Business & Strategy
Business Proposal Board for Beginners: Build the Outline with 5W1H and the 6 Elements
Beginner | 2 whiteboard pages · Task board: 5 columns (4 parent tasks, 12 subtasks)
Beginner: No technical terms. Just answer the whiteboard's questions, following the examples, and it takes shape.
Junior staff writing their first internal business proposal use this beginner template to learn proposal writing with 5W1H and the six elements an approver checks before signing off. The whiteboard uses two pages, with a frame for raw ideas on the left, a 5W1H radial that opens the idea into Why, What, Who, When, Where and How, a two-column pros and cons comparison and a six-step guide to a proposal that gets approved, then on the right a one-line summary frame, a table of the six elements (background, purpose, content, benefit, cost, schedule) and three frames on what approvers check, why proposals fail and the first move after sign-off. The task board has five columns, Idea pool, Outline, Drafting, In review and Submitted, with four parent tasks and three subtasks each, 16 cards in total, all not started. If you freeze on line one because you do not know how to write a proposal, answering the six 5W1H questions gives you the outline. It targets internal approval, not client sales.
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Business Proposal Board
How to use: (1) Follow the six steps first (board #4) → (2) Write down your raw ideas (board #1) → (3) Answer the six 5W1H questions (board #2) → (4) List pros and cons in two columns (board #3) → (5) Write the one-line summary and the six-element table, then submit
1. Idea Pool (problems and rough thoughts)
- What bothers you e.g. Invoicing takes three days at every month end, and sales visits halve in that week.
- What you heard from others, in their words e.g. Accounting: "We retype the same data into two systems." e.g. A senior rep: "Everyone has the same deadline, so there is nobody free to ask."
- Cases from other teams or companies e.g. The team next door split invoicing into two runs a month to flatten the load. No setup cost.
2. Build the Outline with 5W1H (decide Why first)
- Invoicing twice a month
- Why why do it e.g. To end three days of month-end overtime so sales can keep visiting clients
- What what to do e.g. Split the cut-off from once at month end into the 15th and month end
- Who who does it e.g. Run by 2 people in accounting. It covers 12 sales reps and 2 accountants, 14 people
- When when e.g. Trial in October, live from November. Approval needed by September 20
- Where where e.g. Inside the accounting system we already have. No new tool
- How how to do it e.g. Set two cut-off dates, tell clients the month before, write a one-page procedure
3. Pros and Cons (naming the downsides yourself helps it get approved)
Pros upside
- The main reason to pick this e.g. It removes the cause of the month-end peak itself. No extra headcount, done with what we have.
- Gains outside your own team e.g. Sales can visit clients at month end too. Clients get spread-out deadlines and ask fewer last-minute questions.
Cons downside
- Whose workload grows e.g. All 40 regular clients need a notice. Nobody has agreed to write and send it yet.
- If it does not work e.g. Two cut-offs add a mid-month check. If one month of trial fails, we go back to the old way.
4. How to Write a Proposal That Gets Approved (6 steps)
- 1. Pick one idea From the problems on board 1, choose the one you can actually move. e.g. You cannot move a supplier price rise. You can move your own cut-off date.
- 2. Outline with 5W1H Answer the six questions on board 2. Start with Why and the what, the how, the people and the timing stay in line.
- 3. List good and bad Write two cards each in the two columns on board 3. The numbers come later, in the benefit and cost rows. An idea with no downside is not thought through yet.
- 4. Say it in one line Write the 30-second version on board 5 and say it out loud. e.g. Test whether that one sentence is enough if you meet your manager in the corridor.
- 5. Fill the 6 elements Fill the table on board 6 from the top and reuse the rows as your headings. Keep it to one or two A4 pages. Long proposals go unread.
- 6. Get a pre-read Show it to your manager or a senior colleague and collect comments against board 7 before you submit. e.g. Kill the gap where you wrote zero cost but the IT team still spends hours.
5. The Proposal in One Line (a 30-second version)
- One-line summary e.g. We split invoicing into two runs a month, cut three days of month-end overtime to zero and add 12 sales visits a month.
- The sentence pattern, just fill the blanks "This proposal solves [whose] [problem] by [how] and delivers [what result]." A proposal you cannot say out loud will not pass, however well it is written.
6. The 6 Elements of a Proposal (what to write, example)
| What to write | Example | |
|---|---|---|
| Background | Where you are now and what hurts. Facts and numbers only, no opinions. | e.g. Month-end overtime runs 18 hours a month across 2 accountants, and sales visits halve in the same week. |
| Purpose | What you want to change, said in one sentence. | e.g. Flatten the invoicing load across the month and take month-end overtime to zero. |
| Content | What you will actually do. Steps, who is covered, where it stops. | e.g. Cut off on the 15th and at month end. Covers the 40 regular clients. New clients stay as they are. |
| Benefit | Split what you can put a number on from what you cannot. | e.g. Overtime 18 hours to 0, about $324 a month at $18 an hour. Around 12 more month-end sales visits. |
| Cost | The money and the effort. If it is zero, write zero. | e.g. No system change. 8 hours for the procedure and the client notices, 4 hours each for 2 accountants. |
| Schedule | What happens when. Always give the approval date and the start date. | e.g. Approved on September 20, clients notified by September 30, trial in October, live in November. |
7. What Approvers Look At
- How much it costs and how much it returns
- Whose time it uses and how much of it
- How you roll it back if you stop
- e.g. Say you revert if one month of trial shows nothing
8. Why Proposals Get Rejected
- e.g. Background is only "it feels inefficient"
- e.g. The benefit is "work gets easier" with no number
- e.g. You wrote zero cost but another team spends hours
- It says nothing about money, time or risk
9. Ready to Move After Sign-off
- Decide one single thing to do on day one
- e.g. Email the 40 regular clients the next working day
- Write down who to contact and in what order
- Record the number you will measure once before you start
Task board contents
Idea pool 16 items
Collect ideas
A stray thought is not a proposal yet. Collect the problems as facts so you can choose which one to write up.
List the problems
Write five tasks that ate your time in the past month. Keep only the ones you can act on yourself.
Ask 3 colleagues
Ask three people who touch the same work what annoys them, and copy their answers down in their own words.
Find a similar case
Find one case in another team or company that solved the same problem, and note the cost and the result.
Outline with 5W1H
The frame you build before you write. Answer six questions and you have the material the draft needs.
Start with Why
Say in one sentence why you are doing this. If it wobbles here, the other five answers wobble too.
Write What and How
Spell out what you will do and how. Look first at options that add no new tool.
Set who and when
Fill in Who, When and Where. State how many people are covered, plus the approval date and the start date.
Write the 6 elements
Move the outline into the document. Fill the six-element table from the top and reuse the rows as headings. Keep it to one or two A4 pages.
Background and aim
Background carries numbers and facts only, the aim is one sentence. Keep opinions out of the background.
Show the payoff
Work out the hours and the money you save, and list the benefits you cannot count separately. A weak payoff sinks the proposal.
Cost and schedule
Give the money and the effort, then lay out dates counting back from the approval day. If the cost is zero, write zero.
Get it approved
Submitting is not the end. Close the gaps with a pre-read and likely questions so you can move the day after sign-off.
Ask for a pre-read
Show it to your manager before you submit, and ask for comments from the approver's point of view.
Prep for questions
Prepare one answer each for the three things approvers check (cost, effort, rollback) and for the two downsides on your pros and cons board.
Plan day one
Decide one thing to do on the working day after approval. Record the number you will measure once before you start.
