Business Model Canvas Template
Determine and align your business priorities in a simple and visual way.
About the Business Model Canvas template
The Business Model Canvas template, designed by Alexander Osterwalder and Yves Pigneur, provides a strategic and powerful way to understand your business. The Business Model Canvas contains nine blocks: fill in each one using stickies, links, hand drawings, pictures, and videos. Collaborate with your team to find a better way to explain and visualize your business.
Keep reading to learn more about the BMC template.
What is the Business Model Canvas (BMC)?
The Business Model Canvas is a strategic tool used for visually developing or displaying a business model. A BMC template helps determine and align the key business activities and their relationship to your value proposition.
5 benefits of using a business model canvas online
1. Provides a structure for ideation
The Business Model Canvas is extremely useful in structuring your business model visually. This helps at different stages of defining your business canvas template. Many find it easier to visualize a business model in one simplified view.
2. Focuses you on your value proposition
It can be easy to get distracted by all of the varying factors involved in running a business. The value proposition is at the heart of the entire Business Model Canvas template, so you can continually focus on the reason why your business exists. You should use your value proposition as a guiding star to give you direction as you fill out all other parts of the canvas.
3. Is fast to complete
Whether or not your business model is clearly defined or you are testing out different business models, the BMC template can be completed quickly and helps you generate new business ideas. This allows for quicker feedback, quicker ideation, and faster iteration.
4. Provides a holistic view of your business
With the Business Model Canvas, you can see how all of the elements of your business are interrelated and inform or affect each other. This provides you with a better understanding of how your business operates as a system or ecosystem.
5. Gives you a central document to share externally
Once you’ve filled out your Business Model Canvas, you can share it widely, get feedback, and make any needed updates. Because the visual presentation is easy to grasp and understand, teams, stakeholders, advisors, and partners should find the canvas to be relatively straightforward and easy to understand.
When do you create and use the Business Model Canvas template?
Business model canvases are not intended to serve in place of a business plan. Instead, the BMC template is used to summarize and visually illustrate the most important information of a business model, and to provide centralized ongoing clarity.
This canvas is appropriate for illustrating existing business models, regardless of if the business is new or not. The BMC template is also appropriate for visualizing new business models for startups, as it helps organize and consolidate ideas around your key functions. Keep in mind that the Business Model Canvas should be reviewed periodically, as all the factors listed can change over time.
How to create a business model canvas template: 9 key elements
The canvas provides you with nine key business elements to illustrate, summarize, and track. The 9 building blocks of a BMC template are:
1. Key partners
List the key partnerships your business leverages or relies upon for success. Include the resources or value your business gets from these partnerships.
2. Key activities
Summarize the key activities that allow your business to provide services and deliver on your value proposition.
3. Key resources
List the key resources your business relies upon or uses in order to operate and provide services.
4. Key propositions
Summarize the different value propositions that set your business apart from your competition.
5. Customer relationships
Define and describe the primary relationships you have with your customers, including how you interact with this, how these interactions differ among different types of customers, what different customer needs are, and the level of support the different customers receive.
6. Channels
Detail how your customers are reached, how your services are provided, your different distribution channels and how your value proposition is delivered.
7. Customer segments
Define the ideal customer personas your value proposition is intended to benefit, then describe the key differences between these segments and potential steps in the customer journey.
8. Cost structure
Identify the primary costs associated with operating your business and providing your services, then detail the relationship between these costs and other business functions.
9. Revenue streams
Describe how your business generates revenue through the delivery of your value proposition.
What is a business model canvas used for?
A business model canvas is a tool used to visually depict a business model. Business models are often very tedious and lengthy documents that are difficult to follow; a business model canvas allows you to create something more intuitive and engaging, while still covering all the topics you need to cover.
How do you create a business model canvas?
There are 9 key components to a business model canvas that you need to spell out: start with the key partners, activities, resources and propositions that define your business and will enable you to offer a product or service. Then, spell out the nature of your relationship with your customer base, along with customer segments and the channels with which you’ll reach them. Finally, spell out the cost structure and revenue streams of your business.
What should you include in a business model canvas or what are the areas of a business model?
You should include 9 key elements in your business canvas template: key partners, key activities, key resources, key propositions, customer relationships, channels, customer segments, cost structure and revenue streams.
Get started with this template right now.
Cost-Benefit Analysis Template
Works best for:.
Leadership, Decision Making, Strategic Planning
With so many day-to-day decisions to make—and each one feeling high-stakes—it’s easy for all the choices to weigh a business or organization down. You need a systematic way to analyze the risks and rewards. A cost benefit analysis gives you the clarity you need to make smart decisions. This template will let you conduct a CBA to help your team assess the pros and cons of new projects or business proposals—and ultimately help your company preserve your precious time, money, and social capital.
Project Proposal Template
Project Management, Documentation, Project Planning
For any type of project, the Project Proposal template can be a crucial step toward clarifying the context, goals, and scope of a project to get stakeholder buy-in. A project proposal outlines what you want to accomplish, your goals, and how you plan to achieve them. Generally, a project proposal gives the reader some context on the project, explains why it is important, and lists the actions that you will take to complete it. Project proposals have myriad uses. Often, businesses use project proposals to get external buy-in from a donor or outside stakeholder. But many companies draw up project proposals for internal buy-in too.
Priority Matrix Template
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If you need a little more than a basic to-do list, then you’d probably benefit from a Priority Matrix. The Priority Matrix template is designed to help you determine which tasks are critical so you can focus on the most urgent needs. In a 2x2 matrix, input your priorities based on whether they must be completed with high or low urgency and are of high or low importance. Applicable to project management and personal management alike, use the Priority Matrix template to improve business processes, create efficiency, remove blockers, and reduce operational waste.
App Development Canvas Template
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REAN Template
Marketing, Strategic Planning, Meetings
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Strategy Diamond
Leadership, Operations, Strategic Planning
To achieve key objectives, every business assembles a series of strategies. But what elements should you consider when building a strategy? A strategy diamond is a collection of elements forming a coherent business strategy. These elements include: Arenas, Differentiators, Vehicles, Staging, and Economic Logic. Most strategic plans focus on just one or two of these elements, creating gaps that might cause problems for your business later on. A strategy diamond can help you stay focused and ensure you’re fulfilling all of your business’s needs rather than one or two.
The Easy Guide to the Business Model Canvas
Got a new business idea, but don’t know how to put it to work? Want to improve your existing business model? Overwhelmed by writing your business plan? There is a one-page technique that can provide you the solution you are looking for, and that’s the business model canvas.
In this guide, you’ll have the Business Model Canvas explained, along with steps on how to create one. All business model canvas examples in the post can be edited online.
What is a Business Model Canvas
A business model is simply a plan describing how a business intends to make money. It explains who your customer base is and how you deliver value to them and the related details of financing. And the business model canvas lets you define these different components on a single page.
The Business Model Canvas is a strategic management tool that lets you visualize and assess your business idea or concept. It’s a one-page document containing nine boxes that represent different fundamental elements of a business.
The business model canvas beats the traditional business plan that spans across several pages, by offering a much easier way to understand the different core elements of a business.
The right side of the canvas focuses on the customer or the market (external factors that are not under your control) while the left side of the canvas focuses on the business (internal factors that are mostly under your control). In the middle, you get the value propositions that represent the exchange of value between your business and your customers.
The business model canvas was originally developed by Alex Osterwalder and Yves Pigneur and introduced in their book ‘ Business Model Generation ’ as a visual framework for planning, developing and testing the business model(s) of an organization.
Why You Need a Business Model Canvas
- The BMC provides a quick overview of the business model and is devoid of the unnecessary details compared to the traditional business plan.
- The visual nature of the business model canvas makes it easier to refer to and understand by anyone.
- It’s easier to edit and it can be easily shared with employees and stakeholders.
- The business model canvas can be used by large corporations as well as startups with just a few employees.
- It clarifies how different aspects of the business are related to each other.
- You can use a BMC template to guide a brainstorming session on defining your business model effectively.
How to Make a Business Model Canvas
There are nine building blocks in the business model canvas and they are customer value proposition, customer segments, channels, customer relationships, revenue streams, key resources, key partners, key activities, and cost structure.
When filling out a Business Model Canvas, you will brainstorm and conduct research on each of these elements. The data you collect can be placed in each relevant section of the canvas. So have a business model canvas ready when you start the exercise.
What are the 9 Components of the Business Model Canvas?
- Customer Segments
- Customer Relationships
- Revenue Streams
Key Activities
Key resources, key partners.
- Cost Structure
- Value Proposition
Let’s look into what the 9 components of the BMC are in more detail.
Customer segments
These are the groups of people or companies that you are trying to target and sell your product or service to.
Segmenting your customers based on similarities such as geographical area, gender, age, behaviors, interests, etc. gives you the opportunity to better serve their needs, specifically by customizing the solution you are providing them.
After a thorough analysis of your customer segments, you can determine who you should serve and ignore. Then create customer personas for each of the selected customer segments.
There are different customer segments a business model can target and they are;
- Mass market: A business model that focuses on mass markets doesn’t group its customers into segments. Instead, it focuses on the general population or a large group of people with similar needs. For example, a product like a phone.
- Niche market: Here the focus is centered on a specific group of people with unique needs and traits. Here the value propositions, distribution channels, and customer relationships should be customized to meet their specific requirements. An example would be buyers of sports shoes.
- Segmented: Based on slightly different needs, there could be different groups within the main customer segment. Accordingly, you can create different value propositions, distribution channels, etc. to meet the different needs of these segments.
- Diversified: A diversified market segment includes customers with very different needs.
- Multi-sided markets: this includes interdependent customer segments. For example, a credit card company caters to both their credit card holders as well as merchants who accept those cards.
