canvas business plan online

The Business Model Canvas

The Business Model Canvas is a strategic management and entrepreneurial tool. It allows you to describe, design, challenge, invent, and pivot your business model. This method from the bestselling management book Business Model Generation is applied in leading organizations and start-ups worldwide.

The Business Model Canvas enables you to:

• Visualize and communicate a simple story of your existing business model.
• Use the canvas to design new business models, whether you are a start-up or an existing businessManage a portfolio of business models
• You can use the canvas to easily juggle between "Explore" and "Exploit" business models.

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Mastering business models

A self-paced online course with 
Alex Osterwalder and Yves Pigneur.

Are you trying to improve your existing business model? Or trying to create a new one that can compete in today’s market?

Business Model Canvas: Explained with Examples

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.

What Are the Benefits of Using a Business Model Canvas

Why do you need a business model canvas? The answer is simple. The business model canvas offers several benefits for businesses and entrepreneurs. It is a valuable tool and provides a visual and structured approach to designing, analyzing, optimizing, and communicating your business model.

• The business model canvas provides a comprehensive overview of a business model’s essential aspects. The BMC provides a quick outline of the business model and is devoid of unnecessary details compared to the traditional business plan.
• The comprehensive overview also ensures that the team considers all required components of their business model and can identify gaps or areas for improvement.
• The BMC allows the team to have a holistic and shared understanding of the business model while enabling them to align and collaborate effectively.
• The visual nature of the business model canvas makes it easier to refer to and understand by anyone. The business model canvas combines all vital business model elements in a single, easy-to-understand canvas.
• The BMC can be considered a strategic analysis tool as it enables you to examine a business model’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and challenges.
• It’s easier to edit and can be easily shared with employees and stakeholders.
• The BMC is a flexible and adaptable tool that can be updated and revised as the business evolves. Keep your business agile and responsive to market changes and customer needs.
• The business model canvas can be used by large corporations and startups with just a few employees.
• The business model canvas effectively facilitates discussions among team members, investors, partners, customers, and other stakeholders. It clarifies how different aspects of the business are related and ensures a shared understanding of the business model.
• You can use a BMC template to facilitate discussions and guide brainstorming brainstorming sessions to generate insights and ideas to refine the business model and make strategic decisions.
• The BMC is action-oriented, encouraging businesses to identify activities and initiatives to improve their business model to drive business growth.
• A business model canvas provides a structured approach for businesses to explore possibilities and experiment with new ideas. This encourages creativity and innovation, which in turn encourages team members to think outside the box.

How to Make a Business Model Canvas

Here’s a step-by-step guide on how to create a business canvas model.

Step 1: Gather your team and the required material Bring a team or a group of people from your company together to collaborate. It is better to bring in a diverse group to cover all aspects.

While you can create a business model canvas with whiteboards, sticky notes, and markers, using an online platform like Creately will ensure that your work can be accessed from anywhere, anytime. Create a workspace in Creately and provide editing/reviewing permission to start.

Step 2: Set the context Clearly define the purpose and the scope of what you want to map out and visualize in the business model canvas. Narrow down the business or idea you want to analyze with the team and its context.

Step 3: Draw the canvas Divide the workspace into nine equal sections to represent the nine building blocks of the business model canvas.

Step 4: Identify the key building blocks Label each section as customer segment, value proposition, channels, customer relationships, revenue streams, key resources, key activities, and cost structure.

Step 5: Fill in the canvas Work with your team to fill in each section of the canvas with relevant information. You can use data, keywords, diagrams, and more to represent ideas and concepts.

Step 6: Analyze and iterate Once your team has filled in the business model canvas, analyze the relationships to identify strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and challenges. Discuss improvements and make adjustments as necessary.

Step 7: Finalize Finalize and use the model as a visual reference to communicate and align your business model with stakeholders. You can also use the model to make informed and strategic decisions and guide your business.

What are the Key Building Blocks of the Business Model Canvas?

There are nine building blocks in the business model canvas and they are:

Customer Segments

Customer relationships, revenue streams, key activities, key resources, key partners, cost structure.

• Value Proposition

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.  

Let’s look into what the 9 components of the BMC are in more detail.

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.

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.

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

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 to Avoid When Creating a Business Model Canvas

One thing to remember when creating a business model canvas is that it is a concise and focused document. It is designed to capture key elements of a business model and, as such, should not include detailed information. Some of the items to avoid include,

• Detailed financial projections such as revenue forecasts, cost breakdowns, and financial ratios. Revenue streams and cost structure should be represented at a high level, providing an overview rather than detailed projections.
• Detailed operational processes such as standard operating procedures of a business. The BMC focuses on the strategic and conceptual aspects.
• Comprehensive marketing or sales strategies. The business model canvas does not provide space for comprehensive marketing or sales strategies. These should be included in marketing or sales plans, which allow you to expand into more details.
• Legal or regulatory details such as intellectual property, licensing agreements, or compliance requirements. As these require more detailed and specialized attention, they are better suited to be addressed in separate legal or regulatory documents.
• Long-term strategic goals or vision statements. While the canvas helps to align the business model with the overall strategy, it should focus on the immediate and tangible aspects.
• Irrelevant or unnecessary information that does not directly relate to the business model. Including extra or unnecessary information can clutter the BMC and make it less effective in communicating the core elements.

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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FAQs About the Business Model Canvas

• Use clear and concise language
• Use visual-aids
• Customize for your audience
• Highlight key insights
• Be open to feedback and discussion

More Related Articles

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.

Business Model Canvas Template

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What is Business Model Canvas?

The Business Model Canvas is a strategic management and planning tool that provides a visual framework for describing, analyzing, and designing a business’s key building blocks and how they interact to create value.

What is the purpose of Business Model Canvas?

The purpose of a Business Model Canvas is to describe, analyze, and design a business model and outline high-level strategic decisions needed to get a business or product onto the market. Designed by the economic theorist Alexander Osterwalder and the computer scientist Yves Pigneur in 2005, the template comes in the form of an intuitive one-page business plan summary consisting of the nine key building blocks, from customer segments to cost structure.

When to use Business Model Canvas?

The Business Model Canvas is an adaptable tool with many applications. It’s commonly employed in the following scenarios:

• Initiating a business: The Business Model Canvas helps flesh out your business concept and assess whether you should proceed with it or consider modifying your approach.
• Enhancing an established business: If you’re dissatisfied with your business’s performance, the Business Model Canvas can assist in pinpointing areas that require improvement.
• Introducing a new product or service: The Business Model Canvas provides insights into how your new product or service aligns with your existing business and the necessary adjustments to ensure its success within the organization.

How can Business Model Canvas benefit established businesses?

