The First Couple Years are Always The Hardest
As a serial entrepreneur and founder of a few startup companies I have seen firsthand the truth of this statement. While a lot of the stress in starting a company comes from simply wondering whether you will be able to drum up enough business to get into the black, a lot also comes from the process of building your infrastructure.
Most small businesses got into business because they had a competitive advantage and a set of strengths. Along with those set of strengths, however, also comes a set of weaknesses. Bob, the owner of Dandies Fix It Repair Shop, probably can’t design a website to advertise his business. On the other hand, Janet, the owner of Pickle Littles Web Design Company, probably doesn’t have the know how to install an air conditioning unit in her new office space.
No matter your area of expertise chances are that you will need to outsource a job every once and a while. And unless you want to be months off schedule and far off budget it is absolutely imperative that you assemble a proper request for proposal (RFP). Because there is a wealth of excellent information on RFP creation out there, this blog entry will simply give you an overview of the process and then point you to some sources where you can get all you want and more on RFPs.
First off, the TOP EIGHT MUST DOs for writing/creating an RFP*:
- Closely follow a structured process:Write out a detailed task list with times to complete and follow it. Cross collaborate with all the key decision makers to ensure your process outline is adequate.
- Identify all needs before beginning: Sit down with the end user and all the key decision makers and determine what each person wants and needs. Determine in house capabilities and those that need to be outsourced and put them all down in a list. To gain confidence of your peers, however, don’t call it a list… call it a “Needs Assessment Analysis”.
- Completely vet your list of consultants BEFORE committing to them: Consultants are usually industry veterans/experts that have made a lot of industry connections over the years. It is really easy for these consultants to get in the habit of referring friends for business instead of searching for the best match for your company. Vet any potential consultants by talking to past clients, viewing third party reviews, etc. It even helps to tell the consultant up front what you are expecting and what you do not want to happen. Watch to see if they squirm… if so, don’t hire them.
- Cut out the bells and whistles: Long feature lists can often cloud ones judgment. Remember that extra features are just that… extra. Would you ever buy a car that also comes with a free masseuse? Granted, that is a ridiculous overstatement of a bell/whistle. Just be careful to not weigh down your project with extra steps.
- Include key users all the way along: Before you get to far into any project, make sure you get written approval/sign offs from all the key decision makers. Above and beyond that, make sure you get buy in on the end user level too. This will ensure that none of the key users can come back at the end with gripes, moans and groans. They got what they asked for.
- Go to the drawing board with a full stomach: Just as you buy more at the grocery store on an empty stomach, if you jump into a project without a detailed “to buy” list you’re going to get more than you planned on and more than you need.
- Don’t smile too much at the shiny teeth: Good sales people are extremely proficient at making you feel comfortable and warm and tingly inside. Make sure you are purchasing the product and not the sales persons smile.
- Individualize your RFP for your company and your process: You’ll find gobs and gobs of articles and books explaining how to write a good RFP. Some of them walk you through a step by step process that have a lot of steps that don’t really apply to you. The most important part of developing an RFP is ensuring that it covers all of your needs, is tediously detailed and is individualized to your own business processes.
So, where do I start?
The eighth MUST DO above encourages custom tailoring the RFP process to your needs. However, if you don’t have a lot of experience with RFPs you will want some help getting started. “Keeping Your e-RFP From Becoming an e-Mess” is an article that outlines the basic process of developing an RFP. While it does provide some basic insight into where to begin, including parts you should include in it, it does also have some extra fluff concerning multimedia services. IVID Communications, the company that wrote the article, makes money off developing multimedia for clients. Unless you really need some help in multimedia design you can ignore the comments specific to this topic.
If you are developing software oriented RFPs then you may need some help setting up software benchmarks. This wikipedia article is a great source of information to help you get started with that: “Benchmark (computing)”. This source includes all the basic information you will need to know about benchmarks including a ton of outbound links to other sites with even more information.
If you need any help putting together an RFP just drop me a comment. I really enjoy this uber geeky super organizational side of business and would love to help you out. Please also let me know, via the comments section, what projects are in your pipeline.
*Compliments of On-Line Consultant Software. While their website has a lot of good information I wouldn’t recommend purchasing their RFP packages unless you really have no clue what you’re doing.