Business Model Canvas: Explained with Examples

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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.

Business Model Canvas Explained

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.  

Business Model Canvas Template

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.

Customer Persona Template for Business Model Canvas Explained

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.

Customer Journey Map

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).

Value Proposition Canvas

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.

Join over thousands of organizations that use Creately to brainstorm, plan, analyze, and execute their projects successfully.

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

What is an Action Plan? Learn with Templates and Examples

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.

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Business-in-a-Box's Business Plan Canvas (One Page) Template

Business Plan Canvas (One Page) Template

Understanding a business plan.

So, you have a brilliant idea you want to put into a one-page business plan?

Planning is not everyone's cup of tea. But whether you dream of a multi-billion-dollar enterprise or starting a freelancing agency, a business plan is a must-have. Since you are just getting started, you do not need to fill the whole booklet. A one-page business plan will do.

A simple business plan spares one the jargon of beating around the bush. You approach the main points directly. In this guide, we will cover all about the one-page business plan. You will get to know what a one-page business plan is, its advantages and how you can create one. This article should assist you to come up with a simple business plan to push your business forward.

What Is A One-Page Business Plan?

One-page business plan templates are just like the name implies – business objectives incorporated in a single page. Often, single business plans are used for startups since you can quickly brainstorm content with your partners, fellow entrepreneurs, relatives, and friends. A one-page business plan is also used for pitching ideas to investors before preparing a more detailed business plan if approved. You can opt to prepare a business plan on your own by following its standard structure. Luckily online systems allow you to feel business plans in already designed business plan templates.

There is no significant difference between a one-page business plan, long executive summary, and lean business plan. The difference solely lies in length. While short business plan templates should fit a single page, a lean business plan is longer, spanning multiple pages with bullet points, and an executive summary cover between two to three pages in length with full sentences.

An ideal one-page business plan template should answer the following:

  • Who are the target clients?
  • Who are your competitors?
  • Do you have any experience in management?
  • What services do you offer?
  • How will you provide the services?
  • How do you plan to stand out from the crowd?
  • How many resources does the business need?
  • How many resources are you able to invest in the business?
  • Who will assist you in implementing the plan?

A single business plan covers all stated questions in a condensed manner.

Advantages of A One-Page Business Plan:

There are many reasons why you should prepare a business plan for the ultimate success of your company. Chief among them is that following through outlined steps is a proven method of enabling a company to grow. However, different from the advantages of business plans, short business plan templates have unique benefits. They include:

  • Straightforward Presentation. One-page business plans enable potential investors and partners to comprehend the contents faster. A fifty-page business plan is an enormous task for you to explain or leave alone for somebody else to read, especially if it is for the first time. The single-page business plan assists one to use words economically, such that only essential aspects of the business are covered. After that, you may then present a detailed business plan if required.
  • Focus . A simple business plan template assists you in dealing with only the essential aspects of a business. Prospective entrepreneurs happen to get so excited about their ideas that they include things that are not necessary. A one-page business plan will assist you to condense your thoughts and focus on what is essential.
  • Good First Impression . When approaching busy investors, short business plans allow them to skim through the contents quickly. It is also easy to send an email or two, print it for interested parties, or throw it into a slide deck. Furthermore, you can share the contents effortlessly with your friends and family. When you focus on the essential things in a business plan, you will capture your prospects’ attention from the get-go.
  • Implementing the Project . There is a thing about simple business plans that makes them reliable; you can focus on the bigger picture. While you are confident of the process to follow and achieve a goal, your focus is on achieving the given plan. As an entrepreneur, you can focus on the specific things that matter in the quest for business success.

The SWOT Analysis:

A SWOT analysis helps you organize the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of your business. It is crucial to include a SWOT analysis as part of your planning process. Conducting a SWOT analysis before creating the business plan facilitates the process.

How does a SWOT analysis work? Here is a guide that will assist you in getting started.

  • Strengths . These are the positive factors, either tangible or intangible, that can make your business thrive. Analyze the advantages of your business. Also, state things that will make your business idea stand out.
  • Weakness . Weakness is the aspect that may give you a competitive disadvantage, and hence you need to enhance these areas. Identify the elements of your business that may place you at a competitive disadvantage. Where can you improve?
  • Opportunities . Opportunities refer to external factors that only indicate why your business is likely to prosper. Factors like the appearance of market opportunity, positive business perception, or new business product show opportunities.
  • Threats . Threats represent the things outside your control that could jeopardize your business practice. In this category, you can identify your competitors, factors outside business you cannot control, and unfavourable trends that can challenge your business.

Contents of A One-Page Business Plan:

Now that you know the benefits of a simple business plan, it is time to understand its contents.

1. Market Gap

The main aim of business plans is to solve a problem, to make money while solving people's needs. You should, therefore, state the market gap the business will chip in and fill. Make sure you describe the market need clearly and straight to the point.

When writing the market needs, provide details and still state how your product or service is different. Be keen not to get consumed, giving too many details.

2. How You Will Solve the Need

The next step after showing the market need you have identified to state how your business will solve the need; the level of effectiveness your business solves the market needs to determine the amount of income you will make.

How to solve a need is where the idea of a one-page business plan template becomes both crucial and challenging. You must show how your business will outstand your competition in a sentence or two. Briefly explain your competitor's weaknesses and competitive capabilities. While doing so, focus on how it will matter to your target market. Just think, and rethink again, and you will finally get it right.

3. Business Competitors

There are high chances you are going to face competition. Likely other businesses are offering the same services. So, weigh in the business and the direct and indirect competitors. It will help you know what you will face and hence determine how you will approach the industry and succeed.

To help you get started, identify products and services you feel will give you stiff competition. More so, look at the areas where your business will thrive. Cover all these three with at most three short and straightforward points: risks, opportunities and rival products or services.

4. The Customers

State your target market that is the people you want to help to solve their needs. You should be able to describe your customers in detail, where they live and their aspirations.

The more specific you are to your target customers, the better. To help you get started, write some sentences about your target customers and those customers’ needs.

5. How You Will Reach the Client

You should state how the products will get to the target customers. This step is relative to sales and marketing. Plan how you will get the product or service to customers; that’s sales tactics and marketing plan.

In short, you will need to focus on and explain your sales funnelling methods. Is it through billboard printing? Or an internet ads campaign? Even if you have a multi-marketing plan, do not scatter. State a channel you are opting for and how it will generate profit.

6. Budgeting and Sales

In business, you spend money to get money. Specify the number of resources needed to get the company off the ground. What amount of money do you have, and how will you spend the help to fulfil your business objective? Also, state the duration you wish to sell and how you will make the sales.

7. Business Goals

You must state the goals you wish to achieve. As your business begins to grow, you will want to hit milestones. Indicate the milestones and how you will know that you made significant progress.

