in the hopes some enterprising person will drop some information in the comments (would beat all the stupid spam…)
Proposal writing is hard.
- It has to look professional
- It has to cover what the client asks for
- It has to say enough without giving away the farm
- Legalese (it’s the devil!)
I am writing a lot of proposals lately. And realize that it is hard – perhaps harder than it should be because
- The clients NEVER give me the info I ask for. This is really bad since MOST of these clients are web developers or designers who run really nice shops.
- The format I am currently using is clunky (WORD!) Though the design is beautiful and the layout is really professional looking and easy to read. Well… I hope so. No one has complained.
So I think I should find a more efficient solution.
What I like about my proposal and contract documents:
- They are mine! They live on my machine.
- The layout, the colour scheme and the font choices. I love having the granular level of control in the design and the ability to affect change on a whim.
- They are free… HAHAHAHAHA…
What I really need is to create a php script that takes a bunch of fields, builds some pages and spits out an HTML page which I can them save as a PDF…
(Sounds like work to me…)
I searched for Proposal and Contract generators. Nothing looks promising.
Still the idea of fields appeals… Hmmmm. Maybe EXCEL?
Maybe Excel. I’m off to play with it.
But, I’m open to any useful ideas!
I’d should talk to you here. Which is not some thing I usually do! I love reading an article that could get people to believe. Also, many thanks for allowing me to comment!