• Structural Guidance: It provides a visual framework for structuring your business model, ensuring that the canvas evolves in line with your strategy.
• Value Proposition Focus: The Canvas emphasizes the core value proposition, keeping your business aligned with its fundamental purpose and acting as a guiding principle.
• Efficient Planning: Whether you have a defined model or are exploring alternatives, the BMC template enables rapid and efficient completion, promoting swift ideation and iterative development.
• Holistic Understanding: It offers a comprehensive view of the interconnected elements within your business, enhancing your perception of it as a cohesive system.
• Effective Communication: BMC can be easily shared with teams, stakeholders, advisors, and partners, facilitating clear feedback and understanding.

What should be included in Business Model Canvas (BMC)?

The Business Model Canvas should include 9 sections, each outlining the most strategically important elements of a business. The sections are as follows:

Customer Segments: What customer groups will be interested in your product or service?

Key Partnerships: Who are your partners and suppliers that make your business model work?

Key Activities: What activities do you require to make the business model successful?

Revenue Streams: How are you going to drive revenue?

Value Propositions: Why will customers buy and use your product?

Channels: How are you planning to deliver, promote, and sell your product or service?

Key Resources: What resources do you need to deliver on the value propositions ?

Customer Relationships: What customer communication channels are you planning to have?

Cost Structure: What will drive business’ expenses? How are they related to revenue?

How to create Business Model Canvas online?

For your convenience, you can quickly map out your business plan by filling in all 9 boxes of the BMC template online. There are no strict rules on which component of the BMC to spell out first. You may start by describing key partners, activities, resources, and value propositions and then move on to identifying your customer base and communication channels. The expenses and revenue boxes can be filled at the final stage.

Tips for Creating Effective Business Model Canvas

Here are four key tips to help you make the most of the Business Model Canvas:

Keep it simple. Your canvas should be clear, concise, and easy to understand. Avoid overwhelming it with unnecessary details. Focus on the core components that define your business, such as customer segments, value propositions, channels, and revenue streams. By keeping it simple, you’ll be better equipped to communicate your strategy to others and maintain a clear vision for your business.

Continuously update your canvas. Make it a habit to revisit and update your canvas regularly. Market conditions change, customer needs evolve, and competitors adapt. By regularly updating your canvas, you can ensure that your business remains aligned with current realities and emerging opportunities.

Collaborate with your team. Creating a Business Model Canvas is not a solo endeavor. Collaboration with your team is crucial. Gather input from various departments and individuals, as their perspectives can provide valuable insights. By involving your team, you can tap into their expertise and ensure everyone is on the same page regarding the company’s strategy and goals.

Test and validate your model. A business model is only as good as its real-world performance. It’s essential to test and validate hypotheses it contains. Experiment with different strategies, measure their outcomes and adjust your canvas accordingly. This iterative process of testing and refining will help you discover what works and what doesn’t, allowing your business to adapt and thrive.

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Business Model Canvas

Start creating your Canvas Business Model now. A strategic management template used for developing new business models and documenting existing ones.

Download Business Canvas for Free

These are PNG/PDF ready-for-download files. Try to edit your Business Canvas Model: access a bigger screen to access our desktop app!

User-friendly Canvas Editor

Save hours of work with our intuitive Business Model Canvas editor. Specifically designed for entrepreneurs and business professionals, this free Business Model Canvas generator simplifies the strategy-building process. Minimize time spent on formatting and focus more on your innovative ideas, accelerating your journey from concept to reality.

High-quality Image and PowerPoint Export

No more manual transferring of your business strategy into presentations. With just one click, export your Business Model Canvas into a high-quality image. Get your business model ready for pitches, brainstorming sessions, team briefings, and stakeholder meetings in no time.

Free Business Model Canvas Maker

The Business Model Canvas (BMC) is a powerful strategic management and entrepreneurial tool that allows you to visualize, design, and reinvent your business model. Developed by Alexander Osterwalder and Yves Pigneur, it provides a holistic, visual overview of your business on a single page. It's designed to be easily understandable and to facilitate business strategy discussions. The BMC comprises nine essential building blocks:

• Customer Segments: Different groups of people or organizations your business aims to reach and serve.
• Value Propositions: The bundle of products and services that create value for specific Customer Segments.
• Channels: How your business communicates with and reaches its Customer Segments to deliver its Value Proposition.
• Customer Relationships: The types of relationships a company establishes with specific Customer Segments.
• Revenue Streams: The cash a company generates from each Customer Segment.
• Key Resources: The most important assets required to make a business model work.
• Key Activities: The most important things a company must do to make its business model work.
• Key Partnerships: The network of suppliers and partners that make the business model work.
• Cost Structure: All costs incurred to operate a business model.

Using these nine segments, you can outline your business's value proposition, infrastructure, customers, and finances, creating a snapshot of your organization's strategy and operational effectiveness.

Enter the Business Model Canvas generator tool. This online tool streamlines the process of creating your own Business Model Canvas, allowing you to concentrate on brainstorming and strategizing rather than formatting a document. Its intuitive interface lets you easily populate each segment of the canvas, helping you quickly visualize and iterate on your business model.

The Business Model Canvas generator tool not only simplifies the creation of a BMC, but it also supports collaboration. Teams can work together on the same canvas in real-time, leading to efficient brainstorming sessions and ensuring everyone is aligned with the business strategy. Furthermore, it allows for easy exporting of your canvas to high-quality images or PowerPoint presentations, saving you valuable time.

The Business Model Canvas is a dynamic and versatile tool, and the Business Model Canvas generator enhances this by providing a user-friendly, collaborative, and secure platform to craft your business model. Whether you're an entrepreneur in the early stages of a startup or a business professional rethinking your business strategy, the Business Model Canvas generator tool can be a game-changer in your planning process.

Business Model Canvas Template

Determine and align your business priorities in a simple and visual way with the Business Model Canvas Template.

Trusted by 65M+ users and leading companies

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 (BMC)  displays a business model, and it contains nine blocks: fill in each one using stickies, links, sketches, pictures, and videos. Use this business model template collaboratively with your team to clearly explain and visualize your business.

How to use a Business Model Canvas template: 9 key elements

The canvas provides nine key business elements to illustrate, summarize, and track. The nine 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 them, 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.

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When do you 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 whether the business is new. The Business Model 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.

5 Benefits of creating a Business Model Canvas online

Filling in the BMC template makes it easy to visually and collaboratively outline the core aspects of your business's unique value proposition. Here are a few benefits of using the template:

1. Provides a structure for ideation

The Business Model Canvas is extremely useful for structuring your business model visually. This helps at different stages of defining your business canvas and makes it easy to keep up-to-date as strategies shift.

2. Focuses you on your value proposition

It can be easy to get distracted by 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 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. Fast to complete

Whether or not your business model is clearly defined or you are testing out different business models, the Business Canvas 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 template, 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 relatively straightforward and easy to understand.

Can I customize the template to suit my business or add more details?

Yes, you can customize the Business Model Canvas template to match your specific business needs and add additional notes or details as necessary.

How often should I update or review the BMC for my business?

