This is the final installment in our five-part SBIR series designed to help small businesses write better proposals and actually transition to Phase II/III. We’ve already talked about a Fit Brief (why you and why now), aligned it with the right agency and topic, scoped a defensible Phase I Mini-Plan, and crafted a go-to-market strategy in the form of a Commercialization & Transition One-Pager. Now it’s time to bring it home, by building a clean, compliant submission packet and setting yourself up to survive what comes after the award.

Too many Phase I SBIR proposals end with the same vague promise: “We’ll figure out commercialization later.” But kicking the can down the road doesn’t cut it anymore, not with more agencies pushing for measurable transition plans and defendable Phase III pathways. If you’re serious about moving from prototype to purchase order, you need a commercialization approach that converts.

If you're tackling your first SBIR or STTR proposal, welcome to the part that makes reviewers either nod in confidence or toss your file into the “nah” pile. It’s not about showing off credentials or flooding them with jargon. Your Phase I Work Plan is where you convince reviewers that (1) you’re solving a real problem, (2) you know exactly how to test your idea, and (3) you’re not guessing, you’re planning. Let’s walk through how to write a feasibility plan that earns trust, not shrugs.

The Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program dangles a juicy carrot: non-dilutive federal funding to turn your tech idea into a reality. No equity. No payback. Just funding to validate, build, and scale. Sounds like a no-brainer, right?

Not so fast.