Use STP Model templates for segmenting your market and developing ideal marketing campaigns
Visualize, assess, and update your business model. Collaborate on brainstorming with your team on your next business model innovation.
Customer relationships
In this section, you need to establish the type of relationship you will have with each of your customer segments or how you will interact with them throughout their journey with your company.
There are several types of customer relationships
- Personal assistance: you interact with the customer in person or by email, through phone call or other means.
- Dedicated personal assistance: you assign a dedicated customer representative to an individual customer.
- Self-service: here you maintain no relationship with the customer, but provides what the customer needs to help themselves.
- Automated services: this includes automated processes or machinery that helps customers perform services themselves.
- Communities: these include online communities where customers can help each other solve their own problems with regard to the product or service.
- Co-creation: here the company allows the customer to get involved in the designing or development of the product. For example, YouTube has given its users the opportunity to create content for its audience.
You can understand the kind of relationship your customer has with your company through a customer journey map . It will help you identify the different stages your customers go through when interacting with your company. And it will help you make sense of how to acquire, retain and grow your customers.
This block is to describe how your company will communicate with and reach out to your customers. Channels are the touchpoints that let your customers connect with your company.
Channels play a role in raising awareness of your product or service among customers and delivering your value propositions to them. Channels can also be used to allow customers the avenue to buy products or services and offer post-purchase support.
There are two types of channels
- Owned channels: company website, social media sites, in-house sales, etc.
- Partner channels: partner-owned websites, wholesale distribution, retail, etc.
Revenue streams
Revenues streams are the sources from which a company generates money by selling their product or service to the customers. And in this block, you should describe how you will earn revenue from your value propositions.
A revenue stream can belong to one of the following revenue models,
- Transaction-based revenue: made from customers who make a one-time payment
- Recurring revenue: made from ongoing payments for continuing services or post-sale services
There are several ways you can generate revenue from
- Asset sales: by selling the rights of ownership for a product to a buyer
- Usage fee: by charging the customer for the use of its product or service
- Subscription fee: by charging the customer for using its product regularly and consistently
- Lending/ leasing/ renting: the customer pays to get exclusive rights to use an asset for a fixed period of time
- Licensing: customer pays to get permission to use the company’s intellectual property
- Brokerage fees: revenue generated by acting as an intermediary between two or more parties
- Advertising: by charging the customer to advertise a product, service or brand using company platforms
What are the activities/ tasks that need to be completed to fulfill your business purpose? In this section, you should list down all the key activities you need to do to make your business model work.
These key activities should focus on fulfilling its value proposition, reaching customer segments and maintaining customer relationships, and generating revenue.
There are 3 categories of key activities;
- Production: designing, manufacturing and delivering a product in significant quantities and/ or of superior quality.
- Problem-solving: finding new solutions to individual problems faced by customers.
- Platform/ network: Creating and maintaining platforms. For example, Microsoft provides a reliable operating system to support third-party software products.
This is where you list down which key resources or the main inputs you need to carry out your key activities in order to create your value proposition.
There are several types of key resources and they are
- Human (employees)
- Financial (cash, lines of credit, etc.)
- Intellectual (brand, patents, IP, copyright)
- Physical (equipment, inventory, buildings)
Key partners are the external companies or suppliers that will help you carry out your key activities. These partnerships are forged in oder to reduce risks and acquire resources.
Types of partnerships are
- Strategic alliance: partnership between non-competitors
- Coopetition: strategic partnership between partners
- Joint ventures: partners developing a new business
- Buyer-supplier relationships: ensure reliable supplies
Cost structure
In this block, you identify all the costs associated with operating your business model.
You’ll need to focus on evaluating the cost of creating and delivering your value propositions, creating revenue streams, and maintaining customer relationships. And this will be easier to do so once you have defined your key resources, activities, and partners.
Businesses can either be cost-driven (focuses on minimizing costs whenever possible) and value-driven (focuses on providing maximum value to the customer).
Value propositions
This is the building block that is at the heart of the business model canvas. And it represents your unique solution (product or service) for a problem faced by a customer segment, or that creates value for the customer segment.
A value proposition should be unique or should be different from that of your competitors. If you are offering a new product, it should be innovative and disruptive. And if you are offering a product that already exists in the market, it should stand out with new features and attributes.
Value propositions can be either quantitative (price and speed of service) or qualitative (customer experience or design).
What Are Your Thoughts on the Business Model Canvas?
Once you have completed your business model canvas, you can share it with your organization and stakeholders and get their feedback as well. The business model canvas is a living document, therefore after completing it you need to revisit and ensure that it is relevant, updated and accurate.
What best practices do you follow when creating a business model canvas? Do share your tips with us in the comments section below.
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Amanda Athuraliya is the communication specialist/content writer at Creately, online diagramming and collaboration tool. She is an avid reader, a budding writer and a passionate researcher who loves to write about all kinds of topics.
- Create your own canvas
Create a new Business Model Canvas
The Business Model Canvas was proposed by Alexander Osterwalder based on his earlier book: Business Model Ontology . It outlines nine segments which form the building blocks for the business model in a nice one-page canvas. You can find a detailed explanation in his bestselling book "Business Model Generation".
If you want to try it a Business Model Canvas without entering your email address, please use our Canvanizer 2.0 Business Model Canvas Demo for a first impression.
Canvas Title:
Description :
Your Name :
More about the Business Model Canvas
The Business Model Canvas reflects systematically on your business model, so you can focus on your business model segment by segment. This also means you can start with a brain dump, filling out the segments the spring to your mind first and then work on the empty segments to close the gaps. The following list with questions will help you brainstorm and compare several variations and ideas for your next business model innovation.
Key partners
- Who are your key partners/suppliers?
- What are the motivations for the partnerships?
Key activities
- What key activities does your value proposition require?
- What activities are important the most in distribution channels, customer relationships, revenue stream…?
Value Proposition
- What core value do you deliver to the customer?
- Which customer needs are you satisfying?
Customer Relationship
- What relationship that the target customer expects you to establish?
- How can you integrate that into your business in terms of cost and format?
Customer Segment
- Which classes are you creating values for?
- Who is your most important customer?
Key Resource
- What key resources does your value proposition require?
- What resources are important the most in distribution channels, customer relationships, revenue stream…?
Distribution Channel
- Through which channels that your customers want to be reached?
- Which channels work best? How much do they cost? How can they be integrated into your and your customers’ routines?
Cost Structure
- What are the most cost in your business?
- Which key resources/ activities are most expensive?
Revenue Stream
- For what value are your customers willing to pay?
- What and how do they recently pay? How would they prefer to pay?
- How much does every revenue stream contribute to the overall revenues?
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The 9-Step Business Model Canvas Explained (2023 Update)
Written by Raquel Alberdi
Business | entrepreneurship, 0 comments(s).
Blog » The 9-Step Business Model Canvas Explained (2023 Update)
“A major mistake made by many start-ups around the world is focusing on the technology, the software, the product, and the design, but neglecting to ever figure out the business . And by “business” we simply mean how the company makes money by acquiring and serving its customers”.
-Reid Hoffman
After meeting with hundreds of entrepreneurs and business owners over the years I believe the LinkedIn co-founder and Blitzscaling author Reid Hoffman’s got it spot on.
People tend to focus on specific parts of their business, such as which software packages are being used, which is the cheapest supplier, how to optimize internal processes…?
They get so bogged down in the details of the day-to-day running that they lose the overall vision of their business.
Without this vision they are unable to scale, they make marginal profits, miss opportunities, struggle to innovate, and end up running “just another” business.
Another handy metaphor in understanding this common mistake is the soldier in the trenches .
Every meter of ground gained comes at a heavy cost, mistakes are made, and progress is hard-fought and slow…a day-to-day experience for 99% of entrepreneurs and businessmen.
But when you do have that 360 vision you see the entire battlefield. Decisions are much clearer, fewer mistakes are made, and progress is fast and methodical.
Fortunately, a business model framework exists that gives you both vision and clarity .
The Business Model Canvas provides entrepreneurs, business owners, and strategists with a tool to analyze, structure, and evolve a business while always keeping the bigger picture front of mind.
So let’s take a closer look at how it works.
Table of Content
What is the Business Model Canvas?
Customer segments, value propositions, customer relationships, revenue streams, key resources, key activities, key partners, customer segments, value proposition, strategyzer, business model canvas tool, would you like to learn more about business models.
Created by Swiss entrepreneur and Strategyzer co-founder, Alexander Osterwalder, the Business Model Canvas is a visual representation of the 9 key building blocks that form the foundations of every successful business. It’s a blueprint to help entrepreneurs invent, design, and build models with a more systematic approach.
Why is it so popular within the business community?
Its simplicity. The business model canvas allows us to carry out a high-level analysis without drilling down and getting lost in the details. You just draw out the 9 building blocks on a blank canvas, fill them in as each concept relates to your business, and hang it somewhere everybody can see.
It’s a visual overview of your entire business on a single canvas.
While the Business Model Canvas is an extremely fluid concept and hyper-specific to individual companies, each canvas is still broken down into these 9 key building blocks:
When laid out on the canvas the model will look something like this:
While you’ve probably come across each of the 9 building blocks before, the attractiveness of the Business Model Canvas is that it confines them to a single page , not a traditional 42-page document.
This makes it a lot easier to digest, as well as assess existing business models or map out new ideas.
How do I fill out the Business Model Canvas?
To start your Business Model Canvas you will need to breakdown and analyze each of the 9 building blocks.
A good way to approach this is to gather the heads from marketing, sales, operations, finance, and manufacturing (if product-based) and pencil-in a morning where you can all meet together.