The Business Model Canvas (BMC) is a dynamic tool that should be reviewed and updated regularly to reflect changes in your business model or market.

Can I use the BMC template for both startups and established businesses?

Yes, the Business Model template is suitable for both startups and established companies. It's a versatile tool that can be used for business model development, refinement, and innovation at any stage.

Is there a way to link external resources or documentation directly in the Business Model Canvas template?

Yes, in Miro, you can embed external links directly onto the canvas. This is particularly useful if you want to provide more detailed information or references for specific model sections or business cases.

Can I export my Business Model Canvas to share with stakeholders not using Miro?

Absolutely! Miro provides multiple export options for your canvas. You can save your Business Model Canvas as an image (PNG, JPEG), a PDF, or even a CSV file for the data.

Are there any integrations available to enhance my use of the Business Model Canvas template in Miro?

Yes, Miro offers a suite of integrations with popular tools and platforms to streamline your workflow. For example, you can integrate with tools like Slack for team communication, Google Drive for document storage, or Jira for project management. Using these integrations, you can seamlessly bring in external data, notify team members of updates, or even automate specific tasks directly within your Business Model Canvas board.

Get started with this template right now.

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What are you building, why are building it, and who are you building it for? Those are the big pictures questions that guide great companies and teams toward success — and Lean UX helps you find the answers. Especially helpful during project research, design, and planning, this tool lets you quickly make product improvements and solve business problems, leading to a more customer-centric product. This template will let you create a Lean UX canvas structured around eight key elements: Business problem, Business outcome, Users and customers, User benefits, Solution ideas, Hypothesis, Assumptions, Experimentation.

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The 20 Minute Business Plan: Business Model Canvas Made Easy

Table of Contents

What’s the Business Model Canvas?

How do you get started, why use the business model canvas, when should you use the business model canvas, how do you use the canvas to facilitate alignment and focus, 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, analysis & next steps, example a: enable quiz (startup), example b: hvac in a hurry (enterprise), using the google doc’s/powerpoint template.

If you’re already familiar, you can skip to the next section, ‘ How do I get started ?’.

The Business Model Canvas (BMC) gives you the structure of a business plan without the overhead and the improvisation of a ‘back of the napkin’ sketch without  the fuzziness (and coffee rings).

Together these elements provide a pretty coherent view of a business’ key 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?

The Canvas is popular with entrepreneurs and intrapreneurs for business model innovation. Fundamentally, it delivers three things:

• Focus : Stripping away the 40+ pages of ‘stuff’ in a traditional business plan, I’ve seen users of the BMC improve their clarify and focus on what’s driving the business (and what’s non-core and getting in the way).
• Flexibility : It’s easier to facilitate alignment by tweaking the model and trying things (from a planning perspective) with something that’s sitting on a single page.
• Transparency: Your team will have a much easier time understanding your business model and be much more likely to buy in to your vision when it’s laid out on a single page.

The first time you engage with the canvas, I recommend printing it out or projecting it on a whiteboard and going to town (see below for a PDF). However, if you’re ready to put together something a little more formal (for distribution, presentation, etc.) here’s a Google App’s template you can copy or download as MSFT PowerPoint:

*Omnigraffle a popular diagramming program for the Mac. It has a fairly easy to use layering environment which you may find handy as you want to tinker with and produce different views of the canvas. You can try Omnigraffle for free (the basic paid version is $99).

The short answer is this: because it’s simple yet focused and that means more of your audience is likely to pay attention to it. Also, it’s highly amenable to change on the margins.

This matters a lot- more than most people think. A company that wants to innovate has to be ready to be wrong . A good VC in early stage investments succeeds with a prevalence of something like a 1/10. If you think you’re doing a lot better than that with substantial new innovation investments (a startup or a new line of business inside an enterprise) you’re probably throwing good money after bad.

Transparency, simplicity, and focus are great facilitators of the ‘creative destruction’ a good innovation program needs, and the Canvas does a nice job of delivering that across lines of business. For a large corporation with multiple lines of business at various levels of maturity, I actually prefer the Corporate Innovation Canvas as a starting point. However, from there, the Business Model Canvas does an excellent job of bringing clarity to the questions of how, for example, a given line of business creates focus and then implements it in an innovation-friendly way with, for example, ‘objectives and key results’ OKR’s . It’s a central element in the ‘innovation stack’ where an enterprise is able to go from priority innovation areas (with the Corporate Innovation Canvas) to testable business model designs (with the Business Model Canvas) to product charters (with an agile team charter ) to individual learning pathways to cultivate the talent they need to execute.

Even more important than the top down cascading of objectives with testable results and KPI’s is the improvement in the feedback in outcomes that helps the overall innovation program learn and adapt quickly. With layer appropriate innovation metrics, it’s much easier for the achievements of individuals to cohere (or not) to the job of teams and in turn from there to lines of business back up to corporate objectives. This helps both help the company’s talent understand where they might benefit from more practice and learning as well as what constitutes success in their individual roles and collaborations.

Anytime you want to have a focused discussion about what matters to a given line of business, the Business Model Canvas is a good place to start. The Canvas has received a lot of attention as a tool for startup entrepreneurship. While this may be one of the ‘sexier’ and more ostensibly simple applications of the Canvas, I actually think it’s one of the least compelling. For a startup, the only thing that matters is product/market fit, which the Canvas represents as a set of relationships between Customer Segments and Value Propositions. The Canvas doesn’t do a bad job of describing this, but it’s kind of overkill- the whole left side of the Canvas which describes the delivery infrastructure is mostly irrelevant for startups that are still finding product market fit, since all that’s provisional about where (and whether) they arrive at product/market fit.

Where the Canvas really shines is describing an existing line of business to answer questions like: a) What does product/market fit mean for this business? b) Where have we focused our company building and is it still relevant to ‘a’? c) What are our key revenue, cost, and profit drivers, and how do we improve those?

Now we’re taking! Whether you’re an ‘intrapreneur’ exploring a new extension to the business or a ‘digital transformation’/IT consultant trying to facilitate a discussion about what ‘strategic IT’ means and how you’ll know if you achieve it, the Canvas is a quick and productive place to anchor such a discussion.

First and foremost, I’d try it out for yourself. Fill out the elements the business you’re working on and then ask yourself ‘Does this make sense?’ ‘What are the most important linkages and components of the model?’

From there, you may just want to use the Canvas you sketch to facilitate alignment on some other topic. However, if you’re working with a team on a new venture or with a client on a new project, you may then want to take it from the top and facilitate a workshop where you facilitate a fresh take on the Canvas, levering your experience thinking through it once. The link below will take you to a related curriculum item that has workshop slides, prep. items, and agenda.

LINK TO WORKSHOP PAGE

Otherwise, the next sections (10 steps) offer a tutorial on how to think through a business model design with the Canvas. The closing sections offer notes on how to use the Google Doc’s/PowerPoint and Omnigraffle templates.