8. Business Team

What personality should your employees have? What skills or experience should they bring on board? State the details of your desired business team. More importantly, approach it with a competitive advantage as the bigger picture. Will excellent customer care give you a competitive advantage? State all those in this category.

9. Prospective Partners

To succeed, you will need the help of other businesses as well. For example, you plan to create a juice fruit startup. You will need someone to provide you with the fruits and suppliers to help get your products to the customers.

10. Additional Help

If you need some amount to top up with your capital, show it here. List the resources that you will need and people that can assist you with that.

Ready to Prepare Your One-Page Business Plan?

After going through all those, now is the time to hit the nail on the head. A one-page business plan template may seem like a walk in the park, but it is not easy as it may seem. It would be best if you started small and built your way up. There is a chance for a more detailed business plan later as your business begins to gain traction. A one-page business plan should be your go-to every time you have a new idea.

To avoid structuring the outline on your own, sign up to choose and download any one of our business plans from our business plan kit. We have over 2,000 ready-made one-page business plan templates used by businesses who want to get started. It is heavily relied on because companies do not have to start from scratch. All they need to focus on is the content. A business plan will assist you in planning for what is ahead. Get started today and make your business goals a reality.

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Template Highlights

  • Eight (short) sections: Business Opportunity, Industry Analysis, Target Market, Company Description, Timeline, Marketing Plan, Financial Plan, and Funding Requirements.
  • Easy instructions for each part.
  • Zhuzh it up a bit with your company logo and branding.
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Why all businesses should create a business plan

For startups and enterprises alike, there are many reasons to create a one-page business plan. For example, it can help you:

  • Show your progress and how you intend to grow : Your business plan lists vital information on your company, such as your goals, market research results, and success milestones.
  • Determine a realistic budget to ensure success : If you don’t create a proper plan, you might underestimate fixed and variable costs and, therefore, lack the financial capacity to succeed.
  • Provide concrete information to potential investors : By having a detailed business plan in place, you’ll be able to effectively convey your business goals to internal stakeholders, and you’ll stand a better chance of winning over investors.
  • Fulfill the requirements for securing a business loan : Many financial institutions won’t even consider giving you a loan without seeing your plan.

Should you create a business plan from scratch?

You can do this, but it’s often more hassle than it’s worth. If you’ve never made a business plan before, you’ll need to do a lot of research on what to include and ensure you create a professional and eye-catching document.  If you download our free one-page business plan template, you’ll save time and ensure you cover every relevant detail.

How to use the one-page business plan template

Here are the steps for filling out our template:

  • Enter your contact details to download the template in Microsoft Word or as a PDF.
  • Gather your relevant business documents, such as market research results and financial statements, in case you need to include details from them.  
  • Add information to all the fields, including Company Description, Target Market, Industry Analysis, Implementation Timeline, Funding Required, and Financial Summary.
  • Get feedback from business partners, employees, or other parties to ensure that all information is correct and up to date.
  • Proofread to ensure there are no errors. These look unprofessional, leaving a bad impression of your business.  
  • Save your business plan in various locations and formats. This helps you share your plan with stakeholders via email or present it at company meetings.

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One page business plan.

One-Page Business Plan Template

This brief business plan template encourages you to stick to your core message and provide investors with just the information they need to know about your new venture.

The Business Opportunity

What is the problem your business will solve? Focus on the customer’s needs.

Give your elevator pitch. Be succinct, clear, and persuasive.

Be sure to include your value proposition -- What do you offer that no one else does?

Industry Analysis

List key factors for success in your industry.

Who is your main competition?

Company Description

Identify important facts about your business:

• Founding date

• Mission statement

• Type of organization

• Core strengths

• Main leadership

Target Market

Describe your customer segments.

Will you serve a particular geographical area?

Implementation Timeline

Provide a brief summary of how you will roll out the business. Consider depicting the different phases in a diagram. You can use the timeline below as a template.

Marketing Plan

Describe what methods you will use to acquire new customers.

Why would your target market prefer your product or service to another option?

Financial Summary

Cost Structure: What are your fixed and variable costs?

Revenue Streams: How will your business make money?

Funding Required

Present the amount of funding that you are seeking from investors and how it will be used.

HubSpot Tip: Be sure to edit and review your plan for typos before distributing it. Errors in a short document can be distracting to the reader and make you look unprofessional.

Frequently Asked Questions

When should i create a business plan, what types of companies need a business plan, how do i write a one page business plan, what should my business plan focus on, is this template free, can i edit this template, related tags:.

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How To Successfully Write a One Page Business Plan (With 3 Templates)

  • by IdeaBuddy Team
  • March 13, 2023
  • 48 shares 4 0 44
  • 6 minute read

one-page-business-plan

Table of Contents Hide

What is a one page business plan, advantage #1 condense your thoughts.

  • Advantage #2 See the big picture
  • Advantage #3 Build a business model

One Page Plan Template: Idea Plan

One page plan template: business model canvas, one page plan template: lean canvas, 1. market needs, 2. business solution, 3. competition, 4. target market, 5. sales and marketing, 6. budget and sales goals, 7. milestones/roadmap, 8. team summary, 9. key partners, 10. funding needs, start writing your one page business plan.

Writing an old-school business plan can be painful, so we’ve put together a quick guide where we’ll teach you how to make its simplified version, a one page business plan.

So, in the next five minutes of reading, you will learn the following things:

  • Why it can be better than a traditional business plan
  • What templates to use
  • What information should you include in each of the sections

Now, without further ado, let’s dive right into it!

It’s a great tool for the earliest stages of your business because it helps you structure your thoughts and brainstorm your business ideas with partners, friends, and fellow entrepreneurs.

Also, you can explain on a single page what your product portfolio will be, how you will handle distribution and sales, how to prepare a market analysis,  and how to select the right brand strategy .

In a nutshell, your one page business plan should explain:

  • Who your customers are?
  • What their problems are?
  • How you can solve them?
  • Who are your competitors?
  • How can you set yourself apart?
  • Who is on your team?
  • How will you make money?
  • What are the costs you anticipate?

Basically, it should cover all the same points as a full-length business plan, but in a condensed format.

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The advantages of a one page business plan

It’s possible to boil everything down to a single page if you’re economical with words.

It will help you to map out your idea in under an hour, and explain your business model to the potential investors. If they like what they see, it will make them want to read the full-length version.

As we’ve just covered, a one page business plan makes it more likely that investors or banks will give you the time of day. One page is a quicker read than a pamphlet – although you will need a comprehensive business plan!

In the meantime, there are other advantages to a one page business plan that will come in handy. So read on, if you’re still not convinced that you can work magic with a single page.

It’s easy to get carried away when you are dreaming about your future business. A one page business plan will force you to condense your thoughts and formulate them as clearly as possible.

Advantage #2  See the big picture

You’ll cut out all the fluff when you’re limited to one page. That automatically makes you look at the big picture. And that will also help guide your decisions when you put your plan into action.