Then, after drawing a mock canvas onto a whiteboard, proceed to dissect and discuss each of the 9 building blocks as they relate to your business. You can use sticky notes to better organize your thoughts around the canvas.
If you are an entrepreneur or new business owner working alone and don’t have a team to bounce your ideas off, not to worry. You can still carry out your analysis before sharing it with a like-minded entrepreneurial community or forum, like those found on ThePowerMBA , to get useful, insightful feedback.
Whichever way you decide to approach it, I recommend you complete each block in the following order:
- Cost structure
For continuity, I’m going to use the fashion retail giant Zara when analyzing each of the 9 key building blocks.
If you’d like to skip to another case study similar to your own business, navigate to the table of contents at the top of the page and select one of the other business model canvas examples.
The first block of the Business Canvas Model is about understanding who is the most important customer(s) you’re delivering value to. Or, in other words, who are they? What do they do? And why would they buy your product or service?
Not a single company exists without its clients, making customer segments the best block to start with while drawing out your business model canvas.
A great exercise to define your customer segments is to brainstorm and create your company’s buyer persona (s) .
Buyer personas are fictional depictions of an ideal or hypothetical client. Typically when brainstorming a buyer persona you’d want to define certain characteristics (age, demographic, gender, income, industry, pain points, goals, etc.)
However, remember at this stage we want a snapshot of our customer segment. There’s no need to jump into great detail just yet.
In the case of Zara, there are three distinct customer segments to whom they offer different products.
The products created for each of these customer segments (clothing, shoes, and accessories) are not trans-consumable. That is to say, a woman’s dress is highly unlikely to be worn by a 7-year-old child.
Once we know exactly who it is we are targeting, it’s time to look at what we as a company have to offer.
The second phase is about figuring out your company’s value propositions , and importantly, your UVP (unique value proposition). The “what” that makes customers turn to you, over your competitors? Which of their problems are you best at solving?
Each value proposition consists of a bundle of products or services that fulfill the needs of a buyer persona from your customer segment. It’s the intersection between what your company offers, and the reason or impulse customers have for purchasing.
Some popular questions to ask while determining your UVP are:
- Which specific customer pain point are you trying to solve?
- What job are you helping customers get done?
- How does your UVP eliminate customer pain points?
- What products or services do you provide that answer this specific pain point?
So let’s try and apply this to Zara. Why do people choose to purchase from them, over their competitors?
Zara’s principal value propositions are fairly clear. They offer various ranges of stylish men’s, women’s, and children’s clothing and accessories at an affordable price.
But there’s more to it than that.
If we dive a little deeper we see Zara’s value propositions are more complex, which are behind the success of the brand:
Fast fashion
Zara adds new clothes and designs to its collections every 2-3 weeks, both in its stores and online. It keeps the brand updated, fresh, and modern while maintaining its all-important medium price point
Great eCommerce experience
Once you enter Zara’s online store you’re presented with a clean, easy-to-navigate, and high-end feel. The customer segments are visible on the left navigation bar with a search tab to further aid customers with their online experience.
Localized stores
You can find a store in nearly all major retail locations (shopping malls, retail outlets, airports, etc.) meaning accessibility is not an issue for the majority of consumers.
Flagship stores
Zara demonstrates its aesthetic evolution to customers through its flagship stores. The recent opening of their Hudson Yards , New York City flagship is a great example of this. Customers shop around its vivid, minimalist layout offering them an experience aligned with the brand’s deeper, eco-friendly values.
Zara Hudson Yards, New York
The next step is to ask yourself how you are reaching your customers, and through which channels ?
This includes both the channels that customers want to communicate with you as well as how they’ll receive your products or services.
Is it going to be a physical channel? (store, field sales representatives, etc.) Or is it a digital channel? (mobile, web, cloud, etc.).
Zara has 3 primary channels in which they communicate and deliver products to its customers:
- Direct sales through their stores
- Online (both app and website)
- Social media
Customers can go to a traditional “bricks and mortar” store to browse, model, and purchase different items of clothing at one of their retail stores.
Alternatively, they can shop online or through their mobile application and have the product delivered straight to their door or nearest store. The choice is completely up to them!
So that covers Zara’s commercial channels, but what about how they communicate with customers?
While they do communicate through their mobile app, their predominant channel is social media.
What’s more, they’re really, really good at it.
For example, did you know that Zara invests less than 0.3% of its sales revenue into advertising?
This is only possible due to an A-rated social media presence . Customer queries are not only dealt with quickly, but recommended re-works are sent back to HQ, forwarded onto in-house designers who then apply the feedback to future collections.
This customer-first approach through fluid communication channels has saved them thousands of dollars in marketing, strengthened their brand, and created a loyal customer base.
You should only step away from this building block once you’ve decided how each of your customer segments want to be reached.
Once you have acquired customers, you will need to think about how you can build , nurture, and grow those relationships.
Now, this can be automated and transactional like large eCommerce brands Amazon or Alibaba. Or, it could be at the complete opposite end of the scale and require a more personal relationship you’d typically have with a bank or your local bike shop.
Zara’s relationship with its customers is threefold, and lies somewhere in the middle of transactional and personal:
- Salesperson at store
- Brand through social media
- Sentimental attachment to a product
Yes, you have the initial transactional touchpoint at the store or online, something relatively impersonal and for many the only interaction they’ll have with the brand.
However, customers (especially in the fashion industry) are encouraged to continue to interact with a brand through social media platforms.
As we mentioned before when discussing channels, Zara has a very effective communication system in place. Not only can people instantly get in touch with the brand, but also engage with new posts, images, and collections uploaded to social media.
This personal approach to customer relationship building can, in some cases, lead to the natural growth of brand ambassadors and communities .
An attachment can also develop between customers and particular garments or accessories from one of their collections. The sentimental attachment to these products also creates another potential form of brand loyalty.
Now that you’ve described how you are going to create real value for your customers, it’s time to look at how you plan to capture that value.
What are your revenue streams? Is it going to be a transactional, direct sales strategy ? Are you going to consider a freemium mode l, where you give a portion of your product or service away for free with the idea of converting later on down the line?
If you’re a SaaS company such as SalesForce or Strava , then it’s likely that a licensing or subscription revenue model will be more appropriate.
At Zara, it’s extremely simple. They make their money by selling clothes and accessories either at a store or online.
As you can see, we’ve filled in the entire right-hand side of our business model canvas. We touched upon:
- Value propositions
- Revenue streams
- Distribution channels
Now it’s time to move over to the left side of the business canvas model and look at what we need, internally , to deliver our value propositions.
To start with, let’s take a look at key resources.
The key resources are all things you need to have, or the assets required to create that value for customers.
This could be anything from intellectual property (patents, trademarks, copyrights, etc.) to physical holdings (factories, offices, delivery vans, etc.) right down to finances (the initial cash flow perhaps needed to start your brand).
Another key resource every company needs to consider is its human capital . Are you going to need highly specialized software engineers? Or field-based sales teams?
They are relatively capital-heavy resources that need to be factored into your business model.
In the case of Zara, they are going to need a number of key resources if they hope to deliver their propositions:
- Stock management
- A large, interconnected network of physical stores
- A strong brand
- Logistics and supply chain infrastructure
Stock is vital for both online and offline customers.
If they are unable to supply their range of products and meet customer demands, satisfaction levels fall and they have a serious problem on their hands.
A large distribution network of brick and mortar stores combined with a strong brand name help mitigate these factors, as well as reinforce any ongoing marketing activities and communication efforts.
Finally, an efficient logistics process within Zara is critical, especially when you consider the complexities involved with such a large-scale operation.
They will require the necessary technology to analyze data on inventory, storage, materials, production, and packaging, with the staff to execute each of these stages and manage the delivery of the final products.
The next step is to define the key activities – the areas you need to be good at to create value for your customers.
To mix it up a little let’s take a look at a slightly different business in Uber .
Their key activities can be broken down into:
- Web and mobile app development
- Driver recruitment
- Marketing: customer acquisition
- Customer service activities : drivers’ ratings, incidents, etc.
They need a fast, clean UX for their customers using the app, drivers to carry out their service, and the ability to both market the product and deal with any customer queries.
Zara’s key activities will differ to those of Uber. Some of the things they need to consider would be:
- Manufacturing
- Retail process (point of sale and 3rd party management)
- Distribution channel / logistics
Design is a key activity as Zara’s value proposition is to provide stylish garments at an affordable price. Their collections need to be constantly updated to follow the latest fashion trends at the time.
To produce their collections Zara will also require manufacturing capabilities. Now Zara doesn’t own their own factories (we will get to that in the Key Partners section) but they still need to be involved in the garment manufacturing process.
Everything from fabric selection to pattern making, to detailing and dyeing affects the outcome of the final product which of course they have to then go on and sell.
The effective management of the retail and distribution channels (online, offline, shipping, and communication with providers) is also key. A breakdown in either of these activities, such as a poor relationship with an important provider will have serious consequences for the business.
Most modern business models now require brands to build out and work with various key partners to fully leverage their business model.
This includes partnerships such as joint ventures and non-equity strategic alliances as well as typical relationships with buyers, suppliers, and producers.
A great example of a strategic partnership would be between ThePowerMBA and Forbes . In exchange for exposure of our brand to the magazine’s global audience, we provide expertise and content on high-level business education programs.
As we touched upon when discussing key activities , Zara requires strategic partnerships with many different providers if they are to design and produce their collections.
Another key partner is their major holding company, Inditex .
Inditex has several subsidiaries including Massimo Dutti , Pull & Bear , and Oysho . Being a subsidiary of Inditex means they share a consolidated balance sheet, stakeholders, management and control, and various legal responsibilities.
While as a subsidiary Zara is afforded certain freedoms when it comes to design, delivery, and the general running of the company, the overall strategy will need to be aligned with Inditex and its other subsidiaries.