Output : a list of Personas, organized by Customer Segment if you have more than one segment. I recommend trying to prioritize them- Who would you pitch first if you could only pitch one? Who next? And so forth…

Notes : If you’re spending a lot of time on this first item, that’s OK (and it’s probably good). The Canvas is a tool, not a strategy and not all the nine blocks are equal. The pairing of Customer Segments and Value Propositions is really the ‘independent variable’ that should be driving everything else in your business model. When I use the Canvas in my Venture Design classes, we usually spend all of the first session (plus time for field research) on Customer Segments and Value Propositions.

For example, at Leonid, an enterprise software company I founded, we thought our largest customers worked with us because of the cost savings we offered and our knowledge about best practices. It turned out that was mostly wrong- reducing their time and risk to get new services to market was the most important. It’s not that the other things weren’t important, but they weren’t the top Value Proposition. That made a difference on how we sold the product and how we focused on operationalizing it for customers.

This mapping says ‘We have 3 personas. Persona 1 cares about VP 1 & 2. Persona 2 cares about VP 2; Persona 3 cares about VP3. (One segment only so segments not noted)’.

Output : a prioritized list of Value Propositions and linkages from each Personas to the VP’s relevant to them.

Notes: Again, this pairing is the key driver for most business models and if you want more on how to describe and discovery what to put in this part of the canvas, I recommend this: Tutorial- Personas .

Maybe you feel like you’re in good shape on understanding the customer’s world but you don’t have any validation on whether the Value Propositions are clicking because this is a new venture? If you’re not sure, that’s OK and good for you for acknowledging the uncertainty! It’s the responsible thing to do. The key is to write down those assumptions, prioritize them, and figure out the quickest and cheapest way to prove or disprove them. That’s what Lean/Startup is about and there are resources here to help you with that, if you’d like- Tutorial: Lean Startup .

Channels includes entities you use to communicate your proposition to your segments, as well as entities through which you sell product and later service customers (see AIDAOR journey below). For example, if you sell bulbs for light houses and there’s a website all light house attendants purchase equipment, that site is a sales Channel. If you use Google AdWords, that’s a Channel, too (for getting attention). If you use a third party company to service the bulbs when they break, that’s also a Channel.

Output : a list of important Channels, linked to Personas or Segments if they differ substantially. Make notes on what steps are relevant for each- promotion, sales, service, etc. See Note this section for more structure on this.

Notes: Channels and the next item, Customer Relationships, define your interface with the Customer. It’s important to think all the way through the customer ‘journey’ in specific terms. For most businesses, the way they get a customer’s attention is different than the way they onboard them or support them over the long term. For this, I recommend the AIDA.OR framework (attention-interest-desire-action-onboarding-retention) and storyboarding your way through it. Here’s a post explaining all that- Storyboarding AIDA(OR) . If you don’t want to do the storyboards, I recommend at least making notes about your customer journey through the AIDA(OR) steps.

Another consideration is whether your channels will give you enough visibility into the user, including, for example, a way to follow up with users. Not sure? Document your assumptions Lean Startup style and figure out how you’ll quickly prove or disprove them.

Output : a description of Customer Relationships, with notes if they differ across Customers (between Segments or among Personas within a Segment) or across the customer journey.

Notes: If you’re a startup, be sure to document and review critical assumptions here. Also, the focal items are in a kind of specific order- you should validate your Segments and their relationship to the Propositions above all else. If this means you provide personal support in the early days (a ‘concierge test’ in Lean Startup terms) to do discovery and validation of Segments and Propositions, that’s OK. You can subsequently test the Customer Relationship models. (Here’s a post on using consulting as a concierge vehicle in B2B if you want more detail: Consulting as B2B Concierge Vehicle ).

Notes : If you have a startup or are re-engineering the business, this is a time to look at where you’re driving revenue and whether it aligns with the rest of your focal points. Are you charging on value? Perceived value? They say everyone loves their banker; hates their lawyer. Why is that? Is there an actionable analog in your business?

For a product-driven business, this probably includes ongoing learning about users and new techniques to build better product. If you’re focused on doing a bunch of things for a particular set of customers (ex: comprehensive IT for law offices), this probably includes maintaining superior expertise on the segment(s) and creating or acquiring products and services that are a good fit, whatever that entails. For an infrastructure business (ex: electric utility), it probably includes keeping the infrastructure working reliably and making it more efficient.

Outputs : a list of Key Activities linked to your business’ Value Propositions.

Notes : One question this analysis should raise for you is whether or not certain Activities and Resources are actually core, actually focal to your business, something you’ll want to think through .

Outputs : a list of Key Resources linked to your business’ Key Activities.

Notes : Product-driven businesses have a differentiated product of some sort. Rovio, the company that makes the popular app Angry Birds, is such a company. Key Resources in product-driven businesses are typically key talent in critical areas of expertise and accumulated intellectual property related to their offering.

Scope-driven businesses create some synergy around a particular Customer Segment. For example, if you started a business that would take care of all the IT needs for law firms, that would be a scope-driven business. These businesses typically have key knowledge about their segment, a repeatable set of processes, and sometimes infrastructure, like service centers.

Infrastructure-driven businesses achieve economies of scale in a specific, highly repeatable area. Telecommunications is traditionally an infrastructure business. Retailers focused on retail, like Walgreens or Costco, are primarily infrastructure-driven businesses. The Key Resources for this type of business are, you guessed it, various types of physical or virtual infrastructure.

Let’s take a single product category: diapers. The Honest Company or another innovating around compostable or otherwise more environmentally friendly diapers would be a product-driven take on the category. Procter & Gamble which has a cradle-to-grave strategy for providing consumer products is a scope-based take; so are various baby-focused retailers. Kimberly-Clark (wood pulp) or DuPont (chemicals and polymers) are both infrastructure-based takes: diapers is just another way to sell something they produce at scale with relatively little differentiation.

If there are major cost components that don’t map to a Key Activity, I’d take a closer look at those costs.

Output : a list of Cost Structure elements with notes on their relationship to Key Activities.

Congratulations- you have a working canvas! The section below offers a few analytical ideas and suggestions for 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 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 if and how you have/maintain a long term competitive advantage.

For this, I like Michael Porter’s Five Forces framework ( Wikipedia Page ; see also Chapter 2 of ‘ Starting a Tech Business ‘). Try walking through the Five Forces for your company and then bounce back to your canvas. How does it all hang together?

Next Steps Every business is a work in progress (sorry, I try to avoid saying things like that but it seemed to fit here). As you go through the canvas, you may encounter areas that give you trouble. The table below summarizes a few of the most common that I see in my work as a mentor and coach:

Want to make innovation an everyday thing?

What is Enable Quiz?

Enable Quiz is a (fictional) startup that’s building a lightweight quizzing application for companies that hire a lot of technical talent (engineers). Their take is:

For hiring managers who need to evaluate technical talent, Enable Quiz is a talent assessment system that allows for quick and easy assessment of topical understanding in key engineering topics. Unlike formal certifications or ad hoc questions, our product allows for lightweight but consistent assessments of technical talent.

