Your Roadmap to Success
As a small business owner, you face many challenges from the get-go. You might run up against development roadblocks such as limited resources, financial constraints, and confusing compliance standards. Or you might struggle with building your branding, marketing, and visibility.
Once Upon an RFP gets it. As a small business like you, we’ve been there. And we’re here to help.
We transform businesses like yours, providing you access to all our services, including:
- Proposal writing
- Proposal management
- Vendor registration
- Certification & renewal
- Opportunity sourcing
- Content library development
Tailored to you, our proposal ecosystem offers support in five key areas. Combining sales strategy, proposal writing and management, opportunity sourcing, vendor and portal registration, and relevant certifications develops your roadmap and charts your path to success.
Sales Strategy
Your sales strategy is crucial for growing your small business. A robust sales strategy aligns sales efforts with business objectives, empowers your team with clear goals and direction, and ensures a consistent focus on revenue generation and client satisfaction.
When we develop a sales strategy, we focus on the following:
- Understanding the market and potential client needs
- Building relationships with potential partners and clients
- Honing a game plan for competitive advantage
- Retaining adaptability and flexibility while scaling for long-term growth
- Optimizing resources and generating measurable results
Opportunity Sourcing
The procurement world is vast and uncharted for many small to mid-sized businesses. Focused opportunity sourcing is essential for companies to grow and innovate within their respective industries. Furthermore, it is a proactive approach that helps companies identify and leverage favorable chances for success.
Actively sourcing opportunities enables your business to stay ahead of competitors and gain a deeper understanding of industry trends. Additionally, this proactive approach allows your business to capitalize on emerging trends, innovative ideas, or underserved niches before your larger competitors beat you to the punch.
Moreover, sourcing RFP opportunities for corporate and public sector clients can involve networking and forming partnerships. Collaborating with other businesses can lead to mutually beneficial opportunities for your business, such as joint ventures, subcontracting gigs, and ongoing partnerships.
Proposal Writing & Management
While sales strategy enables your business to create a roadmap, proposal services are vital gateways to new opportunities. As such, professional proposal writing and management services pave the way for acquiring new business, building a positive professional reputation, and defining your services and solutions.
Responding to proposals is critical for overall business development and expansion, including:
- Securing new contracts and projects to build your portfolio
- Gaining a competitive edge through market intelligence
- Establishing credibility and demonstrating reliability
- Clarifying product or service scope and expectations
- Mitigating risk via prioritizing compliance and responsiveness
Vendor & Portal Registration
Many organizations share their bid opportunities and receive responses via a procurement or registered vendor portal. Unfortunately, there are countless platforms with unique registration requirements. Registering is time-consuming, and it can be tricky to justify that investment just for the opportunity to bid.
Once Upon an RFP supports vendor and portal registration in the following ways:
Preparation and Documentation: We help gather necessary documents such as tax IDs and W-9s, business registration certificates, financial statements, proof of insurance, credit reports and ratings, and certifications pertinent to the industry or opportunity.
Registration Form Submission: Once we’ve compiled the necessary information, we input company and contact data into the required forms and submit mandatory documentation to complete the registration process.
Validation and Review: Once your registration is submitted, Once Upon an RFP follows the approval process and responds to rejections or follow-up requests with additional data or documentation.
Maintenance and Updates: We monitor your registration status after it is approved. This includes maintaining an up-to-date registration and updating information to retain your approved vendor status.
Certifications & Renewals
Certifications are potent tools for opening doors to contracts, fostering growth, and establishing relationships within the procurement ecosystem. Many government opportunities are small-business set-asides only considering certified small businesses for the contract. Some private and public sector opportunities also require large bidders to partner with small and diverse companies.
Examples of certifications include:
U.S. Small Business Administration Certifications
- Small Disadvantaged Business
- Women-Owned Small Business
- Veteran-Owned Small Business
- HUBZone-certified
- 8(a) Program
Green Certifications
- Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design
- WaterSense
- Green Seal
Additionally, you may want to look into relevant industry, state, and local certifications and memberships.
However, certification processes are time-consuming endeavors chock-full of eligibility constraints, data requests, and compliance hoops to jump through. As a certified woman-owned small business, Once Upon an RFP is uniquely equipped to support other small businesses in applying for and renewing appropriate certifications.
Get Ready, Get Set, Bid
Save yourself the hassle and hot mess of building and managing talent in-house. Once Upon an RFP offers private access to a proven team with 100+ years of R.F.P. excellence and business development experience.
Join our proposal ecosystem today and let us build your roadmap to success.
Chat with a Once Upon an RFP Proposal expert today: Learn more