Creating a proposal on Kolabtree

So, you’re excited with a project on Kolabtree and want to submit a proposal right away. It’s actually quite simple! In this post, we intend to present a brief overview of what an ideal proposal should look like, so that it increases your chances of winning a project each time you submit a proposal.

The purpose
The basic purpose of submitting a proposal is to tell the client that you’re interested in bidding for the project. The proposal is a means to give the client some initial details to capture his interest and give him confidence that you’re a good fit for the project.

The details
First things first – DO NOT mistake a Kolabtree proposal for a typical research proposal. A proposal on Kolabtree is completely different from what researchers are typically used to.

Assuming that the project has sufficient details for you to understand the overall scope and quote a suitable price, you can submit a proposal right away. In the lines below, we’ve tried to explain each field in detail to help you submit a strong proposal.

Describe your approach:
This is one of the most important aspects of your proposal since this is where you describe how you’ll go about handling the tasks outlined in the project. The primary focus in this step should be to give the client the confidence that you can take on the project and handle it.

Since some projects posted on Kolabtree will have several steps and complexities involved, you can break down the project flow into several tasks. For example, if you’re working on a data analysis project, you might want to conduct a preliminary analysis and share the results with the client before proceeding to work on more complicated parts of the analyses. In such a case you can mention your first step as “I will conduct a preliminary analysis based on the data presented in the file titled “XYZ.xlsx” and mark it as “My Task.” The second step can be outlined as “The client will need to provide some feedback on the task completed in step 1” and mark it as “client review/input needed” and so on and so forth.

Do you have any questions for the client?
You can use this section to pose any questions you might have for the client. Kolabtree has Public and Private Discussion forums within the platform that can help you discuss details even before you begin working on the project. If for any reason, you still feel that you would like to pose a question along with your proposal, you can include your question in this section.

Fee
Quote a suitable fee (in USD) depending on your understanding of the effort required for the project. Remember that you can revise the fee if the scope of the project changes during the course of your discussion with the client. If you’re outside the US, quote your fee keeping the exchange rate in mind.

Note: Kolabtree will deduct a small fee (up to 20%) from your quoted fee. Please keep this in mind when quoting your fee. We haven’t introduced this fee as yet and will let you know when we do so.

In case you’re waiting to understand the scope of the project and get a few questions answered before you can commit on a price, select the “Not ready to quote fee. Want to discuss first” option. You can enter a fee after your discussion is complete and you’re ready to quote a fee.

Deadline
Mention a deadline by which date you will be able to complete the tasks outlined by the client. This date obviously has to be on or before the deadline set by the client. However, if the client has set a flexible deadline and you feel that the task might take longer than what has been indicated by the client, you can choose a suitable date and elaborate on the reason for taking more time in the next section.

What can you do when the project details are unclear?
There might be situations when the client hasn’t clearly outlined the project details. Hence, you would like to ask for more details before you’re able to submit a proposal. You can go about doing this in two ways.

1. Start a public discussion: Use this feature when you have a general query that you wouldn’t mind asking publicly to the client. In other words, any query that you pose here can be read by other freelancers who might be looking to submit a proposal for the project.

You can initiate a public discussion with the client using our “Ask a question” feature and submitting a proposal after you’ve received sufficient details to be able to submit a strong proposal. However, keep in mind that anything that you post in this forum is visible to all logged in Kolabtree users.

2. Start a private discussion: For certain queries, you might want to avoid a public discussion and ask some questions in private to the client. This can be done through our “Private Discussion” forum. To access this forum, you will need to submit a basic proposal with whatever little understanding you have of the project. Once you submit the proposal, the interface will allow you to initiate a private discussion with the client. However, remember that it is up to the client to respond to the query and take the discussion forward.

Still stuck with something? Your questions are still unanswered? Write to us at contact@localhost and we’ll try to respond as soon as possible.