The final step of the Business Model Canvas is to ask yourself, how much is it going to cost to run this model?
This includes some of the more obvious needs such as manufacturing costs, physical space, rent, payroll, but also areas such as marketing activities.
If you are unsure of exactly what to include in your cost structure take a look at a Profit and Loss statement ( P&L ) from a competitor or company in a similar industry to yours. You’ll find many items overlap such as research and development ( R&D ), cost of goods sold, admin expenses, operating costs, etc.
Once that’s done you should prioritize your key activities and resources and find out if they are fixed or variable costs .
As Zara is such a large, corporate business they are going to have both fixed costs (rent, payroll, point of sales personnel) and variables, such as costs associated with the fluctuating sale of goods, purchase of materials and, manufacturing costs.
Once you’ve completed these 9 steps, your Business Canvas Model should look something like this:
Business Model Canvas Examples
Hopefully, you were able to get a good feel for the effectiveness of the business model canvas with our run-through of Zara.
However, if you found it difficult to follow due to the stark difference between your industries, I’m going to quickly go through 3 more companies to demonstrate the tool’s flexibility:
- Netflix (Media service/production)
- Vintae (Vineyard)
Even if these business model canvas examples don’t align exactly with your industry, I honestly believe that studying different models gives you a competitive advantage in your professional career regardless.
If you’re currently employed by a company, you’ll better understand how your specific role helps the company achieve some of its “long-term” goals.
Alternatively, if you are a business owner yourself (or perhaps thinking of starting your own business) you’ll have a better understanding of your business and where potential opportunities lay.
I’m sure you’re familiar with our next business model canvas example candidate, Netflix .
The global media company offers an online streaming service of various movies, documentaries, and TV programs produced in-house or licensed 3rd-party content. Their success sparked a revolution in the online media world with the likes of Amazon, Apple, Disney, HBO, and Hulu all rushing to launch their own online video streaming platforms.
Netflix started life as an online DVD rental company, basically a web version of the more popular (at least at that time) “bricks and mortar” Blockbuster.
Co-founder Reed Hastings predicted as far back as 1999 that the future of media was in online streaming, saying “postage rates were going to keep going up and the internet was going to get twice as fast at half the price every 18 months.”
It wouldn’t be until 2007 that Hasting’s prediction would become true when Netflix, as we now know it, was born.
So let’s take a current look at their business model canvas:
As you probably know, there are very few people out there who haven’t subscribed, watched, or at least heard of Netflix. There is content for everybody: wildlife documentaries, sci-fi movies, rom coms, action-thrillers, you name it – it’s there.
That’s why their customer segment can be classified as a “ mass market ” as the base is just so diverse.
All people require is a computer, TV, internet, and/or smartphone and they’re good to go. For most developed markets, that covers just about everybody.
Whether on the train to work, sitting in the car (if you’re not driving!), or relaxing at home in front of the TV, you can consume their online, on-demand video streaming service.
They also have a huge library of content for consumers to choose from, ensuring that people keep coming back, as well as increasing their mass-market appeal.
They also produce high-quality, original content to differentiate themselves from their competitors.
Most people access Netflix either through their website or mobile/TV App . Another popular channel that you may have picked up on is their affiliate partners .
You’ve perhaps signed up for a mobile, TV, and internet package where the provider offers Netflix as an extra to sweeten the deal, so to speak.
That would be an example of an affiliate partnership between Netflix and mobile service providers.
I doubt many consumers have had direct contact with Netflix unless it’s to resolve a subscription issue or general query. It’s very much a self-automated service – you download the app, select the program you wish to watch, and hit play.
Very simple, very effective.
Again, this doesn’t need much embellishment. Netflix generates money from the different tiers and packages put together in their subscription services.
This varies depending on the region to account for local markets, but on the whole, it’s sold at a low price point.
Originally, Netflix’s Key Resources would have been their unrivaled DVD collection combined with a cost-effective mail-order system.
Nowadays it’s undoubtedly the rights to stream online video content. Netflix has brokered deals with some of the biggest production studios worldwide.
Combined with their huge library of in-house productions , it’s more than enough to encourage customers to renew their subscriptions.
To help sustain interest in their product, Netflix understands they need to serve-up relevant content for each sub-sector of their mass audience. Therefore their machine learning algorithm selects content for consumers based on streaming habits (what they watched, at what time, etc,.) to personalize the customer experience.
This explains why over 80% of all content streamed on Netflix was cherry-picked by this algorithm, making it a Key Resource for their business model.
Also, Netflix accounts for a whopping 12.6% of global bandwidth usage . The literal capacity to stream their services must be met meaning bandwidth must also be included here.
Content procurement is arguably their biggest Key Activity. They need to find people to produce and deliver their original content, including actors, studios, writers, etc. as well as secure the licensing and streaming rights from 3rd party producers such as Sony, Warner Bros, and Disney.
Finally, they need a fast, easy-to-use application to host their online streaming service. This needs to be available for both TV and mobile devices if they are to deliver their “on-demand” value proposition.
K ey Partners
Seeing as Netflix’s entire business model is largely based around streaming 3rd party content, key partnerships need to be built with production studios . No content, no Netflix!
Also, as we touched upon earlier Netflix is one of the largest consumers of bandwidth worldwide. If the speed and delivery of their streaming service are to be continued then deals will also need to be made with internet service providers (ISPs).
Netflix’s biggest expenditures come from both their in-house content procurement and 3rd party licensing agreements . The high-quality standard of video streamed on Netflix is only possible due to the speed and performance of its online platform and application , which has additional costs of staff, software, etc.
To show you just how flexible the business model canvas can be, I wanted to throw in a slightly leftfield example. Vintae is a Spanish wine producer who, after a detailed analysis of the business model canvas, was able to innovate and disrupt one of the world’s most competitive industries.
As some of you may know, the wine industry is extremely competitive. It’s also steeped in history and tradition , making it very challenging for newcomers to grab market share, let alone think about year-on-year growth and revenue.
However, CEO “Richi” Arambarri looked at the traditional “ bodega ” business model and saw a chink in its armor.
A “small” innovation in the business canvas model helped them to become one of the region’s most important winery groups, with over 10 installations and a presence across all regional denominations (Rioja, Priorat, Rias Baixas, etc.) with year on year growth of 30% – practically unheard of in such a competitive industry.
So how did Vintae analyze the business model canvas to find a niche in their market?
To answer that question, we must first look at the traditional winery business model .
As you can see, the wine industry has historically been patrimonial. Vineyards and estates are passed down through generations with the winery responsible for all phases of production, clarification, and distribution.
The traditional winery business canvas model suggests you must be the owner of the winery/vineyard where the wine is “manufactured”, meaning physical assets are a key resource of the business model.
So, if you wanted to start producing a Rioja, for example, you’d have to set up your vineyard in the region.
This is monumentally expensive as you need to:
- Purchase the land
- Plant a vineyard
- Absorb set-up and installation costs
- Deal with maintenance costs
It’s here where Vintae saw their opportunity.
What if we move vineyard ownership across the business model canvas from key resources to key partners ?
By leasing the equipment and space of large wineries (of which there was plenty), they could still produce their wine but reduce the cost and exposure associated with land purchase, crushing equipment, huge storage tanks, vineyard maintenance, and their bottling line.
This enabled them to focus on their sales, marketing, and distribution channels to create a better brand experience for their customers.
Also, it afforded them more flexibility when creating new wines as they were no longer confined to the limitations of grapes grown on their vineyard.
The lightness of this new business model eliminates maintenance overheads, channels energy into personalizing the customer experience, and allows for unprecedented levels of growth in one of the world’s most competitive industries.
Business Model Canvas Software
Although I did mention starting with a large whiteboard, sticky notes, and a pack of colorful sharpies there are several options in which you can digitize the business canvas model production process.
While I still believe the aforementioned process is extremely valuable (it gets your entire team’s input in a single hour-long session) you may decide it more viable for each member of management to pool their ideas digitally before sharing with the rest of the group.
If that’s the case, then take a look at some of the following software tools for creating your business model canvas.
Created by the founders of the business model canvas Alex Osterwalder and Yves Pigneur , Strategyzer offers a range of business model canvas templates for you to get started with.
If you opt for the paid model (there is a 30-day free trial period) they offer a series of various classes that teach you how to build and test different value propositions and business models.
A real-time built-in cost estimator analyzes the financial viability of some of your business ideas, identifying alternative areas you may wish to explore with your model.
All-in-all, it’s a great resource to play around with and test some of your business ideas, with the option to dive into further detail if you see fit.
Canvanizer is a free, easy-to-use web tool that allows you to share links between team members who are brainstorming ideas for a business model canvas, but working remotely.
Like Strategyzer, there are several business model canvas templates provided to help you get started with your analysis. The strength of this platform is its accessibility. Much like a Google Doc., several people can brainstorm on the same canvas simultaneously with changes being synchronized automatically.
A ThePowerMBA alumni, impressed by the simplicity and effectiveness of the tool, went ahead and created the free application Business Model Canvas Tool .
It’s an incredibly intuitive, and easy-to-use tool that allows you to create templates simply by clicking the + button in each building block.
Each business model canvas created can be downloaded and shared as a pdf. with the rest of the team.
If, after going through our 9-step guide on how to use the Business Model Canvas you’d like to learn more about different business model analysis tools , take a look at our alternative MBA business program .
As you’ll see, the course gives students a 360-degree view of business and management practices – such as engines of growth, segmentation and targeting, and value propositions.
I highly recommend you go check it out.
Regardless, I’d love to hear what you thought about this guide. Was it helpful? Would you like to see additional business cases analyzed from your industry?
Let us know in the comments below.
