Business model or a business plan?

I thought that this may be a perfect question to pose as the first post in this blog. I for one feel a lack of enthusiasm when trying to create a business plan in fact they are generally boring and are usually made to impress financiers and nothing more.

On the other hand I have discovered a more exciting way of planning and structuring my business and that’s by using the business model approach.

It’s called a business model and I believe once you get your head around it you’ll agree with me that it is a far superior alternative to a business plan. It’s so easy to understand you’ll be amazed.

A business model is usually based around this structure

Customers – who are your customers? – are they other businesses or are you direct to consumers. You may have a number of different segments.
Value propositon – what is your offer to them? – You can have multiple value propositions each targeting your different customer segments.
Channels – how do you find them – your marketing, your networks?
Communicate – how do you communicate with them? – email, newsletters, direct contact
Income – what is the expected income from them? – income I expect to achieve from my customers
Partnerships – who do we need to work with to deliver outcomes to our customers? – suppliers, trades etc
Activities – what are the activities we undertake to deliver outcomes to our customers? – the things we do to deliver our value proposition
Resources – what resources do we need? – euipment, money, staff etc
Costs – what are the costs to deliver on all the above?

All of which points to the customer:

Why this works for me?

Simply, it just makes sense! It’s also well structured, making it easy to follow, it focuses on your customer and provides the essential building blocks that you and your staff can easily follow. To me it helps me build a story of how my business functions.

I have found some interesting sites on this here are just a few below:

Click To Obtain Business Model Canvas

See these related links