Why and how would Enable Quiz use the Business Model Canvas?

They have a small team, but arriving at a clear, shared understanding of what they’re after is still important. That said, it’s important that the way they talk about this is both highly visible and amenable to change. Given that, the Canvas is a good fit.

The Business Model Canvas at Enable Quiz

This page shows Enable Quiz’s current working view of product/market fit:

What is HVAC in a Hurry?

HVAC in a Hurry is a mid-sized enterprise that services commercial HVAC (heating, ventilation, and air conditioning) systems. Their take on the business is:

For facilities managers & business owners who need their heating & cooling systems managed and repaired, HVAC in a Hurry is a full service provider that allows for easy and responsible management of a business’ HVAC systems. Unlike smaller firms, our commitment to best practices and training allows customers to worry less and realize superior total cost of ownership for their HVAC systems.

Why and how would HVAC in a Hurry use the Business Model Canvas?

HVAC in a Hurry has a working version of product/market fit. However, their industry is competitive and successful firms increasingly use technology to improve customer experience (CX) and reduce cost (overhead) in their operations. HVAC in a Hurry has a small ‘digital transformation’ team that’s working on digital applications to improve the company’s performance. This team decided to use the Canvas to ‘manage upwards’ in order to facilitate better discussions about where they should focus, how that aligns with the business as a whole, and what success definition makes sense for them.

The Business Model Canvas at HVAC in a Hurry

Here’s their current view of product/market fit:

If you’re not familiar with it, Google Doc’s is a web-based office suite, similar to MS Office. If you have a gmail account, you can access it (no guarantees- that was the case last time I checked).

First, you’ll want to link to the template file: BUSINESS MODEL CANVAS TEMPLATE IN GOOGLE DOC’S .

Once you’re accessed the file, you can make make it your own by going to the File menu and either ‘Make a copy…’, creating a copy in your own Google App’s domain or you can use the ‘Download as…’ option to download it as PowerPoint (and a few other formats).

What’s your experience with the Canvas? How have you used it? What worked? What didn’t? Please consider posting a comment!

Copyright © 2022 Alex Cowan · All rights reserved.

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How to Create a Business Model Canvas (With Template)

May 19, 2021 - 10 min read

Do you want to create a simple business plan? Something comprehensive, flexible, and easy to scribble on a napkin? You can do that with a business model canvas.

Every business has ever-changing, diverse interests. Illustrating all of this on a single sheet of paper may sound challenging — but by using a business model canvas template, your team can focus on the key elements of your business to ensure nothing slips through the cracks.

Business model canvas explained

"Lengthy business plans often increase the risk of failure," wrote Alex Osterwalder in his 2008 book “Business Model Generation.”

The business model canvas offers a way to avoid this, providing a simplified version of a business plan. A business model canvas is a simple, visual framework that helps teams outline the most fundamental elements of a business.

As a handy business tool, teams can use a business model canvas to map the nine core areas of a business, such as customer needs, value proposition, and platforms for customer acquisition.

This article will explain the business model canvas, its benefits, and how it can help your team develop a successful high-level business strategy and actionable roadmap .

How can a business model canvas help your business?

Many teams are so overwhelmed with operational issues that they don’t have time to focus on the core business strategy .

Utilizing the business model canvas helps create a unified framework that depicts this strategy alongside an action plan that teams can follow.

But how do you know if you need a business model canvas? If you are starting a business or even toying with an idea, a BMC can create a powerful visual representation of your concept. A business model canvas can also be a handy reference for your team as they move towards successful business outcomes. Here are five more ways in which a business model canvas can help your company.

It’s simple and easy to follow

Whether you have a business idea or are managing a large enterprise, having an easy-to-follow business plan can be immensely helpful. As a precise one-page document, teams can modify specific business model canvas elements as they go along without completely redoing a 50- or 100-page document.

Focused on being actionable 

Every business plan needs to be actionable. Using a business model canvas helps you accurately define your organization’s core value proposition and keep it aligned to your business strategy.

Your focus could be to achieve profitability in the first year or gain a large market share. Stay competitive by defining actionable steps for your team within the business model canvas.

Flexible and scalable as the business evolves 

No business stays the same forever but evolves as it interacts with diverse market dynamics, competitors, product innovations, and changing consumer needs.

To take your idea to market, you need a tool that connects the dots between what your customers want, your business's unique offering, and the desired profitability streams.

By creating a business model canvas template, you instantly get an edge over other market players engrossed in lengthy business plan documents.

Puts the customer first

Ignoring customers sets businesses up for failure . Companies flounder if they direct their energies solely towards making a great product or service. With a business model canvas template, your focus stays on the ultimate end-users of your product. 

Having a business blueprint will force team members to think about what customers want, the primary issues they need help with, and how your product or service can do that. 

Helps get team and executive buy-in

23% of businesses fail without the right team on their side. Every company needs team members with a diverse mix of skills, experiences, and talents.

Companies require a solid business blueprint for hiring team members or bringing in investors. Having a business model canvas can help get everyone on board with your organization’s core vision. Potential employees and investors can visualize how the different organizational parts interact and see how they can become an integral part of the company.

Promotes focus on the unique value proposition of your business

19% of companies fail due to being outperformed by their competitors. If there's no difference between your product and one from another firm, why should customers come to your company? Every business needs a clear value proposition that helps them stand out — that's where a business model canvas template comes in.

When you look at the nine core elements of a business model canvas (explained below), you'll quickly notice some factors are controllable to a certain extent, while others are more fractious.

Your company's core value proposition sits right in the middle. It acts as the central pillar around which all other elements exist, defining the fundamental nature of the business.

What goes into each segment?

To fill out a business model canvas, you should know what goes into each of the nine fundamental segments.

Have a business model canvas template ready before you and your team start brainstorming on each of these elements (you'll find one below) and then add the research and data into the relevant sections. 

Customer segments In this fundamental business area, teams identify the core individuals they will help with their product or service. To do this, they create two to three buyer personas — potential customers that a business seeks to serve.

A buyer persona is a simple but detailed description of a prospective business customer. It assists with capturing the customer’s real-life problems and motivations, helping the business deliver what they want.

Value proposition The value proposition is the ultimate value that a customer will get from your product or service. It seeks to answer the question, “Why will a customer buy?” Here are a few popular value propositions for any organization:

• Customization ability
• Unique product design
• Innovation in product or service
• Exceptional service or product status
• Affordable pricing and clear pricing model definition

Channels In a business model canvas, channels are the platforms through which a company sells its product or service to end-users. To identify the best channel for your business, look at how you plan to connect with your customers.

A few possible channels can be:

• A self-owned retail store
• Direct sales staff
• Affiliate marketing platforms
• Google Adsense

A business can either own its channels or partner with other companies that have their own channels.

