BL Sewell & Associates

55 Lynhurst Road
Middlesex

UB10 9EE

8 December 1995

Dear Lloyd

Re: Project Proposal for London College of FE, Clapham.

It is always very difficult to comment on the exact layout of a Business Proposal to a funding body like a City Challenge or a TEC because each will have their own preferred layout. However, there are some general pointers which I think you will find useful.

On reading the information you faxed over, my first reaction was one of confusion. I don't think the information spells out what you are proposing to do clearly enough. After piecing together sentences from the Project Profile, Mission statement, end Service Profile, my understanding of this proposed project is that you will be establishing a business centre within the college to provide business advice, to signpost businesses and start-ups to the services provided by other agencies TEC's, Enterprise Agency etc..), provide business reviews to identify business needs, and to act as a catalyst for further business services by presenting researched proposals to funding bodice which outline the training/advice needs of small businesses in the Clapham/Brixton and surrounding area. If this is indeed the purpose of your proposal it needs to be stated in a focused and reader -friendly way. I will return to this point later,

Can I make the following suggestions;
Begin your proposal with a paragraph or two on the for the project. For example you have mentioned in the Project Profile that this proposal is a result of discussions with the Mayor of Southwark and " a member of Brixton City Challenge." I suggest that you extend this to Some areas where there was common agreement as to where your particular skills could satisfy their need. For example you could write that " as a result of discussions with Mayor (name) from the London Borough of Southwark and (name) from the Brixton City Challenge Project team, it wee agreed that there wee no local agency that could act as a training /advice centre for start up and micro businesses. It was also felt that this was a

Whilst this may not have been the exact wording or area of discussion, the point I am trying to make is that you will have to include more background information in order to qualify for our assistance. Find out. what they are wanting to achieve, state it within this introductory section of the proposal, agree with it, and state that this proposal will outline how your skills, and the skills, of your other associates can help achieve these aims.

Once you have outlined the necessary background information , you should spell cut the aim of your proposed project. This could include the eagle information I outlined in an earlier paragraph. i.e. The aim of the project is to establish a business centre, based within the London College of Further Education, to provide business advice, undertake business reviews, to signpost business to other source of advice.................................................. etc.

You may then decide to outline your main objectives for the lifetime of the project. These /should be clearly linked to the aim of the project, and the aims) of the funding body, and should be Specific Measurable achievable-Realistic-Timebound.

Next, move on to the Methodology. I low will you achieve the objectives of the project? Outline the services you will provide, how you intend to provide them, who will provide them (include potted history of people to be used including qualifications e.g. working towards NVQ 4 in Business Counseling etc..). It may also be prudent to include what management information you intend to collect end how you will collect end present it to the project criteria. This should lead you nicely into the next section which will detail the outputs you expect to achieve.

Outputs could include, the number of businesses you will advice, the number of start-ups you intend to support. Again you should always ensure that the outputs you outline are the acme categories that are important for the funding body. For example, If you know that the number of businesses that receive funding from The Brixton City Challenge Loon fund is the number one priority for Brixton City Challenge then make cure you have it as your number one output. Make sure your outputs are achievable, and within the relevant timescale.

Finally you should outline how you intend to monitor the project and how you will use this information to evaluate its success. i\gain you may wish to dovetail this with the monitoring and evaluation procedures of the funding body, but make sure that you implement your own procedures.

The purpose of a project proposal is to show the funder that you understand what the relevant issue's ere, for the funder end the target group you ore hoping to attract, and to show that you are the beet individuals, team, and company to clarify their need. I hope the informs:ton I have provided will prove helpful.

If you need to discuss this further, please     me o call. If you wish to send..1 me your next draft, before you send it oft on Tuesday, I will be happy to look at it.


With regards


Jeff Taylor
Business Development Manager