Before…
Sarah, the founder and CEO of a small marketing consultancy called “MarketEdge,” faced significant challenges typical for businesses of her size. MarketEdge, established three years ago, specialised in providing digital marketing and branding services to SMEs in the retail and hospitality sectors.
Despite Sarah’s aspirations to expand into the Public Sector and diversify her revenue streams, investing in bidding activities was difficult to justify due to limited financial resources. With an annual turnover averaging around £300,000, MarketEdge operated within a niche market segment, where contract values typically ranged from £20,000 to £50,000. Bidding often felt speculative, making it hard to allocate budget for bid writing support, consultancy services, or training programs. Consequently, Sarah and her small team of marketing specialists were responsible for all bid writing activities, with minimal internal resources dedicated solely to bid management.
Feeling overwhelmed and stretched thin, Sarah found that she didn’t enjoy the daunting task of writing bids. Writer’s block often hindered her ability to craft compelling bid responses, and staying updated with legislative, legal, procurement, and industry changes was challenging given the limited resources available. The difficulty of ‘just getting started’ frequently prevented Sarah from writing bids for contracts she knew she could deliver.
