Your weekly edge for turning expertise into income
Quick Hits
📌 This week: Why your 15-page consulting proposal is losing to one-pagers—and the four-section framework that closes deals in 48 hours instead of weeks.
💡 The insight: Complexity doesn't signal expertise, it signals work for busy clients who default to the easiest yes.
⚡ Your move: Strip your current proposal down to four sections only: problem, approach, investment, trigger, and test it on your next opportunity.
🎧 Listen online: One Page Proposal
Still Building 🔨
I've been deep in customer journey mapping this week. Turns out I've been guessing at where you are in your transition rather than actually knowing. So I'm building a proper framework around the why, what, and how of turning expertise into income.
Better understanding where people enter this path will help me create content and resources that actually matter. Guessing doesn't work. Data does.
👉 Here's where I need your help: Would you take 3 minutes to fill out a quick survey? No strings attached. No new email lists. Just honest feedback about where you are and what would help most.
I'm heading to the New Media Conference in Austin in late February and want to show up with real data about what Retirepreneurs actually need.
→ Take the 3-minute survey here
While I'm deep in the data, I want to make sure you're moving forward too. This week, we're tackling a question that often comes up: why do long proposals lose to short ones?
You send a 15-page proposal packed with case studies and testimonials. They never respond. Meanwhile, your competitor sends one page and closes the deal in 48 hours. The proposals that win aren't the most impressive. They're the easiest to say yes to.
Four Sections. Nothing More.
Your one-page proposal needs exactly four things:
1. The problem you're solving - Specific, in their language, not consultant-speak
2. Your approach and deliverable - What they get, when they get it, in concrete terms
3. Investment and timeline - Total fee, payment structure, start and end dates
4. The trigger - A signature box or reply instruction: "To proceed, reply YES and I'll send the deposit invoice"
Everything else you want to include? Save it for your website, your conversation, or your full consulting agreement. The proposal's job is to get to yes. Not to impress. Not to educate. To close.
The Protection Hiding In Plain Sight
Here's what CFO experience teaches: The clearest proposals prevent the most problems.
When you state upfront "This proposal covers X, Y, and Z. Additional analysis requires a separate scope," you've protected yourself better than ten pages of legal language.
Don't weave your boundaries into paragraphs where they get lost. Put a small Key Assumptions box at the bottom of your Investment and Timeline section listing valid dates, revision limits, and payment terms. It looks like a footnote but acts like a shield.
The Two-Step Close
Your one-page proposal gets you to yes. Then what?
In my experience, this two-step approach keeps the momentum high and the legal headaches low:
1. The One-Pager: Sells the outcome and gets emotional buy-in ("Yes, let's do this")
2. The Master Agreement: Follows immediately after as a formality to sign, not critique
The proposal becomes Exhibit A (the scope both parties already agreed to). You never begin work with just a handshake and hope.
Stop trying to win clients with impressive proposals. Win them with clear ones. One page that answers four questions:
🔸What problem are you solving?
🔸What am I getting?
🔸What does it cost?
🔸What happens next?
Everything else is just friction.
Next Steps
⚡ YOUR FOCUSED ACTION THIS WEEK
→ Open your last consulting proposal and count the pages. Then strip it down ruthlessly using the four-section framework above. Test it on your next opportunity and track response time.
Want to go deeper?
📖 How to Write Consulting Proposals That Close Deals Fast After Retirement: Complete guide with examples and psychology behind why one-pagers win. → Read the full article
🎯 Retirepreneur Hub: Access our sample consulting one-page proposal in the Resource Hub (completely free, no credit card required). → Join Free
🏠 Keep building,
—Curt
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