Customer relationships Customer relationships in a business model canvas define how the company will obtain, retain, and increase new customers. Let's take a look at how customer relationships are built:

• Identify how to obtain customers and from which platforms (e.g., Google, Facebook ads)
• Gain clarity on how to retain existing customers using different techniques (e.g., exceptional customer service)
• Discover how to increase the customer base of the business (e.g., sending text or email notifications to prompt website visits)

Revenue streams Revenue streams help the business owner decide how to generate revenue and achieve their predefined organizational goals . Key decisions with revenue streams include:

• Choosing from a one-time payment model or monthly subscriptions
• Keeping a free plus paid model or a wholly paid product or service with a free trial
• How payment from customers will be received — website payments, PayPal, or in-store

Key resources Key resources in your business model canvas represent the assets that are vital to your company’s operation. Business assets can include anything from the below categories:

• Physical assets , including machines, buildings, IT hardware, and vehicles
• Intellectual assets , including patents, copyrights, partnerships, brands, and employee skills
• Human assets , including talented employees in knowledge industries such as IT, law, and content marketing
• Financial assets , like cash balances in the bank or lines of credit

Key activities Want to make your business canvas model work? Make sure to list the key activities that will help expand the business's core value proposition. Key activities can come from any of the below categories:

• Production: How you will deliver your end product to the customers. You may need to order more stock or upgrade materials
• Platform: For example, the software used to sell your product, which may require upgrades or maintenance
• Problem-solving: For example, designing innovative solutions for issues that your customers face

Key partners Every business has some non-core activities that should preferably be outsourced. Key partners are the companies or individuals that complete these non-core activities.

Take a company like Facebook, for example — its key activity is to upgrade and maintain its platform. It doesn't create its own ads, so it also needs to strike deals with companies that wish to advertise on its platform. 

Similarly, it doesn’t create its content — the users do. The primary reasons for choosing key partners can be:

• Achieving economies of scale
• Mitigating risk and unpredictability in business
• Acquiring resources and advertisements for its business (e.g., ads for Facebook)

Cost structure Once the key activities are outlined on the business model canvas, it's time to assign cost structures. Be clear and precise with the estimated business costs of the planned activities to ensure you reach your profitability goal.

Business model canvas example and template

• Customer segments: Facebook's customers can be divided into two distinct categories — advertisers and platform users
• Value proposition: The primary reasons platform users come to Facebook. Users feel connected to friends and families, while companies get more leads through advertising on the platform
• Channels: The website where all data is stored
• Customer relationships: Facebook incentivizes users to stay on the platform through notifications and new features, leading more companies to advertise on it
• Revenue streams: Facebook earns money through advertising, while companies gain new customers from Facebook ads
• Key resources: Facebook's key resources are its platforms — Facebook.com, the Messenger application, and Facebook Ads Manager for advertisers
• Key activities: Maintaining the website and its infrastructure are two of Facebook’s key strategic activities
• Key partnerships: Facebook's key partners are its users and advertisers
• Cost structures: Major costs incurred by Facebook include managing the software, backend engineering operations, product development, regular operations, and staff salaries

How to create a business model canvas (with template)

Ready to create your business model canvas? Before you begin, take some time to brainstorm answers to these questions related to the nine core fundamental areas of the canvas. Here's a simple business model canvas template exercise that can help your team get started.

• Customer segments: Can you identify your potential customers?
• Channels: Once the product or service is ready, how will customers discover it?
• Key partnerships: Can any non-core business activities be outsourced?
• Customer relationships: How will your business generate leads and retain and increase your customer base?
• Cost structures: Can the business classify its main costs and expenses into fixed and variable? Is there a way to align costs with the core value proposition and planned revenues?
• Revenue streams: Has the business decided on a profit margin? How will it make money?
• Key resources: Which core resources are critical for the business to succeed?
• Value proposition: Why will customers choose your business? Does the company satisfy any particular need with its product or service?
• Key activities: Are there any activities that help your business deliver its unique value proposition to customers?

Do I need a lean model canvas? 

If your business is still an idea or in its infancy, choosing a lean model canvas makes more sense.

Inspired by the business model canvas, the lean model canvas was created by Ash Maurya . It is a one-page business plan template that distills the lean startup methodology into the original business model canvas. 

Lean model canvas assimilates multiple essential data points to develop a simpler, start-up optimized version of a business model canvas. It adds four more building blocks to the business model canvas, namely:

• Problem: Identify the problem faced by the customer and focus on solving it
• Solution: Start with a minimum viable product that helps solve the customer problem effectively
• Unfair advantage: List the barriers to entry in a specific sector and your company’s competitive advantages
• Key metrics: Focus on one goal at one time to ensure you’re doing a good job

Lean model canvas drops four elements from the original business model canvas — key partners, key activities, key resources, and customer relationships. 

While the original illustrates a more comprehensive business approach, the lean model canvas has a sharper customer orientation. Many start-ups prefer the lean model canvas to a traditional business plan for building an actionable roadmap.

The lean model canvas is a great fit for younger companies or those working with a tight time frame or budget to market with a more targeted problem resolution approach.

Why you should use Wrike to build a business model canvas 

The business model canvas’ nine building blocks clearly illustrate the core business areas and their interrelationships. Whether you're trying to figure out the model for a company with three employees or 50,000, a business model canvas can be very useful.

Begin by mapping out the most crucial information about your business, then link the blocks to ensure every value proposition is linked to a revenue stream and a specific customer segment.

Using Wrike to build your business model canvas template, you can iterate faster, communicate with ease, and enable organization-wide success . With a centralized hub, your teams can configure custom dashboards easily and produce better quality work using premade templates . Implement what you've learned about the business model canvas by trying out a free two-week trial of Wrike today.

Yuvika Iyer

Yuvika is a freelance writer who specializes in recruitment and resume writing.