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Business Model Canvas: The Definitive Guide and Examples
Before 2004, entrepreneurs suffered from prolonged and cumbersome business plans. Alexander Osterwalder facilitated the creation of a business model by introducing the Business Model Canvas (BMC) .
By definition, it’s a visual template that illustrates various objects of a business model . Osterwalder’s original canvas includes nine elements, which we will have explained below in the article. They represent vital aspects of business survival.
What to Begin With?
Once you decided to use the Business Model Canvas approach, you need to prepare the essentials:
- Decide on the team members involved.
- Allocate time
- Prepare the tools.
The necessary tools depend on how you decide to brainstorm:
- Offline. Download a PDF Business Model Canvas template, and take several colored markers, sticky notes, and anything else you may need. For example, if you are brainstorming in a big team, a board is a must for enhanced convenience.
- Online. Choose the platform where you will work with a template. It can be Google Docs, Omnigraffle, or the Stratygizer web app.
Why Choose Business Model Canvas?
What makes The Business Model Canvas stand out in an array of approaches to business model creation? Its 1-page nature drives the following advantages:
- Focus – With all the data presented on a single page, business owners don’t spread themselves too thin. They formulate key elements and eliminate unnecessary ones.
- Density – It’s much better to read one dense piece of paper than look through a 30-page report.
- Flexibility – The canvas is easy to customize; therefore, you can fill out several templates, compare them, and choose the best one.
About the Nine Business Model Canvas Elements
Let’s elaborate on what is behind the nine Business Model Canvas blocks:
1. Customer Segment
Daily operations highly depend on customers and their behavioral patterns. That’s why customer segmentation is a must when creating a business model.
In this block, you need to describe the buyer persona. The description includes the following:
- Demographics (age, gender, etc.)
- Professional status
- Motivation and goals
- Shopping preferences
This is a basic list of points. You can add specific parameters. For example, software developers may identify the preferred device type. Already-established brands can also introduce visitors’ tiers that differentiate people according to their level of connection with a brand.
Read an in-depth article about customer segments here .
2. Value Proposition
A value proposition is a brief description of your product and its ultimate value for a client. In other words, write down in a Business Model Canvas why consumers should buy your goods or services. Ideally, it solves a problem or drives additional value for an end-client.
Keep in mind that the wording should be precise and short. Don’t describe your value proposition in several sentences. Limit it to a single but eloquent phrase. Here is a good example from Maps.me : “Fast, detailed, and entirely offline maps with turn-by-turn navigation – trusted by over 140 million travelers worldwide.”
Read an in-depth article about value proposition here.
3. Distribution Channels
Osterwalder, together with Pigneur, described five phases of channel development.
- Awareness includes channels that establish the initial contact with the target audience and develop the connection. It usually involves marketing channels.
- Evaluation implies allowing potential buyers to try your goods and see the value. Popular channels are free samples, reviews, and case studies.
- Purchase is about when and by what means customers can buy your product. The channels vary significantly depending on the prevalence of online or offline communication.
- Delivery describes how an end consumer receives a product.
- After-sales is usually limited to customer support that provides after-sales service and resolves problems.
Read an in-depth article about distribution channels here.
4. Customer Relationship
A customer relationship strategy determines how your target audience interacts with your brand. You can choose from five types of customer relationships in terms of the Business Model Canvas:
- Personal assistance is a traditional approach where a customer interacts with a personal assistant when contacting your brand. It implies a high level of personal care and deep, meaningful relationships.
- Self-service is the opposite of personal assistance: a brand doesn’t directly communicate with a consumer – instead, the consumer can understand the product via guides and FAQs.
- Automated service involves AI-based suggestions and bots that can provide basic assistance. This type is more engaging than self-service.
- Communities are spaces developed by a brand itself to help the audience understand the product better. A good example is Oracle, which practices the approach.
- Co-creation implies educating the customers via user-generated content.
Read an in-depth article about customer relationships here.
5. Revenue Streams
The next block of the Business Model Canvas is about determining where your revenue comes from. Here, you should consider the buyer’s persona to identify what the target audience is ready to pay for.
There can be several methods of monetization:
- Direct sales : Implies selling your service or product for a fee. It’s common for the majority of industries.
- Advertising : It’s relevant for such niches as blogging or IT platforms. The revenue comes from advertisers who want to reach your audience.
- Freemium : This applies to services only. Some features are free, while premium ones are paid for.
- Subscription : It’s similar to a fee-based monetization. The only difference is that a consumer pays for getting access to the service for a limited time, not forever.
Read an in-depth article about revenue streams here.
6. Key Resources
In the Business Model Canvas, key resources are divided into four categories. Here are they explained:
- Tangible – Any physical resources, from real estate to equipment. The stocks also fall in the category.
- Intangible – Intellectual property like patents, copyrights, licenses, and customer knowledge
- Human – Your employees that make the business run
- Financial – All the finance, regardless of whether it’s an obligation or not. It includes cash, bank loans, grants or donations, and other finances.
Read an in-depth article about key resources here.
7. Key Activities
Key activities included in a canvas are the business activities vital for work. They vary from industry to industry. Some design this block by uniting the activities into one out of three categories:
- Problem-solving
For example, software developers fall in the first category as they design new products, while an IT company with its own taxi service is attributed to the third category.
Read an in-depth article about key activities here.
8. Key Partners
Key partners are parties like suppliers who are vital to flawless business operations. In other words, a company can’t survive without them. There are four categories to include in the Business Model Canvas:
- Supplier – A partner who supplies you with raw materials or finished goods
- Non-competitors – Companies you team up with to leverage their resources: for example, you can source goods from several suppliers
- Joint ventures – Partners who help you fill the gap: enter a new market or reach a new niche. The result of a joint venture is enhanced mutual profitability.
- Coopetition – Partnership between two competitors, which may take place as a merger to market a new product
Read an in-depth article about key partners here.
9. Cost Structure
All the mentioned above blocks of the Business Model Canvas aren’t implemented for free. Startups and enterprises spend money on production and accompanying services. To set realistic revenue goals, a company needs to estimate the costs first.
The costs vary depending on the industry. For example, some businesses have to cover R&D expenditures, together with production and post-service. Others, however, exclude this debit from the template.
Read an in-depth article about cost structure here.
Applications and Analysis
Once the Business Model Canvas is ready, you need to analyze it. For this, you should assess the canvas in terms of three points:
- Is it logical and coherent? Are there are misaligned blocks? If yes, address the issue.
- What can be improved? If you find any mediocre blocks, devote more time to improve them.
- Are there any other ideas to consider? Maybe you can add something to the existing template or design a new one?
- Does my team agree with the canvas? If not, reconsider the arguable moments. To prove your point of view, rely on data and facts.
- Have I taken into account a long-term competitive advantage? If no, address the point. You need to consider the market and competitors when building a business plan.
What to Do After?
After you have examined the canvas, you can integrate it into your daily routine. Here is how it can be utilized:
- Track the changes. Any company evolves with time. A plan helps to make sure that changes don’t contravene core principles.
- Onboard top-management. The model communicates who you are and how you live. Instead of describing everything on your own, you can let new hires read everything.
- Guide the brainstorming. Every time you have a meeting where a team is generating ideas, place the canvas in front. It will help to reject unfit ideas.
Besides, you can use the same technique in other areas. For example, if you have several customers, you can describe an approach to them with the help of the BMS.
Some Tips for Beginners
If you have never created the Business Model Canvas before, comprehending all the above-mentioned data may be hard. Here are five tips that will help to navigate across the template easier:
- Prefer teamwork: It’s better to brainstorm side by side with reliable and competent team members rather than alone. You reduce the risk of designing the canvas from one perspective.
- Work on a whiteboard: The more space you have, the better. It allows the whole team to have a good look at the template and facilitates the process.
- Stock up on stationery: Colored markers and stickers will help you to group the ideas when brainstorming. Otherwise, you risk ending up with an incoherent Business Model Canvas.
- Devote enough time: Don’t allocate half an hour or schedule an important meeting right after the brainstorming. You will need a minimum of one hour for a draft.
- Determine the sequence of blocks to fill in: It’s advisable to start with customer segmentation or value proposition. After that, you can determine the sequence as it’s convenient for you.
Software for Business Model Canvas
If you prefer digital solutions to traditional paper and markers, you can opt for software to create the Business Model Canvas. There are many useful tools on the web. These three, however, are the best:
- Canvanizer. The tool is free, simple, and shareable. It allows collaborative brainstorming in Google Docs. Later, the canvas can be exported to an image or other formats.
- Strategyzer. The free software is more advanced with deep analytics and enhanced user experience. For example, the tool can assess the financial viability of a business idea. It also offers additional modes: for example, a dashboard for Lean Startup development.
- CNVS. The software with a simple interface is easy-to-understand. It allows building not only the BMC but also a Lean and Feature Canvas.
What Are the Benefits of the BMC?
Businesses of all scopes choose the Business Model Canvas approach because of four core benefits:
- Enhanced Visibility. Since the canvas involves visual presentation, it facilitates data comprehension. The team has all the information in front of their eyes; therefore, the analysis and decision-making are much easier.
- Customization. You can change some blocks of the canvas in no time if they don’t match with others. It won’t take several hours to retype and reprint a 40-page report.
- Focus on Value. Typically, the value of the product is at the core. It means that all the other blocks are designed with the end-benefit in mind.
- A Single Message. A team gets a clear message of the operation. The Business Model Canvas eliminates risks of failure because of misunderstandings.
What Does the Business Model Canvas Lack?
