Updated on 21 September 2026 by the Proposal Expert editorial team
Send professional freelance proposals fast and get more yeses
A simple yet professional freelance proposal. Personal introduction, scope, payment terms and a straightforward rate structure for solo professionals.
A freelance proposal template is a short, professional proposal that an independent professional uses to pitch a project to a client. You use it when a business owner, marketing manager or project lead has approached you for a job and wants to know what you do, how you work and what it costs. This template includes a personal introduction, portfolio highlights, the project scope, your ways of working and communication, a rate per hour, half day or project, payment terms such as a deposit, references and a signature field.
The template opens with a personal introduction and positioning, followed by three to five portfolio highlights with results. The weight sits in the project scope and the payment terms, because that is where a freelancer prevents scope creep and late payment. The ways of working with communication agreements, the rate per hour, half day or project, references and the signature field with next steps complete the proposal without pushing it past two pages.
This template is built for freelance designers, developers, copywriters, photographers and independent consultants taking on projects from a single day to several months. The reader is a business owner, marketing manager or project lead at a small or mid-sized company who wants to decide quickly. Newcomers to freelancing use it too, because the structure forces you to pin down scope and payment terms before you start.
Write out the project scope first with what is and is not included, including the number of revision rounds. Then pick the rate model: hourly for ongoing work, half day for workshops and a project fee for clearly bounded jobs. Add your payment terms, for example 50 percent up front and the rest on delivery, with a 14-day payment period. Replace the portfolio highlights with work that resembles this job and ask one recent client for a reference.
This freelance proposal example shows how an independent copywriter proposes website copy and blog articles to a heating and solar installer. It turns a vague request for better text into a defined job: a fixed number of pages and articles, a keyword research step first and two revision rounds per text. The price is per deliverable, not per hour or per word, so the client knows the cost up front and the writer never has to justify how long a paragraph took. It also says what happens when the client delivers input late, which is where freelance projects usually slip.
This proposal can be downloaded as a Word document (.docx) on this page.
From: Clear Words Copywriting, Leeds
To: Fenwick Heating & Solar Ltd, York
Date: 16 September 2026
Reference: PRO-2026-063
Valid until: 16 October 2026
Fenwick Heating & Solar is getting a new website from Formwork Web Studio in November. The current copy dates from 2019, is written for engineers and does not mention the heat pumps and solar systems that now make up half of your turnover. In our call on 10 September you said you want more enquiries from homeowners in North Yorkshire and that the text must be understandable for people considering a heat pump for the first time.
Eight web pages and four blog articles in plain English that explain what Fenwick does, written around the search terms homeowners in your area actually use, and ready before the new website goes live. The aim is that the website generates at least 15 enquiries a month through the contact form within six months of launch, against 6 today.
I start with a 90-minute interview with you and your two lead engineers and a keyword research for the York and North Yorkshire area. I then write the copy for eight pages: home, about, heat pumps, solar panels, boiler servicing, bathroom installation, how we work and contact. Each page runs 300 to 500 words with a title and a meta description for Google. The four blog articles of about 800 words each answer the questions you hear most from customers; we fix the topics together after the keyword research. Two revision rounds per text are included. The web studio places the copy; I proofread it once on the live site. Photography, translations and product descriptions for the webshop are outside this proposal.
The interview is scheduled for the week of 28 September. Keyword research and a page structure per page are delivered on 5 October. You receive the first version of the eight pages on 19 October and the final version after your feedback on 2 November. The four blog articles follow one a week from 9 to 30 November. Proofreading on the live site happens in the week after launch.
I charge per text, so you know the cost in advance and do not pay for the number of hours a paragraph happens to take. The amounts below exclude 20 percent VAT. A third revision round or an extra page is charged at 65 pounds per hour, always after we agree it. I invoice 50 percent on approval and 50 percent on delivery of the last blog article, with 14-day payment terms.
This proposal is valid until 16 October 2026. After full payment the copyright in the texts transfers to Fenwick Heating & Solar. I keep the right to mention the project in my portfolio with a short description and a link. If expert input or feedback arrives later than agreed, the timeline moves by the same period. My standard terms apply and are attached.
Sign at the bottom of this document to confirm. I will then send you a proposal for the interview date and a short questionnaire about your customers, so we can get to the point in the conversation straight away.
| Description | Amount |
|---|---|
| Interview with engineers and keyword research for North Yorkshire | £400.00 |
| Eight web pages of 300 to 500 words, 160 pounds per page | £1,280.00 |
| Four blog articles of about 800 words, 240 pounds per article | £960.00 |
| Proofreading on the live website | £200.00 |
| Subtotal excl. VAT | £2,840.00 |
| VAT 20% | £568.00 |
| Total incl. VAT | £3,408.00 |
Agreed on behalf of Fenwick Heating & Solar Ltd
Per deliverable, wherever the work can be defined. A price per page or per article is the easiest for the client to understand and for you to defend. Hourly pricing invites the question why a paragraph took three hours; per-word pricing invites the question whether it could not be shorter. Keep an hourly rate only for what you cannot define in advance, such as an extra revision round or a page added mid-project, and name that rate in the proposal.
Two per deliverable, with a stated rate for a third. That is enough for a client to react and refine, and it stops the open-ended feedback loop that eats freelance margins. Put the number in the scope, not in the small print, and say what counts as a round: one consolidated set of comments from one contact. The example also states that late feedback moves the deadline by the same period, which is clarity rather than strictness.
The client, once the invoice is paid in full, if you write that down. Without a clause the copyright stays with the freelancer and the client only has a licence to use the work, which surprises clients later. Keep the right to show the work in your portfolio, and for ghostwritten work agree explicitly that you will not publish it as your own. One paragraph in the terms covers all of it.