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As businesses scale and grow, they often have requirements that cannot be addressed internally — whether because of resource or budgetary constraints. Business process outsourcing (BPO) can be a solution that enables organizations to grow and scale effectively. But exactly what is business process outsourcing? What are the risks associated with the practice, and how can corporate leaders use business process as a service (BPaaS) to their advantage?  BPO meaning: What is business process outsourcing? Business process outsourcing describes a practice where specific tasks, functions, or processes within a company are contracted out to third-party organizations and vendors. These outside organizations have expertise in their specified area, which allows them to manage tasks and processes on behalf of other businesses.  For example, a marketing agency, during their resource planning process, may choose to outsource their payroll and accounting functions in order to focus on the core competencies of their organization.  There are three types of business process outsourcing: offshore, nearshore, and onshore outsourcing.  Offshore outsourcing: The function is managed by an operator or vendor in a different country (often far away and in another time zone) Nearshore outsourcing: The function is managed by an operator or vendor in a neighboring/closeby country Onshore outsourcing: The function is managed by an operator or vendor within the same country — but could be in another state or region  Business functions ideal for outsourcing may include admin, customer service, PR, data entry, HR, content moderation, and more.  Business process outsourcing can improve efficiency and present significant cost savings for companies that may not have the resources to hire a team of in-house customer service specialists or payroll professionals, for example.  In fact, Deloitte research indicates that 59% of companies who outsource say they do so with cost savings as a primary motivator. What is business process as service (BPaaS)? Business process as a service enables BPO by managing specific functions through cloud-based delivery systems. The global BPaaS market is extensive and expected to reach a value of $77.8 billion by 2023. Some well-known names in BPaaS include Accenture and IBM.  BPaaS can help manage:  Finance and accounting  IT services  eCommerce Customer service processes BPaaS leverages the capabilities of infrastructure as a service (IaaS), software as a service (SaaS), and platform as a service (PaaS) solutions in order to help companies manage and address their business objectives.  Business process as a service also relies on automation in many cases, reducing the need for manual intervention. Who needs business process as a service (BPaaS)? Business process as a service can be beneficial for organizations across sizes and industries. For example, instead of hiring an outside firm to manage their finance and accounting needs, a company might instead execute this function via a cloud-based platform licensed through a monthly subscription model.  This naturally brings costs down and offers a more flexible and scalable way of managing operations.  Any company looking to manage processes without the costs associated with hiring, training, and managing an internal team or department may find that BPaaS is an effective solution.  What are the benefits of outsourcing business processes? There are many benefits associated with outsourcing business processes. These benefits include cost and time savings, efficiency gains, the ability to focus on core business competencies, and more. Be sure to keep these in mind when contemplating outsourcing professional services key success factors, and which professional services agency is right for you.Cost savingsHigh costs associated with labor, training, management, and infrastructure can be a barrier as an organization scales and grows its operations. Outsourcing non-core processes can enable businesses to meet their objectives and operational needs while minimizing these internal costs and time commitments. Access to expertise and improved efficiencyBPO gives businesses access to vendors that have the necessary expertise, equipment, and personnel needed to execute a project or function on their behalf. This expertise means they are better equipped to provide cutting-edge, compliant, and effective services.  Ability to focus on key business competencies As a company grows and scales, there is often a need for growth or expansion in other areas of the business.  For example, a high-growth eCommerce company may need increased customer support capabilities to provide quality assistance to customer queries and issues. In this instance, outsourcing customer support staff to an agency or outside vendor allows the business to focus on its main competencies while also addressing customer challenges that can impact the bottom line.  As is the case with most things, business process outsourcing can have its set of challenges and risks. Are there risks to business process outsourcing? Risks in business process outsourcing can include lower than expected or inconsistent quality of service, lack of visibility and collaboration with the vendor, and security considerations. Inconsistent delivery We’ve all been there. A service looks good on paper, but the results turn out to be inconsistent or of a lower standard than expected. This is always a risk, especially when outside vendors are involved.  Lack of visibility and collaboration When handing over the keys to a business function, visibility and communication allow those within the organization to accurately track progress, success, and any challenges. Lack of visibility is a huge risk and could mean that a lower standard of service is inadvertently being passed on to customers.  Privacy and security concerns Privacy and security are a top concern in business process outsourcing. In most cases, BPO will involve some degree of handling sensitive or confidential internal data. Engaging a vendor with lax digital security policies may make an organization vulnerable to breaches or attacks.  As Deloitte notes, the tax implications of business process outsourcing should also be a consideration and factored into any business case. How to choose the right BPO vendor Choosing the right vendor can help avoid headaches, losses, and disputes. Here are some tips for choosing the right BPO partner for your business.  Due diligenceDue diligence will involve researching the vendor and their reputation to determine if they have success and experience with your industry, project type, or company size. Understand costsWhile cost-saving is a major factor when establishing a BPO partnership, unexpected fees may make outsourcing pricier than initially thought. Evaluate security infrastructureWhen determining the suitability of a vendor, be sure to assess their ability to manage and protect sensitive information.  Communicate clear objectives and KPIsClearly communicate objectives, expected outcomes, and KPIs and ensure they have the capacity to deliver.  Ensure stabilityOutsourcing a business function can be risky if the third party is in a financially, legally, or otherwise unstable position. Overreliance on unstable vendors can be a unique challenge to overcome.  How to organize your BPO with Wrike Streamline and simplify your business process outsourcing with Wrike. With Wrike, you can:  Create and manage a risk register for your vendor and the outsourced function Invite vendors as external collaborators to share reports and status updates Share and store vendor meeting minutes using our actional meeting notes template Integrate data from 400+ applications like Salesforce, Marketo, and more  Take advantage of the cost savings, time savings, and expertise that BPO and BPaaS can afford your business. Be sure to track and manage progress, communication, and risk using Wrike.  Sign up for a free two-week trial and discover why 2 million+ people trust Wrike to manage and execute their tasks and projects.  

The Ultimate Guide to Business Process Modeling

Struggling to optimize your business processes? Find out process modeling benefits and techniques for executing business process modeling projects successfully.

What Is Business Forecasting? Why It Matters

What is business forecasting? Forecasting helps organizations strategize and, when done right, can give you a competitive advantage. Read on to learn more.

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FigJam Look at the big picture with our business model canvas example

Starting with a basic business model canvas and expanding out into action plans, SWOT analyses, and workflow charts, FigJam templates give you a bird’s eye view of your existing business.

Business model canvas template

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If you’re trying to build a business plan but feeling bogged down by the blank screen, take a page from FigJam. Customize our business model canvas example, complete with widgets and designs straight from Figma.

Start fresh: Brainstorm and build out your business model using input from your entire team.

Refresh what you have: Take your current business model from your brain to the board—cleaned up and clearly documented.

Streamline and solidify: Use this visual representation to identify what business idea works and what doesn’t.

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What is the business model canvas?

Our high-resolution business model canvas is an open-ended brainstorming platform, already set up with the key elements of a solid business model—all you have to do is fill in the blanks alongside your team.

A business model canvas outlines the core components of a business plan, including the main problem, value proposition, cost structure, and channels. By clearly laying out each aspect of the business model, you can better plan for all the steps that come next while staying true to your established vision.

What is the cost structure of a business model canvas?

The cost structure of a business is the sum of its operating expenses, whether fixed or variable. When pinpointing your structure, you’ll want to consider how economies of scope and scale can benefit your revenue stream and overall company growth.

How do you fill out a business model canvas?

Start by working within our free business model canvas template. Think big-picture first, then you can dive into the nitty-gritty as you flesh out key activities, main revenue streams, key resources, and more.

Begin by homing in on what’s most important: what sets you apart and who you serve. Brainstorm around user personas, customer pain points, and ways that your products or services offer value to your target customer. Then, you can ideate around key partners, resources, and revenue streams that can help you connect to your customer base.