Although the Business Model Canvas is a popular and recognizable approach, many critics revolve around it. In particular, some executives criticize the model because of the lack of:
- Competitors
- Market analysis
- Brand mission
- Key priorities
While it may bother some people, in reality, there is nothing wrong. The nature of the BMC doesn’t imply focusing on these aspects. Its ultimate objective is to facilitate the process of crafting business models. And the template includes the core blocks only. After all, the market and competitors’ external outcomes aren’t shaping the company’s inner structure.
Why Should Already-Established Companies Implement the Business Model Canvas?
Traditionally, the canvas approach is the prerogative of startups. But it can also be useful for already-established enterprises. The BMC covers the following tasks: Helps to identify gaps in the model and discover new opportunities.
- Allows comparing your model to competitors to identify competitive advantages
- Enhances a presentation of a company to potential investors
- Allows examining and testing new business models
- It helps to unite the model and eliminate misunderstandings in a team
- Allows recreating the company from scratch
As can be seen, the Business Model Canvas helps to effectively analyze the whole company or particular project, map out possible changes or gaps, and address them.
Real Examples of the Business Model Canvas
Examples help executives to grasp the basics of the BMC better. Here are two examples of canvases from different industries:
Airbnb is a provider of affordable accommodation around the globe. Its canvas may look like this:
- Customer segments – budget tourists, unconventional travelers, locals seeking extra income
- Value proposition – easy and fast booking, huge offer, competitive prices, local lifestyle
- Distribution channels – social media, travel bloggers, word-of-mouth
- Customer relationships – self-service with customer support
- Revenue streams – a fee system, affiliate marketing
- Key resources – a community of both landlords and guests, platform, IT-specialists
- Key activities – user research, customer support, maintenance
- Key partners – tourists and travelers, hosts, investors, payments providers, insurance companies
- Cost structure – marketing, platform maintenance
LinkedIn is a professional social network.
- Customer segments – HR, professionals seeking employment, marketing specialists
- Value proposition – building a professional network of contact, sourcing potential employees, blogging.
- Distribution channels – app stores, website
- Customer relationships – self-service, customer support
- Revenue streams – freemium, marketing, and hiring solutions
- Key resources – platform, IT-specialists, user-generated content
- Key activities – platform maintenance
- Key partners – users, SlideShare
- Cost structure – marketing, maintenance
The Business Model Canvas is one of the numerous approaches to business modeling. For more than fifteen years of existence, it has proved its worth in the corporate community. Despite some critics, the method is effective and illustrates the business plan precisely. Moreover, thanks to its visual feature, it’s easy to comprehend and assess.
Download a Business Model Canvas Template
Download our free tools below to create your own Business Model Canvas right now.
BUSINESS MODEL CANVAS TEMPLATE PDF
BUSINESS MODEL CANVAS TEMPLATE PPT
BUSINESS MODEL CANVAS TEMPLATE EXCEL
BUSINESS MODEL CANVAS TEMPLATE WORD
BUSINESS MODEL CANVAS TEMPLATE GOOGLE SHEETS
BUSINESS MODEL CANVAS TEMPLATE GOOGLE SLIDES
You may also be interested in the Value Proposition Canvas template , a complementary tool to the Business Model Canvas.
Daniel Pereira
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Sep 8 How To Fill In A Business Model Canvas
The Business Model Canvas is a great way of mapping out an idea, allowing it to be understood, tested and improved.
The tool is a single page with nine connected boxes, which show how all parts of your business work together for success. It can be sketched anywhere – on a whiteboard, napkin or notepad. Filling one in can take between 15 and 30 minutes, and this guide will make the process clear and straightforward.
We’ll look at some entrepreneurs as they fill in their own canvases – it’s much easier if you get to watch somebody else.
They are: Josh – creating a bamboo toothbrush that’s both stylish and environmentally beneficial. Kylie and Dan – running Indigenous cultural experience programs for schools and families. Anna – selling a range of chilli sauces that are made in Fiji.
Business Model Canvas, strategyzer.com
Step 1: Naming the purpose of the business Without a clear purpose, how will we know if a model is good or not? This can be whatever you like, such as: To earn a passive income from home To prevent the destruction of Indonesian rainforests To improve the financial stability of our parent organisation To provide stable livelihoods for young people at risk of being homeless To improve the job hunting process
The great thing about this is that we now have a criteria for assessing our ideas, and have some inspiration for creative ways to reach this purpose.
Josh – “To reduce the amount of plastic that goes to landfill” Kylie and Dan – “To preserve and celebrate Indigenous culture, and explain its relevance in our daily lives” Anna – “To create meaningful employment in Fiji”
Step 2: Customers and Value Propositions There’s no particular order you have to follow on a canvas, although I’ve found this to be the best place to start. Your business is centred around your customers, the people who you believe will be motivated enough to try your new product/service in order to receive some sort of compelling benefit.
This is a real person, someone who is walking around right now. They’re looking for solutions to their current problems, and like finding ways to make their lives easier. Our job is to get a good understanding of this person: What are their jobs, tasks and obligations? What are their hopes, dreams and aspirations? What are their core beliefs and worldviews? Do they have a good understanding of how they might get what they want? This is what we list in the Customer Segments box .
Firstly, we group our customers into clusters, describing each of them by their common characteristics, i.e. small business owners, students, parents, etc. Secondly we write helpful descriptors of each customer segment. These might be Demographics like age, race, gender, height, income or postcode. These might be Psychographics like their political views, altruism, biases or preferences.
Keep in mind that our customers are the people who make decisions and pay for our products/services (not to be confused with the End User or the Beneficiary).
In the Value Propositions box, we describe what the customer is really looking for. This isn’t about what we sell them, but rather why it matters . These might be Gain Creators like increased social status, wellness, professional credibility or indulging our guilty pleasures. These might be Pain Relievers like fear of exclusion, social shame, regaining wasted time, or reduced anxiety.
We want to understand how our products/services make their lives better, to the point that customers will happily pay us for this Value Proposition.
Josh – We have two customers: 1. Young professionals who want to buy cool, environmentally friendly gifts for themselves and their friends. They love the aesthetics of the brushes and the story of the movement. It’s a simple way of doing something cool. 2. Mothers with young children, who want to create a mindset of environmental responsibility in their daily decisions. They like the personalised colours of each brush, and by making teeth brushing fun they get fewer objections from their kids twice a day.
Kylie and Dan – We have two customers: 1. Schools who want workshops and incursions for their primary students. They love how engaged the students are, and that it’s a great way to incorporate NAIDOC week each year.
2. Couples and families who want to learn more about Indigenous culture. They love learning about the rituals, connecting with nature and with the land, and the feeling they get from having a weekend away from hollow distractions.
Anna – We have three customers: 1. Supermarkets who stock our sauce. They love interesting products with good margins and high turnover.
2. Cafes and burger shops. They love having interesting brands of sauce that engage their customers, and hot sauces that are spicy without sacrificing flavour.
3. Home cooks, people who like chilli sauce. They love the brand and its cheeky packaging, and the unique heat/flavour of the sauce.
Step 3: Channels and Customer Relationships Now that we have a clear picture of who we’re serving and how we’ll delight them, we get to design three things: how we acquire them, how we keep them, and how we interact with them.
The Channels box is our chance to explain how we first encounter our customers, as well as how we deliver our Value Proposition. For example, your business might find customers through Google Ads or Facebook, then serve customers through face-to-face workshops or drop-shipped packages. We list both of these methods here.
The Customer Relationships box outlines how our interactions will unfold. Are we hoping for a long term relationship, or a short term relationship? Does each customer need to speak to a person, or use technology? If so, does it need to be a particular person, or the same one each time they come back? Will we need to work harder to acquire our customers or to retain our customers? Does one tend to happen more naturally than the other?
These two boxes tend to pair neatly together. By understanding our customer, their desires and their preferences, we can identify the best methods for recruiting and keeping them for years to come.
Josh – Our acquisition channels are Instagram and word of mouth, whereas our main delivery channel is through mail orders. Our customers are tough to acquire but are then quite loyal, and our transactions are highly automated. Once we find a way to tell the story and show them how great the product looks, it’s easy to get an order.
Kylie and Dan – Personal referrals are our best acquisition channel, but we’re keen to find new ways of reaching decision makers within primary schools, who usually make decisions six months in advance. Our online presence will need to improve, and we’re about to start testing keywords. Most of our customers come back each year, so our focus is on acquiring new customers, especially in off-peak times.
Anna – Supermarkets and cafes need an in-person pitch meeting, to hear the story and see the product for themselves. We have a hard time with retention, so there needs to be a long term personal relationship with each manager. Our direct customers come through our online channels, but tend to only order once.
Step 4: Key Resources, Key Activities and Key Partners These three boxes describe how the business will work “behind the scenes” – all of the operational components that make the Value Propositions a reality. We want to list all of the vital ingredients, important processes and invaluable allies that enable our business to exist. Key Resources are the people, places, machines, patents and intangible assets that are used every week. This is not a complete inventory, but a list of the resources that, if lost, would prevent the business from functioning.
Key Activities are the processes and tasks that must be completed in order for our customers to be served. e.g. If you were to go on Holiday, what would your replacement need to do in order for things to continue to run smoothly? These might include sales calls, workshop delivery, meal preparation or writing reports. In particular, these are the activities that you do particularly well. Since every business does a little bookkeeping, that’s probably not your Key Activity…unless you’re an accounting firm.
Key Partners are the people and organisations that take some of the responsibility off your shoulders. They might supply raw materials or finished goods, send customers your way, or act as a sponsor/enabler. Which external supporters are essential to the model? Who could make life difficult if they were to leave?
There’s some flexibility in these three boxes, it’s worth thinking about how you could outsource the tasks that aren’t your core skills to a partner, or how you could take things in-house to either save money or improve quality.