Advantage #3  Build a business model

It will help you to identify all the internal and external factors that form the building blocks for the business model that can tell everything about the business, like the product, target customers, competition, or any other element of your business.

Popular one page business plan templates 

You know why it’s a good idea to write a one page business plan, and you could now open a blank Word document to get started. But why do that when there are ready-made templates?

Let’s have a look at some of the popular one page business plan templates below.

Idea Plan is created by the IdeaBuddy team, and it is inspired by more popular business model templates, like Business Model Canvas and Lean Canvas.

idea plan

What makes it unique, and why it’s more practical than the other one page plans?

It is very well organized, easy to understand, and it can be used by people who are not experts in business planning. Also, it has templates for the most popular business ideas.

The story starts from the inner, core blocks.

There you are defining the problem/solution and product/market fit that together represent your value proposition, or what makes you stand out from the rest.

Then you are moving on to the remaining blocks, in order to build your business model, and also to understand the external business elements, like competitors and market conditions.

Get started IdeaBuddy for free and create your one page plan in no time!

AI Business Plan Genetartors - IdeaBuddy Banner

Strategyzer is the team behind Business Model Canvas (BMC), which is a strategic tool for sketching, visualizing, analyzing, and pivoting business models.

one page business plan - BMC

This is the most popular one page business plan template and is has nine building blocks. These blocks allow you to map existing business models, design new ones, and manage a portfolio of models.

Lean Canvas was created by Ash Maurya, and it represents an adaptation from the original Business Model Canvas, inspired by the book Lean Startup by Eric Ries. This one page business plan can help you deconstruct your idea into its key assumptions.

one page business plan - lean canvas

What’s so special about this template is that it follows the problem-solution approach, and it’s more suitable for startups and entrepreneurs.

Sections Of Your One Page Business Plan

Hopefully, you’ve picked a template that looks visually appealing and suits your specific needs. Now it’s time to fill it in with all the information we mentioned at the beginning of this blog post.

You should describe the market needs right at the beginning of your business plan. Your entire business idea relies on solving a specific problem, so make sure you describe it clearly.

Once you’ve described the problem, it’s time to explain how your business is going to solve it. Whether you want to design a product or provide a service, this is where you sell it to the world.

Chances are that you’re not the only one who wants to solve that particular problem. Make sure you analyze your direct and indirect competition so you know what you’re up against.

Who has the problem your business wants to solve? Where are they in the world, what do they do, and what are their greatest hopes and worst fears? Describe your ideal customer in detail.

It’s not enough to know who’s interested in what you sell. You also have to sell it to them. Make a plan for how you want to promote your product or service and convert people into customers.

For example, are you going to use email newsletter software to create appealing newsletters and communicate over email? Or do you want to take the social media route and build an audience there? You can also create a combination of channels that works for you.

You need some money to get this baby off the ground. So what’s your startup budget and how do you plan to spend it? More importantly, how much do you plan to sell and over how long?

Your business will (hopefully!) evolve over time as you build a reputation. What does the future look like? Create a roadmap with milestones to mark significant progress along the way.

No matter how awesome you are, you’re only one person. It’s good to have a team to help you out. Who are they and what do they bring to the table in terms of skills and experiences?

Are you selling a product? Then who manufactures it, who distributes it, and who promotes it? You should list your key partners, without which your business can not exist.

Finally, we’re at the bottom line… literally. Make a list of people or resources you need but don’t have the capital to afford without the help of outside investment. Specify how much you need.

Congratulations! Now you know why you should write a one page plan, where to find some great templates, and what you should include in it.

But knowing is only half the battle.

Now it’s time to put your knowledge into action and actually write the damn thing! Fortunately, you don’t need to go back to Google for a solution to that problem – you’ve already found it.

IdeaBuddy is an excellent platform you can use to go from zero to a fully-fledged business. And the best part? You can write your one page plan completely for free!

So what are you waiting for? Start writing your one page business plan today, it’s much easier than you think!

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IdeaBuddy Team

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CultureHive

Business Model Canvas: How to use a one page business plan

By stacey mcintosh, sage advice uk.

The phrase “proper planning prevents poor performance” is highly applicable to businesses of all sizes. Whether you are an entrepreneur starting a new business from scratch or a blue chip multinational corporation, it’s critical that you have a well-documented plan in place that outlines the strategies, tactics and resulting actions that will enable you to hit a set of defined objectives.

A  business plan  should lay the foundations for success ; it can be vital for securing funding and should be a living document that evolves with the business and the environmental factors that will impact operations and performance.

However, one of the most prevalent reasons for organisations not having a fully documented business plan is the time it takes to create and the sheer volume of information that is required. This is where the Business Model Canvas can benefit your organisation.

What is a Business Model Canvas?

Put simply, the Business Model Canvas is a one page business plan. Initially developed by Swiss business theorist, author and consultant Alexander Osterwalder, this strategic planning tool is used by many organisations across the globe.

Essentially, it uses a template that can help your business simplify its planning in a highly visual way. It can help you create a business plan that:

  • Builds from your value proposition
  • Outlines how your activities need to align to achieve your objectives
  • Illustrates the potential trade offs that may be required to meet goals.

Our handy guide provides more information about how you should go about filling the template in. However, in the session, you should have people who have the knowledge and can provide information on the following areas :

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

Download the Sage Business Model Canvas (PDF)

To find out more about the guide visit the Sage website.

one page business plan canvas

Human Centered Design

Introducing the Business Model Canvas

Introducing the Business Model Canvas

Business Model Canvas text image

Business Model Canvas – six questions for the sector

Southbank Centre Business Model Case Study

Southbank Centre Business Model Case Study

How to make a lean business model canvas

one page business plan canvas

Imagine that you have an idea for a new product or business. Yet, as enthusiastic as you are about the potential for this nugget of inspiration, you’re also plagued by this question: Will it work? Is it actually a viable idea?

A lean business model canvas is a one-page business plan that helps you break down your product or business model, question and test your assumptions, and determine if your idea actually has legs.

Lean business model canvas explained: What is a lean canvas?

You might also hear a lean business model canvas referred to as a variety of other, similar terms like a lean business canvas, lean business plan, or even simply a lean canvas.

This tool was created by Ash Maurya and is an adaptation of the original business model canvas by Alex Osterwalder .

You can think of a lean business model canvas as a straightforward business plan that skips the fluff and gets to the most important elements you need to identify or evaluate (primarily, the problem you’re solving).

When you have an idea for a product or business, you’ll use a lean business model canvas template to fill in the various sections (more on those in a minute) and validate your idea.

The lean canvas is most frequently used by lean startups, which use a lean startup methodology to deliver products to customers faster and determine whether or not the business model itself is viable. In short, lean startups and lean canvases are all about moving fast, testing, and iterating.

Lean canvas example

One of the best ways to understand a lean business model canvas is to see one. So, let’s set up a lean canvas as an example.