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How to create and use a business model canvas

Reading time: about 8 min

We’ve all had those flashes of entrepreneurial inspiration. You know, that brief moment when you think, “Hey, that would make a great business.” Most of the time, that’s as far as it goes. But say you want to take it a step further. (After all, every business, from tech giants to the lemonade stand down the street, started with a similar thought!) What’s your next step?

The business model canvas is essentially a framework for trimmed down business plans—and when we say trimmed down, we mean really trimmed down. As you use the business model canvas, you’ll take the crucial elements of your business model and put them into a single-page template. 

Unsure what those crucial elements are? Don’t worry—we’ll break down the whole process for you. 

What is a business model canvas?

The business model canvas is a template—think of it as a framework for organizing information about a business model. Alexander Osterwalder of Strategyzer came up with the method in the mid-2000s and it has been a staple of the Lean startup methodology ever since. 

At the center of the business model canvas is your value proposition: What do customers get from your product? That’s your starting point. From there, you’ll fill in the canvas with additional information about your company and your customers. The information in a business model canvas should be treated like a hypothesis: Under the conditions presented, could your business survive? It’s a quick and easy way to determine the viability of your model. 

Elements of the business model canvas

As mentioned above, the business model canvas is a template. No matter who is using the template, every business model canvas will look more or less the same. And they all consist of the same nine elements: 

• Value proposition 
• Key partners 
• Key activities 
• Key resources 
• Customer segments 
• Customer relationships 
• Cost structure 
• Revenue streams

Each of these elements is represented by a box on the page and these boxes are always organized in the same way. Everything related to business infrastructure (partners, activities, and resources) falls on the left side of the page. Customer-related elements (segments, relationships, and channels) go on the right. Finance-related elements go on the bottom. In the center of the page, the value proposition ties everything together. 

Layout is the easy part—it’s already been done for you. So let’s talk a little bit more about content: What do you actually include in each piece of your business model canvas? 

Value proposition

What are you offering customers? What problem or pain point are you solving? How are you going to do it? Answer those questions as succinctly as possible (one sentence is best!) and there’s your value proposition.  

Treat your value proposition like a guiding star: It should inform every other aspect of your business plan. 

Key partners

It’s unlikely that you’ll be able to provide your product or service all your own. Whether it’s suppliers or distributors, a parent company, or other partners, someone else is going to be involved. 

Think about a neighborhood lemonade stand: The kids running the stand aren’t growing their own lemons—they rely on a grocery store. Similarly, they probably get the table and pitchers from a parent. Both would be key partners. 

To determine if a partner is a key partner, ask this simple question: Could the business model function without them? If things would fall apart without them, they’re a key partner. 

Key activities

Activities are the actions required to actualize your value proposition.

Remember the lemonade stand from the last section? (It’s going to come up a lot.) What activities go into producing the product and bringing it to customers? Someone needs to make the lemonade, pour it, and take money from customers. These are all key activities.

To determine if an activity is “key,” ask the same question as before: Could the business model function without that action being performed?

Key resources

As you list your resources, be sure to consider more than just physical resources. You’ll likely also require human resources (employees), intellectual resources (know-how), and financial resources. 

Customer segments

Who is your solution for? A lemonade stand employee doesn’t have any need for a product developed for software engineers. (At least not your average lemonade stand employee.)

Your customer segments are the people and companies who would receive value from your product. As you list your customer segments, it might be helpful to think in terms of buyer personas. 

Customer relationships

Think about how you are first reaching potential buyers: Is it through social media? SEO? Conferences? These methods of contact are your channels. Whereas sales teams are typically responsible for building and maintaining customer relationships, channels are, for the most part, the responsibility of the marketing teams. 

Cost structure

As you operate your business, you’ll have to spend money—probably more than you’d like. To maintain your key activities, resources, and partners, you will need to pay employees, cover material costs, etc. These expenses make up your cost structure. 

Revenue Streams

Hopefully you’re not just spending money, though. For your business to be successful, you have to generate revenue. Your revenue streams refer to the ways in which you bring money in: How are you converting your value proposition into revenue? Perhaps you offer a subscription based service, or maybe customers pay a one time fee. Whatever model you use, be sure to list all of your revenue streams—when it comes to planning out finances, you want to be especially thorough. 

How to create a business model canvas

Now you’re ready to learn how to fill out a business model canvas for yourself. Understanding each element of the business model canvas is the hardest part, and that’s behind you: All that’s left is to fill out the canvas with your specific business plan.

1. Gather stakeholders and materials

Whether you’re creating a digital or physical business model canvas, you’ll need to be able to fill in the boxes on the template. This could mean typing your info into a digital template or drawing the business model canvas on a whiteboard or paper. (You should really just stick to a digital template—it’s 2020 after all. And a digital business model canvas means more collaboration, easier sharing, and cloud-based storage!)

As you fill in the business model canvas, you’ll likely need input from marketing, sales, and other teams. Schedule a meeting with the necessary individuals and fill out the template together. It’s a quick process—this meeting should only take between thirty minutes to an hour!

2. Fill out the canvas

Do you have your blank template and representatives from necessary teams? Good. You’re ready to start filling out the canvas. Remember: Your goal is not to create an exhaustive business plan. You’re trying to clarify the essential aspects of your business model and make any adjustments you feel necessary.

Start with your value proposition and work from there. If you need a refresher on any specific element, review the list above!

3. Test your assumptions

Your filled out business model canvas is a plan, but it’s not set in stone. As your team gathers information and offers insights, you may realize certain aspects of your model need to be changed. Perhaps you’ve listed a supplier as a key partner, only to find a different supplier with more competitive pricing. Or maybe you decided that a subscription model wasn’t the best payment plan after all. The business model canvas is meant to help you identify such adjustments—don’t hesitate to change things around!

4. Adapt and maintain

The business model canvas is often thought of as a planning tool—and it is a great one!—but its uses extend beyond the planning stages. As you adapt your business model based on insights from your business model canvas, update the canvas to reflect those changes. If you make drastic adjustments, you might even want to create a whole new business model canvas.

An up-to-date business model canvas is a valuable asset to have, regardless of where you are in your business plan. Whether it’s to show stakeholders your business model to gain buy-in or to onboard new employees, the simple format of the business model canvas makes it a flexible and versatile resource.

Now it’s your turn to create a business model canvas in Lucidspark.

About Lucidspark

Lucidspark, a cloud-based virtual whiteboard, is a core component of Lucid Software's Visual Collaboration Suite. This cutting-edge digital canvas brings teams together to brainstorm, collaborate, and consolidate collective thinking into actionable next steps—all in real time. Lucid is proud to serve top businesses around the world, including customers such as Google, GE, and NBC Universal, and 99% of the Fortune 500. Lucid partners with industry leaders, including Google, Atlassian, and Microsoft. Since its founding, Lucid has received numerous awards for its products, business, and workplace culture. For more information, visit lucidspark.com.

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