Josh – Most resources and activities have been better performed by partners, who grow the bamboo and manufacture the brushes. The essential resources are the brand, website, sales channels and the founder. The essential activities are advertising, fulfilling orders and meeting with stockists.
Kylie and Dan – The most essential resources are Kylie and Dan, as their knowledge and credibility are what make the entire operation possible. The essential activities are the promotion and sales of their events. They are currently looking for partners who can take the administration functions away from the founders, and who can introduce them to new schools.
Anna – Chilli farming and sauce manufacturing are performed by partners. The essential resources are the brand, the recipe/intellectual property, and the sales team. The essential activities are pitching to new supermarkets and cafes, maintaining existing relationships, and fulfilling the orders that come through the website.
Step 5: Cost Structure and Revenue Streams The bottom line of the canvas represents the bottom line of your business: Money in, money out, hopefully some money left over. We want to understand the ways in which money moves through the business. That means understanding the quantities (how our costs/prices are set) and frequencies (how often we get repeat customers/bills).
Cost Structures are the 7-8 biggest expenses – how much we spend, how frequently we spend it, and whether it changes as sales go up and down. These might include rent, wages, raw materials, advertising, fitting out the store, or paying commissions to other parties.
Revenue Streams are the prices each type of customer typically pays, as well as how frequently they come back. This helps us differentiate the big spenders from the one time shoppers, and highlights which offerings are purchased upfront versus those that are purchased over the following months and years.
Whilst these boxes aren’t a replacement for a proper financial model, they at least give us the ability to make basic forecasts, such as contribution margins and breakeven points. It also gives us a chance to think about our pricing strategy – clever pricing can massively increase the profitability of your new business.
Josh – The main costs within the business are the purchase of brushes (recurring costs that will decrease as the orders get larger), the cost of acquiring customers (ads and content creation) and the costs of fulfilling orders (packaging, postage and staff time). Revenue comes through one main product; 4-packs of brushes. This will need to be diversified, either through complementary offerings like floss or mouthwash, selling larger orders to different customers, or selling individual brushes.
Kylie and Dan – Kylie and Dan themselves are the main costs, with administration, travel and cost of sales (ticketing, materials, etc) the next largest.
Revenues are varied; schools pay a per-student rate of $15 that will increase in the future. Weekend camps are capped at 18 places at $375 each, so the amount of revenue comes down to the number of camps run each year.
Anna – There are a long list of costs, from the bottles to the sauce to the shipping and labelling, as well as the administration and sales staff wages.
Revenues all stem from the same product – 450ml bottles of sauce, but in different quantities and prices points. Supermarkets pay $6 per bottle, whereas cafes pay $8 and consumers pay the RRP of $12.95. That said, one supermarket buy more sauce than ten cafes.
Step 6: Linking The Boxes +Tidying Up Our boxes aren’t nine independent checklists, that wouldn’t help your idea. Instead the canvas keeps our ideas accountable; if we make a promise somewhere on the right, it will also need to be listed in one of the boxes on the left.
If we make claims about our happy customers, that should shine through in our Revenue Streams. If we expect to keep personal relationships with each customer, that will become a part of our Key Activities and Cost Structure.
This does two things: highlights the potentially overlooked activities and resources that are crucial for success, and makes us reconsider the expenses that don’t directly contribute to the Value Proposition. Long story short, you stop making big sweeping assumptions and waste less money.
We want the canvas to be as clear as possible, both for our benefit and for explaining the idea to other people. One way of making sense of the right hand side is to colour code each customer segment; this highlights which value proposition best delights each customer, and which revenue streams they each provide.
Step 7: Telling The Story Presenting a full canvas to a new person is not a good idea – there’s too much to take in. Instead, it’s best to fill in each box as you explain the idea. This makes the business much easier to understand, and creates a much richer appreciation of the model at the end. Even if you just list a few words in each box, this will take about 6-8 minutes to explain the full concept, and will remove a lot of misconceptions.
Step 8: Assumptions Testing Just because you wrote something clever on a canvas doesn’t make it a reality. For this reason, we start by assuming that all of the words on the page are assumptions, and our next job is to verify them – starting with the most crucial.
I find this is made easier with a simple Test Card, which asks you to name the big assumptions, pick a way of measuring the truth, and setting pass/fail criteria.
Research should be conducted with real people, and they need to be people who are in your customer segments. Just because your friends think it’s a cool idea doesn’t mean that the market will too. When you talk with your customers, don’t show them the canvas – it’s better to ask natural questions that help you fill in each box, rather than using all of the same terminology.
Step 9: Designing New Versions Good ideas survive competition, so it’s important that we don’t fall in love with the first idea. After your testing, you’ll start thinking up new adjustments that are worth exploring. Here are some suggestions to spark your creativity:
· New Customer Segments · New Value Propositions (for the same Customer Segments) · New Products/Services (for the same or new Customer Segments) · Turning Services into Products · Turning Products into Services · New Partnerships · Franchise models (that aren’t reliant on a rare resource) · New delivery formats
Josh wants to test some new products with his current customers, whilst also looking at business class airlines and high end hotels, as they both want to provide toothbrushes to their customers whilst appearing environmentally responsible.
Kylie and Dan are going to test new styles of workshop that appeal to their school groups at different times of the year. They also want to bring on some trainees to learn how to run camps and workshops, so that the model is not as dependent on the two of them (which is a risk to their finances and their cultural intent).
Anna has heard that her supermarket customers want to see a wider range of products, so she’s going to test feasibility with her manufacturing partners and desirability with her customers.
What’s Next? Now that you have 3-4 interesting Business Model Canvases, some additional tools will make the future even clearer.
Customer Journey Mapping will give you insights into how you can better attract/serve/retain your customers.
Financial Models will reveal what makes the business financially viable, and highlight the sensitivities that will make or break the idea.
Value Proposition Canvases will dive deeper into your customers and their hidden motivations, creating more persuasive messages that will lure them in.
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How To Use The Business Model Canvas – A Step by Step Guide
This is a complete guide on how to use the Business Model Canvas. I have also included some downloads for high-quality pdf versions of the Business Model Canvas, the popular canvas created by Osterwalder and Pigneur .
Table of Contents
What Is A Business Model Canvas?
A business model contains nine separate components. With the result that the nine parts together combine to create value. Business modelling now is one critical part of assessing a digital strategy.
A model is easy to understand and analyze. Moreover, it provides a common framework that managers can use to develop new models. Most companies need to be more innovative. As a result, modelling is a creative way to explore new business opportunities.
Today there is a larger variety of how companies can make money. Much is due to new technologies. As an example the Blockchain.
How To Map A Business Model
To develop a visual map of a business model you put the nine blocks together. Redesign the blocks and you create new forms of value. A mistake often made is to ignore the customer in the design. Increasingly with services taking centre stage, business modelling defines the customer experience.
In comparison to other methods, the visual mapping process is a useful team process. Besides exploring new opportunities, it creates a shared understanding between team members.
Why Use The Business Model Canvas?
The Business Model Canvas is popular with entrepreneurs and intrapreneurs for business model innovation. Fundamentally, it delivers three things:
- Focus : It focuses on what’s important the fundamental business logic – what I mean does it all fit together. It quickly clarifies and demonstrates whether the pieces fit together to make a business worth investment.
- Flexibility : Often I find that the original ideas get tweaked as the Business Model develops. This is particularly true when working in organizations and across different skill sets.
- Transparency : Team can refer to it easily. It is an ongoing tool that facilitates discussion, debate and also requires further research. Further research can be around financials, segments, and partners. Often, once the business model is created there needs to be some initial validation.
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Strengths And Weaknesses Of The Business Model Canvas
- Focus on the problem-solution fit.
- Defines the main business components and their relationships.
- Develops clarity of thought for business logic.
- Tool for facilitating discussion, debate and further research.
- Easy to understand.
- The Business Model Canvas is NOT a strategy. You still need a strategy .
- Doesn’t take into account the competitive arena.
- Often when used is based on assumptions rather than facts.
- Doesn’t take into account sustainability – missing the broader view of economy, society and environment.
- Doesn’t show the different stakeholders involved in the business model.
- Lacks components that are available
- If you’re a startup then you might want to use the Lean Business Model Canvas instead.
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Business Model Canvas Sections
The following elements provide an overview of the main business drivers:
- Customer Segments : Who are the customers? What do they think? See? Feel? Do?
- Value Propositions : What’s compelling about the proposition? Why do customers buy, use?
- Channels : How are these propositions promoted, sold and delivered? Why? Is it working?
- Customer Relationships : How do you interact with the customer through their journey?
- Revenue Streams : How does the business earn revenue from the value propositions?
- Key Activities : What uniquely strategic things does the business do to deliver its proposition?
- Key Resources : What unique strategic assets must the business have to compete?
- Key Partnerships : What can the company not do so it can focus on its Key Activities?
- Cost Structure : What are the business major cost drivers? How are they linked to revenue?
STEP BY STEP GUIDE
What’s the Business Model Canvas? How do I get started? Different ways of using the business model canvas? Step 1 (of 10): Customer Segments Step 2 (of 10): Value Propositions Step 3 (of 10): Channels Step 4 (of 10): Customer Relationships Step 5 (of 10): Revenue Streams Step 6 (of 10): Key Activities Step 7 (of 10): Key Resources Step 8 (of 10): Key Partnerships Step 9 (of 10): Cost Structure Step 10 (of 10): Applications, Review & Next Steps
The Business Model Canvas (BMC)
The Business Model Canvas (BMC) gives you a structured way to design a business. The goal is to create a business model that is unique and compete in the market. It is an ideal way to check the business logic of why customers will buy your product or service. It also provides a way to understand how all the different elements come together to deliver your products or services, the cost structure, value proposition, customer segments and profits.
How To Get Started?