Perhaps you have an idea for a business: You want to create an app or a website that’s essentially a database of parks and playgrounds, which parents can search and filter using location, features (splash pad, baby swings, etc.), and more.

You want to dig into your idea even further using a lean business model canvas. Here’s a simple peek at what that could look like after jotting your initial notes down:

one page business plan canvas

Lean canvas vs. business model canvas

There’s a lean business model canvas and then simply a business model canvas . The two terms are often confused, as they have a lot in common — and the lean canvas is an adaptation of the business model canvas.

However, the biggest difference is that a business model canvas is focused on a specific product while a lean canvas focuses on a specific problem.

This means that the business model canvas has a few blocks that you won’t see on a lean canvas. These are:

  • Key partners (lean canvas replaced with problem)
  • Key activities (lean canvas replaced with solution)
  • Key resources (lean canvas replaced with key metrics)
  • Customer relationships (lean canvas replaced with unfair advantage)

That’s the gist, but here’s a chart that digs even more into the difference between a business model canvas and a lean canvas:

one page business plan canvas

What is included in a lean canvas?

Now that you have a better grip on what exactly a lean canvas is let’s break it down even further. The typical lean business model canvas has nine elements or quadrants. These are:

  • Problem: A brief description of the top three problems you’re addressing.
  • Solution: The proposed fix for the problem you’ve identified.
  • Unique value proposition: Why your solution is different and what will make people buy.
  • Unfair advantage: Something you have that can’t be easily copied or bought.
  • Customer segments: Who your target customers or users are and if they can be further segmented.
  • Key metrics: The important numbers that will indicate how your business is doing.
  • Channels: The free and paid channels you’ll use to reach your customers.
  • Cost structure: All of your fixed and variable costs.
  • Revenue streams: How your business model will earn income.

However, our lean canvas template here at Miro dives even deeper with the addition of a few more elements, including:

  • Existing alternatives: How these problems are currently solved today.
  • High-level concept: A simple X for Y analogy (e.g., “Zillow for playgrounds”).
  • Early adopters: Characteristics of your ideal customers who will jump right on the bandwagon.

How to make a lean canvas in Miro

A lean canvas can provide a lot of clarity about a business model or a product idea. Ready to create one with your own team? Getting started is easy.

  • Grab our lean business model canvas template and create a new Miro board . You can put as many canvases on one board as you need.
  • Define the product or business idea you’re working on, and then fill in the blocks with different types of content. You don’t just have to use text — you can also use pictures, videos, and more.
  • Invite your team and/or advisors to the board so you can brainstorm , collect feedback, and collaborate in real-time.
  • Come back to the board regularly to make necessary changes, add new information, and discuss progress.

And that’s it! Once you’ve created your own lean business model canvas, you can move forward with a product or business idea with more strategy — and a lot more confidence too.

Get started on your own lean business model canvas with Miro

Miro is your team's visual platform to connect, collaborate, and create — together..

Join millions of users that collaborate from all over the planet using Miro.

Keep reading

How to make a concept map – with examples.

one page business plan canvas

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one page business plan canvas

one page business plan canvas

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.

one page business plan canvas

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.

Online course: Mastering Business Models

About the speakers

Download your free copy of this whitepaper now, explore other examples.

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The Business Model Canvas

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?

LEANFoundry

Deconstruct Your Big Idea on 1-Page

Business plans take too long to write, are seldom updated, and almost never read by others. You need dynamic models, not static plans, when going fast and under extreme uncertainty. The Lean Canvas replaces long and boring business plans with a 1-page business model that takes 20 minutes to create and gets read.

Lean Canvas

Lean Canvas is used by over a million people that span startups, universities, and large enterprises.

LEANFoundry Customers

What is a Lean Canvas?

Lean Canvas is a 1-page business plan template created by Ash Maurya that helps you deconstruct your idea using twelve business modeling building blocks.

A Lean Canvas can describe a business model, a product release, or even a single feature, making it a highly popular business model innovation and product management tool used by millions worldwide.

If you have ever written a business plan or created a slide deck for investors, you’ll immediately recognize most of the building blocks on the canvas.

one page business plan canvas

Lean Canvas helps you communicate your idea clearly and concisely to key stakeholders.

You can outline multiple business models on a Lean Canvas in one afternoon instead of writing a business plan, which can take several weeks or months. More importantly, a single-page business model is much easier to share with others, so it will be read by more people and updated more frequently.

Lean Canvas helps you systematically build and launch successful products.

When taking on a complex project, like, say, building a house, you wouldn’t start by putting up walls. You’d probably start with an architectural plan or blueprint — even if it’s just a sketch.

Building and launching an idea is no different.

Most entrepreneurs start with a strong initial vision and a Plan A to realize that vision. Unfortunately, most Plan As don’t work.

It has statistically been shown that two-thirds of successful startups report drastically changing (or pivoting) their plans along the way.

So, what separates successful startups then isn’t necessarily starting with a better initial plan (or Plan A) but finding a plan that works before running out of resources .

Until now, finding this better Plan B or C or Z has been based largely on gut, intuition, and luck. There has been no systematic process for rigorously stress testing a Plan A.

The first step to iterating your Plan A is gaining clarity on your Plan A.

This is what the Lean Canvas helps you do.  

What is the difference between Lean Canvas and Business Model Canvas?

Lean Canvas was adapted from Alex Osterwalder's Business Model Canvas and optimized for the Lean Startup methodology.

The motivation behind Lean Canvas was creating a more founder-focused business modeling tool better suited for early-stage products.

It replaces these boxes on the Business Model Canvas: key partners, key resources, key activities, and customer relationships with these boxes: problem, solution, key metrics (KPIs), and unfair advantage (a defensible competitive advantage).

one page business plan canvas

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Business Model Canvas - a one-page business plan

business model

An effective business plan is key for outlining your goals and developing your business strategy. It can also be a critical tool for securing funding from investors and spotting potential problems before they occur. 

However, due to its importance, a business plan can be a lengthy and time-consuming document to create. According to research from Barclays, one in four UK business don’t bother to create a plan, meaning that they lack a proper strategy for growth. 

This is where the Business Model Canvas comes in. Developed by Swiss business theorist, author and consultant Alexander Osterwalder, the Business Model Canvas is a strategic tool that acts a one-page supplement to a full business plan. 

Due to its simple layout, the Business Model Canvas allows you to plan in a highly visual way. It can be used to test the viability of your business strategies and can even be adapted for companies that don’t pursue revenue growth as their primary objective, such as charities.

This infographic provides a glimpse of the Business Model Canvas:

business_model_infographic2.jpg

one page business plan canvas

Accounting software expert  Sage  has provided a useful guide with further information on the advantages offered by the Business Model Canvas. The visual also includes tips on how to fill in the different sections of the template.

