Writing an Engineering Proposal - Need advice 4

[dogtop]

Dear Eng-Tipers,

I am looking for information (books, articles, newspapers, magazines) on how to write an Engineering Proposal for clients who want design engineering done by a consultant.

Can anyone out there suggest sources of information or personal advice on how to write an Engineering Proposal?

Regards,

TIA

 

[HamishMcTavish]

google is an amazing thing - 1st hit

http://www.eng.fau.edu/engdesign/pdf/ed_prop_guides.pdf

cheers, HM

No more things should be presumed to exist than are absolutely necessary - William of Occam

 

[dogtop]

Yes, indeed. Thanks for the reference. It is for academic engineering proposals. I'd like to get something oriented towards business (Real Life) situations.
Thanks anyway.

 

[vc66]

Then you don't want an engineering proposal, do you? You want a business proposal (more like an executive business plan) that's geared toward engineering. If you look on Google, I'm sure you'll find business proposal templates. From there, just narrow your search further only including engineering.

You can use this as a template.

Searched: engineering consultant business template

2nd hit

http://www.morebusiness.com/engineering-consulting-business-plan

V

 

[mkberry]

If I understand you correctly, you don't need a business plan. (However, that 2nd link is great for all those posts that start with "I'm thinking of starting my own firm...")
What you need are examples of the answer to the following question: "I'm looking for an engineer to ___. Can you provide me a proposal for that?"
For me, as a structural engineer, I know that person (client) wants stamped prints and he wants to know how much it will cost. Our firm will mostly provide a single page letter describing our services and what the fees will be. On larger projects, we shine it up a bit and provide nice pictures and descriptions of similar projects. Sometimes we get the job, and sometimes we don't. Of the projects we don't get; 80% of the time it is because of the price. THe other 20% of the time we lose a project, it is that we were never really in the running to begin with. The potential client was just shopping out his usual engineers fees.
I don't know if that helps with a chemical engineering proposal or not. Don't expect other companies to share examples of their proposals.

 

[HamishMcTavish]

Amazon search gives the following - maybe one of these could help you

http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_ss...field-keywords=engineering+proposal&x=18&y=21

No more things should be presumed to exist than are absolutely necessary - William of Occam

 

[tygerdawg]

There are dozens of laughable "How To Get Rich As A Consultant" self-help books on the market and in libraries. These usually have proposal samples in them.

I have found plenty of samples posted on the internet...if you haven't, then you're not looking hard enough.

The US Dept of Defense Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) competion websites have a standard format for proposals. You can get format ideas from that.

There's no standard formula. My experience is to craft a proposal targeted at the job, at the client, at the task. Sometimes you must put in extreme detail, sometimes just "big picture" topics. Writing proposals seems to be an Art where the skills are learned through hard experience.

TygerDawg
Blue Technik LLC
Virtuoso Robotics Engineering

http://www.bluetechnik.com

 

[FSS]

Scope of work, price, and schedule are all you need. And some fine print to protect you. Keep it simple.

 

[dogtop]

Thanks to ALL who offered comments, suggestions, references, and personal advice.