Identify the overarching purpose of the business
I suggest that to start with you print out several copies of the business model canvas (see above for high-quality PDF print versions). Fill out the elements and start to get a feel with how the different elements sit together and whether they make sense.
Keep copies of them and also mark on each the version (1.0, 1.1…) that way you can refer back to ideas and also see how your thoughts have progressed.
Different Ways Of Using The Business Model Canvas?
The business model canvas can be used to not only develop your business model but also analyze potential competitors. How do you know if your business model is unique and difficult to replicate if you don’t know the market?
I’m not suggesting mapping every competitor. Quite often you find many have similar, if not the same, business model, which makes it hard to differentiate them.
Remember that that sometimes different cost structures can make a huge difference in a market – Aldi vs Sainsbury’s. Needless to say, that using a business model canvas on a known company can help you build out your own ideas to compete.
Step 1 (of 10): Customer Segments
This sounds obvious, but when you get into the detail many people overly simply the customer and don’t create a clear picture of who they are. As a result, the tendency is to make generalizations.
1. Customers Segments
Understanding who you are aiming your business at is critical to success. As an example, HR directors – they are an identifiable group of people that use the label HR Directors to identify themselves and their role. You can find HR directors on Linkedin for instance as individuals and through Linkedin Groups.
2. Segment Composition
A Segment is the maco level of a potential customer base. Understanding the composition of the customers – how they vary, how many are there in different sub-segments helps you to determine the market potential and viability.
The traditional way of looking and understanding these sub-segments is to use Marketing Personas. This is where you should be able to visualize the people that are actually going to buy your product and how. It is the detail and depth of understanding here that counts. We are talking here about observations not just theory or statistics cleaned from a marketing report.
You need to understand what they think, see, feel, and do in your product area. Be sure to list both buyers and users of your product (many Personas will be both).
3. Problems, Needs, Behaviours & Current Alternatives
Many customers have hidden needs. In other words when you watch and observe them trying to do things they have to do workarounds or take a long route to accomplish their task. Understanding what customers are trying to achieve and observing how they achieve things provides valuable insights into why and how you can help them
Make sure that you identify their existing needs/problems and identify the alternatives that they currently use. If you’re not sure, go out and observe, talk to some people. You’ll want to be able to clearly link your Value Propositions back to these in the next section.
You should as a result of completing this section be able to clearly define your segment and have a number of personas for the different sub-segments that describe the profile of your customer, their behaviours, their problems, and current workarounds or alternatives
Step 2 (of 10): Value Propositions
The Problems or Needs that you identified earlier and used to build your Marketing Personas now come into play.
The Value Proposition Canvas describes the details of how the value proposition and customer segments interact.
In its simplest terms, a value proposition is a positioning statement that explains what benefits you provide for who and how you do it uniquely well. It describes your target customer, the pain point you solve, and why you’re distinctly better than the alternatives.
What is Value?
It means seem a bit odd asking this but there are many different dimensions to value? Equally, there are often hidden barriers people do not see the value the same as you
What is important at this stage to challenge yourself your Value Propositions and why does your customer might prefer them to their Current Alternatives?
Quite often you will have multiple value propositions. They are not the same benefits. Remember that value propositions are the sum of benefits you offer. A value proposition clearly aims at defining how it solves a problem and presents a new way of doing it compared to existing solutions.
Use a whiteboard or index cars for each value proposition. What things can you do that actually will make the biggest difference to the customer and be unique and better than the competition?
You should now have a clear link between value propositions and your personas. The value propositions should clearly tie in with the customer and why they will buy.
Step 3 (of 10): Channels
Channels include the methods that you are going to use to reach your customers. Are there clear customer communities, what labels or job titles refer to your customers, what interests groups do they have that can help you identify them?
Being able to reach your customers through marketing channels is crucial to being able to make them aware of your product and test your value propositions. Some typical channels are paid search (e.g. Google Adwords), social media ads (e.g. Facebook ads, Instagram ads), SEO (long term), PR…
Outcome For each Persona or Segments, if they differ substantially. Make a clear note of potential channels that can be used to reach to the customer. In the marketing growth blueprint, I cover in more detail how to design and develop a clear marketing strategy for your business model.
Step 4 (of 10): Customer Relationships
Some questions to help guide you on this block of the business model canvas:
- How do you develop a customer relationship?
- How will the customer interact with you through the sales and product lifecycle?
- What is the customer journey?
- What are the most critical elements of the customer journey?
- How much do you use automation and what do you make personal?
- Do you use outbound reach and calls?
The value proposition should link closely to the level of service and touchpoints you use to interact with customers?
The costs associated with how you deliver your communications, service the customer will be reflected in costs.
Use storyboard and customer journey maps to map the current customer journey. Then map how your value proposition will be delivered and make a note of the critical points in the journey and the overall lifecycle.
Outcome A description of the type of customer relationship for each segment/persona.
Step 5 (of 10): Revenue Streams
The most important thing is to map the number of each segment and potential revenue. Don’t overestimate this. Remember you have to often out early adopters vs. the mainstream of regular buyers who are often harder to convert. Try and be realistic – use a spreadsheet and calculate your variables.
Outcome A list of Revenue Streams, linked (mutually) to Personas (or Segments if the mappings are the same within a set of Personas) and Value Propositions.
Step 6 (of 10): Key Activities
These are the essential things the business needs to do to deliver on its propositions and make the rest of the business work.
For a product-driven business, this will involve learning about users and new techniques to build and test new products. Rarely does the first design go straight through to production? In particular, with products, you need to consider how much time is involved between new design sand prototypes to test. There are lots of new ways to get prototypes developed fast and therefore speed up the innovation process.
If you’re focused on doing a set of services for customers, then include maintaining superior expertise on the segment(s) and creating or acquiring products and services that are a good fit, whatever that entails.
A list of Key Activities linked to your business Value Propositions.
Step 7 (of 10): Key Resources
Key resources are the strategic assets you need in place, and you need in place to a greater or more targeted degree than your competitors. The Business Model Canvas proposes that there are three core business types: product, scope, and infrastructure. These tend to have similar types of Key Resources.
A list of Key Resources linked to your business’s Key Activities.
Step 8 (of 10): Key Partnerships
At this point, hopefully, the Canvas has helped you sharpen and articulate your business’s focal points. What Activities and Resources are important but not aligned with what’s a unique strategy for you? What’s outside of your business type? Could partners do some of those? Why? Which?
I recommend mapping Key Partners to Key Activities. If an activity is key, it’s still part of your business model. This is a way to denote which specific Partners are handling various Key Activities for you.
The left of the business model has blocks that logically support and fit together. Understanding costs associated with yoru activities is a key part of your business modelling. A list of Key Partnerships with notes on their relationship to Key Activities.
Step 9 (of 10): Cost Structure
You’ve worked to understand how your Key Activities drive your propositions and hence your revenue. The key questions to ask at this stage of the business model canvas are:
- How do they drive costs?
- Are those costs well aligned with the key Value Propositions?
- Are the costs more fixed or variable as you test different business models?
- Are they more linear with your scaling or more fixed?
You’ll want to have these in mind as you tweak your model.
If you’re a startup then knowing your costs and predicting a run rate for costs is critical. The business model canvas helps to focus on the resources and activities that are associated with your business design.
As an outcome, you should have a list of Cost Structure elements with notes on their relationship to Key Activities.
Step 10 (of 10): Applications, Review & Next Steps
Core applications.
The most core and obvious applications of the Canvas are to ask: – Does it make sense? – Could it be better? – Does the rest of my team understand and agree? Have additional ideas? – Rinse and repeat at least quarterly
Competitiveness
The business model canvas does a good job of helping you figure out your business, which is a good place to start. You also want to look at the competitive environment and think about whether you how you have and can maintain a long term competitive advantage.
Business Model Canvas Examples
Every business is a work in progress. As you go through the canvas, you may encounter areas that give you trouble. Reach out if you need any help with the business model canvas.
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More Business Model Canvas Resources
- Customer Journey Map Canvas
- Value Proposition Canvas
- Buyer Persona Canvas
- Customer Persona Canvas
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Business model canvas maker features Elaborate your business idea in a concise and visually strategic way. Assess how viable and competitive your business will be by identifying your customers, activities, costs, and revenue stream. It’s easy with free templates from Canva’s online business model canvas creator.
The Business Model Canvas template, designed by Alexander Osterwalder and Yves Pigneur, provides a strategic and powerful way to understand your business. The Business Model Canvas contains nine blocks: fill in each one using stickies, links, hand drawings, pictures, and videos.
The Business Model Canvas is a strategic management tool that lets you visualize and assess your business idea or concept. It’s a one-page document containing nine boxes that represent different fundamental elements of a business.
The Business Model Canvas reflects systematically on your business model, so you can focus on your business model segment by segment. This also means you can start with a brain dump, filling out the segments the spring to your mind first and then work on the empty segments to close the gaps.
To start your Business Model Canvas you will need to breakdown and analyze each of the 9 building blocks. A good way to approach this is to gather the heads from marketing, sales, operations, finance, and manufacturing (if product-based) and pencil-in a morning where you can all meet together.
Download a PDF Business Model Canvas template, and take several colored markers, sticky notes, and anything else you may need. For example, if you are brainstorming in a big team, a board is a must for enhanced convenience. Online. Choose the platform where you will work with a template.
The Business Model Canvas is a great way of mapping out an idea, allowing it to be understood, tested and improved. The tool is a single page with nine connected boxes, which show how all parts of your business work together for success. It can be sketched anywhere – on a whiteboard, napkin or notepad.
The Business Model Canvas (BMC) gives you a structured way to design a business. The goal is to create a business model that is unique and compete in the market. It is an ideal way to check the business logic of why customers will buy your product or service.