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Free Business Model and Business Model Canvas Templates

By Joe Weller | November 26, 2018

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In this article, you’ll find the most comprehensive business canvas and business model templates in Microsoft Excel, Word, and PDF formats. Document, outline, and manage your unique business structure to ensure you are optimizing your target market, key resources, value proposition, and more.

Direct Sales Business Model Template

Direct Sales Business Model Template

Strategize on sales and distribution tactics and plan for your organization’s unique sales pipeline with this template. With room to document distribution models, pricing models, partner strategy, and sales management, you can easily create an effective sales business model. Download this template in Microsoft Excel, Word, or PDF formats.

Download Direct Sales Business Model Template

Excel | Word | PDF  | Smartsheet

Pay-Per-Use Business Model Template

Pay Per Use Business Model Template

Designed for business structures that rely on pay-per-use customers, this business model template allows you to track the success of your organization and strategize on future plans. With sections to document and track year-over-year paying customers, customer growth, premium paying customers, and net new customers, you can stay on top of the success — or areas of improvement — in your pay-per-use business model.

Download Pay-Per-Use Business Model Template

Excel | Smartsheet

Business Model Canvas Template

Business Model Canvas Template

This template is designed to analyze and review current business models or to plan and document a strategy for new business models. Use this template to document the key details of your business plan, including key partners and activities, value proposition, and strategic channels. This template is available for customization and download in Microsoft Excel, Word, and PDF formats.

Download Business Model Canvas Template

Excel | Word | PDF

Franchise Business Model Template

Franchise Business Model Template

Use this template to create a targeted business model for franchises in order to illustrate potential success or highlight current profits. This template includes areas for documenting executive summaries and company descriptions, product or service descriptions, management structure, and more. This free template is available in Microsoft Excel, Word, and PDF formats.

Download Franchise Business Model Template

Freemium Business Model Template

Freemium Business Model Template

This template provides a business model for companies that have a freemium pricing strategy. It helps you enumerate key products or services that the organization should upcharge for. Use this template to document critical details of your freemium business, such as cost structure, customer segments, and revenue streams.

Download Freemium Business Model Template

Subscription Business Model Template

Subscription Business Model Template

Outline subscription details, monitor business growth, and keep track of the highest producing revenue streams with this business model template. This template offers space to document and track new subscription members, premium subscription members, and total yearly paid revenue. Download and customize this Microsoft Excel template based on your business needs.

‌ Download Subscription Business Model Template - Excel

Startup Business Model Template

Startup Business Model Template

Create a traditional business model and detail all key aspects of your organization with this startup business model template. This template allows you to document the components of your startup that you want to highlight, such as executive summaries, company descriptions, marketing plans, and financial information. This template is available for download and customization in Microsoft Word.

Download Startup Business Model Template

Collective Business Model Template

Collective Business Model Template

Gather, document, and report on all the key details of your business with this collective business model template. Use this template to share the core components of your organization, such as key partners, resources, and activities, as well as customer segments and cost structures.

Download Collective Business Model Template

Inclusive Business Model Template

Inclusive Business Model Template

This free template includes space to document the most fundamental building blocks of your company, so you can create a comprehensive business model. Document and communicate key details, such as products or services, cost structures, revenue streams, and more. This template is available for download in Microsoft Excel, Word, and PDF formats.

Download Inclusive Business Model Template

Open Source Business Model Template

Open Source Business Model Template

Use this template to plan and record a comprehensive business model for open source projects. This template includes sections to document everything from problems and solutions to unique value propositions and customer channels. It is available for download in Microsoft Excel, Word, and PDF formats.

Download Open Source Business Model Template

Consulting Business Model Template

Consulting Business Model Template

Geared toward businesses in the consulting field, this template lets you construct a comprehensive overview of your organization’s business model. Customize the details of this template to fit your needs. The template includes sections for company descriptions, mission statements, finances, key business metrics, and more.

Download Consulting Business Model Template

Small Business Model Template

Small Business Business Model Template

This template is perfect for small businesses who want to map out their business model, either at the beginning stages of their business, or as their business grows. Use this template to include the most important high-level details, such as company description, market analysis, organization information, and financial projections.

Download Small Business Business Model Template

Harvard Business Model Template

Harvard Business Model Template

Use this business model template, influenced by the Harvard Business School, to create the most comprehensive and detailed overview of your business. With space to include key details, like partners, business activities, resources, and value propositions, this template allows you to customize your business plan and share the details among your team.

Download Harvard Business Model Template

SaaS Business Model Template

SaaS Business Model Template

Leverage this template to accurately explain, build out, and model your SaaS business plan. This template is especially helpful in mapping out key resources, like developers, software value propositions, and revenue streams based on usage. Download this template, available in Microsoft Excel, Word, and PDF, and customize it based on the details of your company.

Download SaaS Business Model Template

Lean Business Model Template

Lean Business Model Template

To eliminate waste and provide the best value to the customer of a lean business, use this template to document and track the core components that contribute to your organization’s success. With room to include potential problems and solutions, cost structure, and unique customer segments, this template allows you to model and perfect the ideal lean business.

Download Lean Business Model Template

Service Business Model Template

Service Business Model Template

This template is designed to analyze and review business models related to the service industry. Use this template to document the key details of your business plan, including key partners and activities, value propositions, and strategic channels. This template is available for customization and download in Microsoft Excel, Word, and PDF formats.

Download Service Business Model Template

Affiliate Business Model Template

Affiliate Business Model Template

Use this preformatted template to plan, track, and assess the business model of an affiliate business in order to keep all details in check. With space to record key details, such as market segmentation and targeting, marketing strategy, business operation, and more, this template gives you the structure to maintain a successful affiliate business. This template is available for download in Microsoft Excel, Word, and PDF formats.

Download Affiliate Business Model Template

What Is a Business Model Canvas?

A business model canvas is a strategic management document that assists you in developing business models of all kinds, from lean to startup to subscription models. It is a purely visual chart that identifies and describes core business elements, like value propositions, market segments, and customers.

What Is a Business Model Canvas Used For?

Typically a one-page document, a business model canvas grants a high-level overview of the business structure and operation and describes the overall value of an organization. Not only is it a strategic tool for developing a new business, but it’s also a way to upgrade or analyze an already-active business. A business model canvas brings clarity, strategy, and simplicity to a business plan, especially regarding areas that are usually difficult to describe.

Why Is a Business Model Canvas Important?

A business model canvas is important because it helps provide a company with clarity, focus, and strategy. It offers a detailed structure of what the business does, how it should perform, and what markets or customer groups it should target.

