Gail & Jim Greenwood, Greenwood Consulting Group, Inc.

Copyright © 2000 by Greenwood Consulting Group, Inc.

We were asked the other day whether it is a good idea to submit an SBIR or STTR proposal when you are not sure whether it will represent your best effort. Maybe you are short on time or haven’t worked out all the details of your innovation or don’t have the perfect team yet—should you submit anyway?

Some would argue that this is a good way to get feedback on your ideas and on your proposal style. Sonny Kreitman, retired head of the SBIR/STTR programs at National Institutes of Health, tells the story of the man who keeps praying that he will win the lottery until God finally answers with "Okay, okay, but will you at least meet me half way and buy a ticket?" Put another way, you can’t win if you don’t submit.

We are firm believers in newcomers submitting SBIR/STTR proposals. After all, half of the Phase I awards each year go to firms that have never won an SBIR/STTR award before. However, we also have seen some proposals get submitted that may have caused the submitter more harm than good. Here, then, are a few questions to ask yourself if you are not sure whether you should send in a less than perfect proposal to the SBIR or STTR program:

What’s the downside? If this is a topic that won’t likely appear again, and if it is to a reviewer(s) that you won’t likely submit to in the future, then the downside may be minimal. However, if you anticipate submitting on this topic or to the same reviewers again, then you have to be concerned about the negative impression that your marginal proposal may leave that your future attempts will have to overcome.

Could your time be spent better elsewhere? If you have just enough time to write one really superior proposal or two mediocre ones, then you are better off dedicating the time to the one good effort.

Does it pass the snicker test? Find someone who is impartial and willing to give you an honest opinion, and ask him or her to critique your draft proposal (or at least listen to your verbal outline of it). If they snicker or look puzzled, then that may mean that your idea is not sufficiently refined (or is not credible enough) to reflect positively on you if you submit this proposal.

When is your next opportunity? One nice thing about the National Institutes of Health is that, with three proposal due dates per year, you can defer to the next deadline to have time to polish your proposal and you won’t lose that many months. But the Department of Agriculture and most other agencies won’t accept proposals again for another year—can you (and your innovation) afford to wait? Also a topic in the Department of Defense solicitation may appear only once, so you may be more inclined to submit your imperfect proposal for this one-time opportunity.

Do you feel lucky? We hate to quote Sonny Kreitman and Clint Eastwood in the same article, but both have good points. Sonny points out that you can’t win unless you submit, while Clint "Dirty Harry" Eastwood reminds us in his famous "do you feel lucky?" question that how you feel should influence your decision. If the proposal isn’t polished but you’ve received very positive feedback on your ideas from the topic author, circumstances suggest that the purpose of your proposal will be an agency priority right now, or if your horoscope says today is the day you should submit an SBIR/STTR proposal, then go for it!