That's not such a bad thing, though. Homecooked meals still taste better than six-minute frozen entrees. You see much more of world when you walk, or through windows of an automobile, than you do from a height of 20,000 feet. Similarly, satisfaction you will derive from a career cultivated on patience and perseverance will run much deeper and last much longer than if you could just add water and become an overnight success.

No, Rome wasn't built in a day, thank goodness--look at how long it has survived. Keep that in mind as you work to establish your own writing foundation, one building block at a time.

Here's to your writing success!

Mary Anne Hahn is editor and publisher of WriteSuccess, the free biweekly ezine of ideas, information and inspiration for writers. To subscribe, mailto:writesuccess-subscribe@yahoogroups.com .

Discovering answers to these questions puts you one step closer to ensuring that your tender response hits buyer's hot buttons.

Sin no 2. Not addressing "real", core needs

Quite often, what's written in tender documentation only tells half story. Either that or, it might be a comprehensive document, but core hot buttons are buried within pages and pages of material and they're often easy to miss.

Unfortunately, many tender submissions miss point completely. They're completed in such a rush that they simply don't address "obvious" criteria, let alone, "read between lines" stuff.

Having said this, Government tender documentation (especially) is so long that it is easy to forget an important element. The document will often include mandatory and desirable requirements, a Schedule of Particulars, Evaluation Criteria, Project Description, Government purchasing policy and regulations and a background and scope to project.

Usually, each of these areas reveals some priceless piece of information that you can then use in your document. Instead, many potential suppliers just fill out Schedule of Particulars and address evaluation criteria, but not address any other points revealed in background material.

The background material will address what potential supplier has been doing in past, what their corporate policies and commitments are, and perhaps what their culture is. By showing how your product/service addresses this information, you'll have far greater impact.

The moral of story?

Read document thoroughly and then read it again. When you're doing that, grab a highlighter and highlight any points that are important to address in your document. These points could appear anywhere within document. Not just in product or evaluation criteria areas.

Then, when you've done that ask yourself "why". Why is this important to them? Then once you've discovered answer, ask "why" again, until you cover real, core need.