Sooner or later a larger company, a city or a public body sends your small business a request for proposal. It may be a formal tender with numbered sections or a polite e-mail with a list of questions. Either way it arrives with a deadline, and it is flattering to be asked.
The danger is not the document. The danger is saying yes to every one of them. A serious response can take several days of the very people who also deliver your current work. If you win a fair share, that is a good investment. If you answer everything out of habit, it is an expensive way to stay busy.
This article describes a simple routine for a company with a few people and no bid department.
Decide bid or no-bid before you write a word
Hold a short meeting, 20 minutes, with the owner and whoever would deliver the work. Go through five questions and write the answers on one page.
- Do we fit? Is this work we already do well, or would we have to stretch? Stretching once may be fine; stretching for a customer you have never met is risky.
- Do we know the buyer? A tender sent to ten suppliers, where the buyer has never heard of you, has a low chance. A request from a customer who has worked with you before has a high one. Be honest about which this is.
- Can we deliver? Check people, dates and any certificates or references required. If the plan only works when nothing else happens, it does not work.
- Is the price realistic? Estimate the work and add a margin. If the buyer's budget, when stated, is far below your estimate, say no early.
- Do we have the time? Count the hours needed to write the response and name who loses them.
Give each answer a simple mark: yes, maybe or no. One clear "no" on fit, delivery or price is normally enough to decline. Two or more "maybe" answers mean you should ask the buyer a question before deciding.
Decline politely, and quickly
A no-bid is not a failure. Send a short reply the same week: thank them, say you cannot deliver this one well, and add that you would welcome a future request. Buyers remember suppliers who answer, and many keep them on the list for the next round.
If you bid, name two people
Shared effort turns into late nights. Choose:
- A bid owner who writes the response, keeps the checklist and talks to the buyer.
- A second reader who did not write it and checks every requirement against what was written.
Put the internal deadline two working days before the real one. That gap is for the second read, the price check and the surprises that always come on the last afternoon.
Read the document in a fixed order
Before any writing, read these parts and put them at the top of your checklist:
- The deadline, the time zone and the way to submit
- The mandatory requirements, often marked "must" or "shall"
- The format: page limits, forms, attachments, language
- How the buyer will score the answers, if it is stated
- The contact person and the last date for questions
Mandatory items are where small suppliers lose most often. A missing signature, an attachment in the wrong format or an unanswered required question can remove an otherwise good proposal without anyone reading it.
If you are asked to answer through a public procurement portal, look at it early. In the UK, tenders above certain values are published on Find a Tender, and lower-value opportunities appear on Contracts Finder. Register and test the account before the last day.
Ask your questions once
If something is unclear, collect all questions in one message and send it before the question deadline. Keep the answer. Buyers often share questions and answers with every bidder, so ask in a way you are happy for competitors to read, and do not reveal your price or method.
Write for the person who will score it
Evaluators often read many responses in a row. Make theirs easier.
- Answer the question that was asked, in the order it was asked, using their numbering.
- Start each answer with the direct reply, then the support.
- Use the buyer's own words for their problem, and show you understood it in a short opening summary.
- Give specifics: who will do the work, how long each step takes, what you need from them.
- Offer references or examples you can really stand behind. Do not invent clients or results.
The same discipline applies to a normal offer. Our article on writing a one-page proposal for a small client covers scope, price and timeline in a shorter format. And if you will deliver software or a service under the contract, reading a software quote shows the same checks from the other side of the table.
Check before you send
The second reader goes through a short list:
- Every mandatory requirement has an answer, and every attachment is there.
- The price is consistent in every place it appears, with tax stated as the document asks.
- Names, dates and company details are correct.
- Promises match what the team can deliver. Nothing is committed that you have not discussed.
- The file opens, has the right name and was sent before the deadline, with proof of delivery.
Send early. Portals fail, e-mails bounce, and a tender that arrives a minute late is usually not read.
Keep a simple log and learn from it
After each decision, add one line to a shared sheet: buyer, date, bid or no-bid, the main reason, the estimated hours and the result. When a result arrives, ask the buyer for feedback. Public buyers usually explain the outcome on request, and private ones often will if asked politely.
Every quarter, look at the sheet. Which kinds of request did you win? Which ones cost the most time? That pattern will tell you what to decline next time.
Where AI can help, and where it cannot
An AI assistant can be useful for the repetitive parts: extracting the requirements and deadlines into a checklist, producing a first outline that follows the buyer's numbering, or checking that every requirement has an answer. It can also help tidy the language.
It cannot decide whether you should bid, set a price or promise delivery, and it does not know your team's real capacity. Do not paste confidential buyer documents into a tool you have not approved, and check any figure or claim it produces against your own records. The people who sign the response are responsible for every sentence.
A first step
Take the last request you received, or the next one that arrives, and run the five questions on one page. Write down the answers and the decision, and put the date in a shared sheet. Within a month you will have a small record, and the next tender will be a decision rather than a reaction.