Stop icing the cake. Put the spatula down and back away slowly. No sprinkles need to get hurt.

The icing on the cake is the final touch, the last thing you do and the first thing everyone sees, however, it’s not the best part of the cake. It’s not where the real substance is. The substance is the cake itself; so you can bet that if the request was for a chocolate mud cake, cutting the cake to reveal a vanilla sponge is going to lead to disappointment.

How a tender looks is just the icing: if there is more design than cake, clients can end up with a very different impression to the one you intended to give. Clients want neat and professionally put together submissions. Some even stipulate their formatting preferences, restricting font sizes and layouts to the forms they provide to focus you on content rather than design.

While beautifully designed covers, custom printed or designed folders or novelty packaging can demonstrate your creativity and enthusiasm, I am yet to work on one where these are assessable as part of the evaluation criteria, or made the difference between winning and losing.

Your objective should be to provide a compliant and compelling tender and submit it before the tender deadline. My advice to ensure you submit your best possible work, by the deadline is to focus on the big picture:

Make the cake compliant.

A compliant cake is one that is made to order. If the client asked for Chocolate Mud Cake, that’s what you need to be able to deliver. The bottom line is, if you do not submit a complaint tender, you will not be in a position to win. You may highlight that you could also provide a vanilla sponge, but that’s an alternative cake, and the basis of your tender is the compliant bid. No matter how good the icing is, it won’t hide the fact your tender is non-compliant.

Focus on the substance.

Great cakes are made with quality ingredients. The substance is the most important part of a compelling bid (and mouth-watering cake). Plan and measure out where and how your content will make the most impact so you can prioritise your time and where it matters most.

Follow the recipe.

The closer you get to your submission deadline, the more critical it is that the substance of your bid is included and clear. At this point, formatting and last-minute graphics can not do much if your submission doesn’t say what it needs to say. Focus on making sure the hero of your cake is clear and distinctive, and not overpowered by supporting flavour notes.

Don’t overbake it.

After spending all your time since the tender released to make the cake, be careful not to overbake it. Spending too much time right at the end, messing around with the icing, and adding those last-minute design efforts can jeopardise everything if you miss the bell. A half uploaded submission is as good as no submission at all.

Taste your success.

Once your cake is boxed up and safely delivered to the client, remember to take a minute to appreciate and celebrate all the hard work and dedication that went into baking that cake. Hip! Hip! Hooray!