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How to Write a Mining Industry Business Proposal

By Ian Lauder

Republish: EasyPublish™ Published: 29Feb2012 Word count: 1289 Viewed: 77 time(s) Get Free Content For Your Site

The price of minerals is up all over the world, and mining is a growth business right now. Everyone wants to jump in. There are all sorts of aspects to the mining industry you may want to take advantage of. Maybe you want approval from a government agency to open a new mining operation.

Maybe you want to expand an existing operation or revive an old one. Perhaps you hope to interest investors in a mining project, sell equipment and machinery, or sell services such as safety training or environmental cleanup to the mining industry.

So how are you going to go about pitching your ideas to the people that need to hear them? You could try a direct mail or email campaign, but it's not likely that either of those would be persuasive enough. To get the attention of the appropriate decision-makers and prove that you know what you're talking about, you need to write a proposal.

Sure, you could hire a professional proposal writer. But you're going to have to supply a writer all the information for the proposal, so why not write it yourself? You can always hire an editor to fix grammar and punctuation errors before you send out the final version.

So what should go into a proposal? Each proposal will contain different topics because of the endless possible combinations of businesses and situations, but this article will explain the basic structure that you should follow to create a successful proposal. You don't need to start from scratch, either, unless you want to. You can speed up the process with a package of pre-designed proposals and start your project with pre-designed templates, instructions, and sample proposals in hand.

Here's the basic structure for any sort of business proposal: Introduce yourself and your proposal, show that you understand the proposal reader's needs, explain how your ideas, goods, or services will meet those needs and what they will cost, and convince the proposal reader that you are the right party for the job.

The secret to a successful proposal lies in part 2, showing that you understand the proposal reader's needs. Because, although of course you want to get whatever you're seeking—the loan, the approval, or the contract—a proposal should never be all about you. Each proposal needs to be tailored to the party who is going to read it.

Think about your proposal readers first. What do they want? What do they need? What will they want to know about you and your ideas? If you need to, do some research about your potential clients, customers, or investors so you can prove to them that you understand their concerns; the extra effort will pay off in the long run.

Now that you understand the basic structure and the secret, let's fill in some more details, starting at the beginning.

Part 1, the introduction, should consist of a brief cover letter that tells your reader who you are and what you're seeking from them, and provides all your contact information. The cover letter should also include a mention of what you'd like the reader to do after considering your proposal (approve the project, sign the contract, give you the funding, etc.—this is your "call to action").

Following the cover letter, create a title page that introduces your proposal (for example, "Proposal to Open a Silver Mine in the XYZ Basin," "Environmental Cleanup of the XYZ Mines," or "Proposal to Lease Heavy Equipment to the XYZ Mining Company").

If your proposal is complex, you may need to follow the title page with what is called an Executive Summary or a Client Summary—a page that lists your most important points. This sort of summary page is generally included for high-level decision makers, who may read only this page and leave the details of your proposal for their subordinates to analyze.

Again, if your proposal is long or complex, you may want to follow this summary page with a table of contents (TOC). You may not be able to generate a TOC until you're done with the body of your proposal, but this is where the table of contents belongs in the structure.

On to the all-important Part 2: demonstrating that you understand the needs and concerns of your proposal readers. Obviously the topics in this section will vary depending on your audience, but you'll probably want to include topic pages with titles like Needs, Requirements, and Opportunities.

You might want to include discussions of issues like Challenges and Risks to show you understand the big picture, too. Remember, this section is not about selling yourself, but about showing your readers that you understand their interests and concerns.

In Part 3, you describe exactly what you're proposing, what it will cost, and how it will benefit your potential clients, investors, or the community or market in general. Remember that this section is still not about why you are the best pick, but about how your ideas, products, or services can benefit the proposal reader's organization.

The topics you include here will depend on exactly what you're proposing to do. You might need topic pages for Environmental issues, Equipment, Safety, Training, Transportation, Security, or Marketing, just to name a few. Include details and costs of what you're offering, topics like Products, Services Offered, Price List, Cost of Goods, Benefits, and so forth.

Finally, in Part 4, it's your turn to describe why you're the best choice to receive the funding, approval, and/or the contract. Include topics like your Company History, Projects, Experience, Personnel, Education, Certifications, and so forth. It's always more impressive to readers if others sing your praises, so be sure to add topics like Awards, Referrals, and Case Studies that showcase successes you've had in the past.

At the very end of Part 4, you should conclude the proposal with a Call to Action, specifically asking for whatever it is you want your reader to do next—set up a meeting, sign a contract, give you approval or funding, and so forth.

At this point, you have written the basic draft of your proposal. Now, before you send it out, you have two more tasks to complete. First, hire that editor if you need to, but proofread every single page—if you send out an unprofessional-sounding proposal, odds are the recipients will think your business practices are sloppy, too.

Second, as well as sounding professional, your proposal needs to look professional. So make the pages look good, and consider adding splashes of color and graphic touches with your company logo, special bullets, interesting fonts, etc.

When your proposal is as polished as it can be, send it out, attached to email as a PDF file or as a printed copy sent via mail or delivered by hand. Choose the delivery method that makes sense for you and your recipients, always keeping in mind that you want to impress them.

So now you can see that anyone who has great ideas or products or services to offer can put together a business proposal, whether it's for a mining project or any other. Writing a proposal doesn't need to be an intimidating project. You can do it. And remember that a proposal kit of materials can give you a giant head start. Why not begin ten steps ahead with topic templates, instructions, and sample proposals?

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