What a Business Model Canvas Can Help an Organization Do

A business model canvas not only increases the transparency of the business plan by supplying a single, flexible explanation of the business and its strategy, but also helps a business or organization to do the following:

Describe, design, or redesign a business model

Organize new thoughts and ideas about how a business can increase its success

Enable both new and existing organizations to increase their focus on the operations and processes that run their business

Provide a platform to explore new options for a business, test any assumptions, and discover new opportunities

Devise new strategies for a business

Look at a business with a critical eye, identifying areas of improvement or areas of great success

Reevaluate any unique aspects of a business that are working and fine tune those aspects in order to improve an overall business strategy

Discover opportunities to grow or improve upon existing processes

Provide either a general guideline or a detailed layout of a business, depending on its structure

Identify specific instructions on how to achieve a new or improved business plan

Assess potential trade-off opportunities

Align marketing strategies and other business activities

Enable a structured conversation about a business model and an operation and management strategy that can include stakeholders, key team members, and external resources

Present strategic analyses, like a market analysis, customer analysis, or operational analysis

Develop new insight on customers and what they are seeking from a business

Describe the relationships between new initiatives and how a company can achieve those initiatives simultaneously

Who Created the Business Model Canvas?

Business theorist Alexander Osterwalder created the business model canvas following his earlier work on business model ontology.

The Core Structures of Business Models

Based on his analysis, Osterwalder proposed that all businesses share similar modeling, using the following core structures:

Infrastructure : This includes key business activities, key resources, and key partners that the business leverages on a regular basis.

Offering : The concept of offering deals with the unique value proposition of a business, which is what distinguishes one business from another.

Customers : This includes customer segments, channels, and customer relationships, all of which drive the strategy and overall success of a business.

Finances : Finances include both the cost structure and the revenue streams that drive the profit of a business.

When Was the Business Model Canvas Invented?

Alexander Osterwalder invented the business model canvas in 2008, following his work on business model ontology. Since 2008, business experts have created many variations on Osterwalder’s original business model canvas, including ones that are industry specific.

What Do You Include in a Business Model Canvas Template?

A business model canvas has a few main components that build out the structure, organization, and strategy of a business. The components include the following:

Key Activities : The key activities identify the crucial steps and activities a business must perform in order to deliver on its propositions and continue to succeed. As a business changes and grows, it must discover new techniques to perform better, provide better services or products, and consider how these key activities help to drive the value proposition.

Key Resources/Partners : The key resources delineate the strategic assets needed to achieve core business goals and maintain a more targeted and successful approach than one’s competitors. Three core business products make up the key resources: product, scope, and infrastructure.

Value Proposition : This is the driving force of the business, as it identifies the uniqueness of a business’s offering (i.e., what differentiates it from other competitors). The value prop works to pinpoint the needs of the customer and deliver on those needs with the company’s own product or service.

Channels : The channels signify the various media used to communicate the value prop to the appropriate customers. Channels also identify where and how you will sell your product and to what customers.

Customer Segments : This refers to the way in which customers interact with the business through the product or service lifecycle and which type of market a customer might engage with. Types of markets can include niche, mass, segmented, diversified, or multi-sided.

Cost Structure : The cost structure of a business model canvas pairs together how key activities will drive costs and determines how well the costs are aligned with the value prop. It is at this time that businesses must determine other key cost decisions, like using a fixed, variable, cost-driven, or value-driven structure and figuring out how the scope and scale of the business relate to the costs and revenue.

Revenue Streams : This determines the way a company generates revenue from each customer segment. Revenue streams can come in the form of asset sales, usage or subscription fees, lending, leasing, renting, licensing, brokerage fees, and advertising. A business determines its revenue streams based on its overall structure.

What Is a Business Model Canvas Report?

A business model canvas report is a roll-up of all the key details described in a business model canvas. The report aims to describe each component in further detail, providing commentary on both why a company is structured the way it is and how it plans to attain that structure.

What Is a Lean Canvas Template?

A lean canvas template is a one-page business plan that summarizes a business and breaks it down into nine key elements. Those elements include problems, solutions, key metrics, value propositions, advantages, channels, customer segments, cost structures, and revenue streams.

Why Have a Business Model Canvas?

Businesses and organizations should have a business model canvas in order to break down the key components of a business and discuss what is and isn’t working. This process will help you identify problem areas, improve on certain aspects, and continue to grow, generate revenue, and succeed.

Tips For Creating a Business Model Canvas

The best way to get started is by gathering a core group comprised of key team members and stakeholders (ideally around 3-5 people) and drawing out a canvas on paper or creating a canvas digitally.

Allow yourself plenty of undisturbed time to start mapping out a high-level overview of the business and its structure. Connect the core building blocks of your business, like market segments and target customers, and brainstorm how to achieve the most success.

Make sure to keep on open mind and separate the current from the ideal state of the business. After you have completed your canvas, review it and share it with your team to collect further ideas or comments. Ask team members to look for missing details, both in the design and structure of the canvas.

Once you have completed the canvas review, test your new plan and analyze it periodically to ensure it is working for your business.

Examples of Successful Business Models

As you begin to create your own business models and business model canvases, use the following resources to help you create the best business model for your organization.

Score’s Business Plan Template for Startups

The U.S. Small Business Administration’s Business Plan Tool

The $100 One-Page Business Plan

LawDepot’s WYSIWYG Business Plan Template

Santa Clara University’s My Own Business Plan Template

Rocket Lawyer’s Business Plan Templates by State

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Easy-to-use one-page business plan template

one page business plan canvas

A one-age business plan is a useful tool for providing an overview of your goals and targets and how you and your team will achieve them. Before you get into the details, a one-page business plan can help you feel out your ideas, set priorities, and provide an outline for a more extensive standard business plan.

You can also keep your single-page plan on hand to keep you laser-focused on the scope and objectives of your business at all times.

In this article, we’ll show you how to use a one-page business plan to create a robust foundation for your business and share some ready-to-use business plan templates .

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What is a one-page business plan template?

A one-page business plan encompasses your entire business strategy condensed onto one-page. A one-page business plan template is a document that outlines a business’s strategies and goals.

A traditional business plan goes into great detail and could be dozens of pages long. With a one-pager, the idea is to condense all the important information into one high-level document.

However, if it’s a one-page business plan to hand out to prospective investors, you’ll likely focus more on something like financial projections .

In general, your one-page business plan can include:

  • Vision statements and strategic objectives of your business
  • Customer segments your business will serve
  • Overview of the product or service you’ll provide
  • Sales goals and marketing strategy
  • High-level business overview of financial projections

Why use a one-page business plan template?

Understanding the benefits of writing a single-page business plan helps keep you focused when condensing lots of important information onto a one-page template.

Provide an overview of your business plan

A one-page plan provides you with an overview of everything you need to consider about your business venture. One-page plans provide a snapshot of multiple moving parts of your strategy and operations to keep you focused on what matters.

One-page business plan templates are a very useful starting point for developing a more detailed standard business plan . By creating a high-level document, you can begin to sketch out your ideas and assumptions and test them before spending lots of time developing a long business plan that you end up rewriting. Once you’re satisfied with your one-page plan, you have a step-by-step outline for a more in-depth version.

Manage operations and finances

As you grow your business, the operations and finances side of things often become more complex and difficult to manage. In times like these, when you need to make important decisions, a one-page business plan helps keep the core objectives of your venture in mind at all times. Nailing down your template means you don’t waste time deciding what the most important details are, so you can focus your time and energy into growing your business instead.

Synthesize business information

Another key benefit of having a one-page business plan on hand is the ability to provide anyone with a snapshot of your business whenever needed. This situation could apply to your management team, potential business partners, or potential investors who want a fast, easy-to-digest rundown of your business.

While you might have an elevator pitch ready, a one-page plan helps back up your claims, especially when it comes to items like financial projections or your cash flow statement . A one-page business plan template means it’s easy for you to quickly synthesize relevant information for the required audience. Simply drop the latest information into your template and get ready to present.

What are some examples of one-page business plans?

Before you write a one-page business plan, it’s helpful to get familiar with the various types of templates available and decide which one is best for your needs.

Startup one-page business plan template

Writing a business plan for a startup is a very different process than creating a plan for an established business. Startups are beginning from the very start of their journey with little historical data to go on. By nature, they need to be a lot more flexible with their ideas and decisions as they decide what works.

Example of a one page business plan template for startups

( Image Source )

So a one-page plan for startups is more about laying the groundwork for more in-depth strategic analysis and taking an agile approach to developing a business model.

Business model canvas

The business model canvas is a well-known template for business plans. A single page is divided into squares, with each square representing an important component of the business strategy.

Example of business canvas model template

With a business model canvas, you’ll be able to quickly outline items like your target markets, value proposition, and revenue streams. Writing and comparing these sections on one-page allows you to validate your business model against your market analysis and quickly iterate on different elements of your business strategy .

Business idea action plan template

While many business plan templates focus on strategy and high-level objectives, some businesses require more focus on operations and action right from the start. In those instances, a business idea action plan template can be more beneficial.

Example of a one page business plan for actioning business ideas

This type of one-page business plan focuses on what you are going to do and how you are going to do it, rather than analysis and projections. It enables business owners to develop tactics for how they’ll design, develop, market, and sell their products or services.

Small business plan template

Small businesses are often operating with limited funding and narrow profit margins. These constraints make revenue targets and cost-effective operations critically important to success, especially for a service business.

Example of business plan template for small business

When this is the case, a shorter business plan template for small businesses which focuses on defining your business niche, setting clear targets, and creating detailed timelines keeps your strategy aligned to the bottom line at all times.

monday.com’s one-page business plan template

Building a one-page business planning template from scratch involves a lot of key elements for consideration, but it doesn’t have to be a tricky process. Having a template to keep you on track enables you to effectively shape your strategy, goals, key activities, and targets in one place.

monday.com has created a one-page business plan template to help you create an effective one-page business plan that will keep your goals and targets at the front of your mind as you grow your business. The monday.com template includes:

  • Digital visualization of your entire business strategy in one location, so you can easily share your plan and make updates
  • Extensive customization options so you can create a business plan that aligns fully with your company branding
  • The ability to add your own visuals such as tables, images, and videos that are relevant to your business plan
  • The ability to collaborate in real-time with business partners and senior management on the creation and development of your one-page plan
  • Integrations with popular business tools such as Excel and Outlook so you can move your business plan seamlessly from creation to execution

screenshot of Business Plan main table example

Have your one-page business plan created quickly and seamlessly with monday.com. Sign up for our free trial and select the one-page business plan template to stay aligned with your business objectives and core goals.

screenshot of Business Plan template example

One-page business plan tips & tricks

Although a one-page business plan is not as extensive as a full-length business plan, there are some best practices you should follow to get the most out of it. With these tips and tricks, you’ll have a one-page business plan that’s realistic, accurate, and functional.

Understand your target market

Before you start outlining your business activities and tactics, it’s imperative that you fully understand your target market and your product-market fit. This understanding includes considerations such as customer price sensitivity, buying preferences, demographics, and more.

Without understanding your target market, building a business model can lead to sales targets and timelines that don’t materialize, a marketing plan or marketing materials that miss the mark, and unrealistic financial projections.

Fine-tune your products and services

Another key element of your business plan is the outline of the products and services you’ll offer. In this area, business owners need to thoroughly understand the cost of production, how to price products and services so they remain profitable, and how your offering measures up against competitors in the market.

By getting a firm grasp of your value offering, you can more accurately project costs, revenue, and profitability over the long term.

Keep your goals and projections realistic

When creating your one-page business plan, use the hard numbers regarding costs and budget to remain realistic about your business goals.

This approach applies to your timelines, too. Although your goals and targets may be ambitious, there needs to be an achievable timeline and resource allocation attached to them.

FAQs about one-page business plans

How do you write a business plan in one page.

It might be more beneficial for some business owners to start with a long business plan and then work on synthesizing it into a one-page template. That way, you can gain a deep understanding of your strategy before selecting the most important highlights for your one-page business plan.

You can also use visuals in place of written text where appropriate to save on space. For example, you can condense the highlights of your financial projections onto a single graph that’s understandable at a glance.

What is the primary characteristic of a one-page business plan?

The primary characteristics of a one-page business plan are clarity and brevity. Anyone who picks up your one-page plan should quickly get a clear idea of what your business does, its goals, and how you plan to achieve them. So it’s essential to keep all the information extremely clear and concise. Using a template like one on monday.com already gives you a leg up with a helpful outline.

What should a simple business plan include?

While every business is unique in some way, there are fundamental pieces of information you should incorporate into all simple business plans, including:

  • Business mission and objectives
  • Target audiences
  • Competitor analysis
  • Products/services outline
  • Key operational considerations
  • Time-bound financial projections

Depending on the purpose of your plan, you might choose to leave some items off the page. For example, if it’s for internal use by a wider team, you might omit elements like business financing plans, income statements, cost structure, etc.

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How to Build a Product Roadmap Based on a Business Model Canvas

Could you list all of the key building blocks you need to develop, manage, maintain, market, and sell a product on a single sheet of paper? With the business model canvas, you can! Using the business model canvas approach is a great way to force yourself to focus on the most strategically important elements of your product. As the name suggests, the typical use case for this tool is to outline the fundamental building blocks of a business, but it also can work really well for a product.

Today we’ll show you how the business model canvas works and how you can use it to come up with a high-level product strategy.

What is a Business Model Canvas?

As you can see from the sample example below (thanks, Strategyzer.com), a business model canvas is a one-page summary describing the high-level strategic details needed to get a business (or product) successfully to market.

The categories or buckets contained in a canvas can be customized. But most will look similar to the one here—covering such key areas as:

  • The product’s value propositions (what it does and promises)
  • Customer segments (who it’s for)
  • Key activities (the steps the team must complete to make it successful)
  • Key resources (what personnel, tools, and budget the team will have access to)
  • Channels (how the organization will market and sell it)
  • Customer relationships (how the team will support and work with its customer base)
  • Key partners (how third parties will fit into the plan)
  • Cost structure (what it costs to build the product as well as how to sell and support it)
  • Revenue streams (how the product will make money)

Business Model Canvas by Strategyzer

If you think about it, that’s a fairly comprehensive set of building blocks you’ll need to think through for your product before you begin developing it. There will certainly be additional factors that’ll affect your strategy, but if you can fill in these high-level details—which, as you can see, should fit comfortably on a single page—you’ll have a useful strategic guide for developing your product roadmap.

Why Should I Use a Business Model Canvas to Develop a Product Roadmap?

Okay, but why? What’s the benefit of building a business model canvas (or the, even more, stripped-down variation, the lean canvas) to guide my product roadmap ?

There are plenty of reasons. But simply put, you can think of a business model canvas as a mission statement for your product roadmap. It’s a handy reference you can refer to, to make sure your roadmap always reflects all the strategic elements needed for your product’s success.

Tweet This: “Think of a business model canvas as a mission statement for your product roadmap.”

Our co-founder Jim Semick has a couple of great short videos explaining the business model canvas concept, which you can check out in the player below.

As Jim explains, here are a few of the benefits of using a business model canvas to think through product strategies:

1. You can use a business model canvas to roadmap quickly.

You can use this canvas approach in just a few hours (and as Jim says, you can even do it with sticky-notes).

This way, rather than trying to write out every detail about your product plan beforehand, you can just document the highlights—and then you can get rolling translating the canvas into your product roadmap.

Read the Product Roadmaps Guide ➜

2. A business model canvas will be more agile.

One problem with the old structure of documenting a business model—the traditional business plan—was that it was almost always inaccurate as soon as the author finished drafting it.

These meaty plans included detailed cost estimates, revenue projections going years into the future, and long-term plans for growing the staff. How could any of that remain accurate for long?

In product terms, you can think of the business plan as resembling an MRD (Market Requirements Document). It’s long, detailed, and probably mostly untrue by the time it’s done.

But because you can put a canvas together so quickly, it will much more accurately reflect your strategic thinking and your company’s current reality. And if things change, it’ll be easier than a long and detailed plan to adjust. This brings us to Jim’s third benefit…

3. Business model canvas roadmaps allow you to pivot as needed.

If you build a business model canvas to guide your business roadmap , and something happens that forces you to re-prioritize or pivot your product , it will be a lot easier to update this short, high-level document than it would be if you had some monster MRD or business plan to tear apart and edit.

With a one-page business model canvas acting as the strategic undergirding for your roadmap, you’ll always be able to quickly spot any items or plans that need updating whenever priorities change or new realities demand that you adjust your approach.

How Can I Use A Business Model Canvas to Guide My Product Roadmap?

The alexa example.

Let’s talk through a hypothetical example, using Amazon’s Echo device (“Alexa”) as our guide.

Imagine that as they were talking through what belonged in the “Revenue Streams” bucket of the business model canvas, Amazon’s Echo team came up with three sources of revenue to start with:

1) Selling Echo devices.

2) Using the device to sell other stuff as customers ask it to connect to the Amazon marketplace. (“Alexa, please add laundry detergent pods to my shopping cart.”)

3) Licensing Echo’s proprietary speech-recognition technology to other businesses.

Now, if the Echo product team put these on their business model canvas, they’d know that they need to make room for budget, time, and resources on their product roadmap for all of these revenue streams.

Another Hypothetical Example of the Business Model Canvas: Channels

Or think about the Channels bucket in the business model canvas. If your team was building out a canvas, maybe you’d have several ideas for reaching customers:

1) The in-house sales team. 2) Affiliate partners. 3) Word-of-mouth advertising from users.

It’s easy to write. But how are you going to translate that “word-of-mouth” strategy into an actual plan?

Maybe you’ll need to budget time and resources for developing things right into your product that make it easier for users to share their experiences with friends, such as a handy tool to help them tweet about it. Maybe you’ll even want to include an “Invite a friend” feature that lets users easier send a trial license to friends, or a couponing feature that offers some reward to a user who brings in two more users.

The point is, your business model canvas can serve as a great strategic reminder of the things you’ve determined are important enough to make it onto your product roadmap .

So you can always look back and see immediately—it’s just one page, after all—if you’re still working on all of the essential elements of your product, or if you’ve inadvertently strayed from them and gotten lost in the wrong details.

That’s why we’re big proponents of the business model canvas approach to guiding your product roadmap .

Do you have an opinion about using the business model canvas approach for developing and documenting your product’s strategy? Feel free to share them in the comments section.

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Business Model Canvas Explained – a One-Page Business Plan

Earlier, we blogged about the lean canvas* – a startup-friendly idea validation tool . Now, we want to pay tribute to the solution that underlies it – the business model canvas**. So, let’s talk about a sort of a business plan that you can scale in a one-page table.

Here is a short intro to the business model canvas framework. It is the brainchild of Alexander Osterwalder. He offered it as an alternative to the business plan, which he considered a time-waster. The idea was to single out the crucial components of a company that are required to make money. Thus, you get nine sections on the canvas to fill in with relevant data.

Hard to believe, but this document can replace pages of analytics and formulas. And that’s just one of the advantages if we compare business model canvas vs. business plan . What else does this tool have to offer?

Why entrepreneurs love business model canvas

Time-efficient and flexible.

Time is one of the most precious assets in the business world. And Osterwalder’s tool helps you use it efficiently. All the elements of business model canvas are easy-to-understand of what to be filled in. We do not promise you will have a handle on it within 20 minutes or less. But within a few hours, you’ll get an aggregated break up of what you need to generate revenue. Moreover, once it is done, you can and most likely will update the canvas over time. Business plans won’t grant you such flexibility.

Risk-identifying

The canvas provides you with input data to identify risks at an early stage. You can measure most of the bottlenecks to build a high-performance growth strategy. This is not a guarantee to avoid failure. But you’ll know your weak points and be able to pivot if needed.

Value-centered

Of all the business model canvas elements, Value Propositions are pivotal. It tells you why your business exists and what value it delivers. We can say that the entire business model canvas is built around this section. As a result, you get a wide scope of jobs to be done and versatile supporting inputs. You won’t find any irrelevant data on the canvas. The graphical design beacons essential information required to grow your business.

Self-intuitive

The tool is very intuitive. Some users don’t even need the business model canvas explained to start working with it. Indeed, you don’t have to be a genius to get the hang of it. Moreover, the canvas is built using a common language. This makes it easy-to-understand by both internal and external stakeholders.

By the way, we are hiring. Check out our job openings.

How to get started with the business model canvas?

Now, it’s time to shift from product-centric thinking towards business model ideation. We’ll explain how to fill in the components of business model canvas step by step. So, try out the flow yourself using this editable template by Mural . Also, you can download the canvas from Strategyzer .

In our video, we used Uber to explain the lean canvas . Let’s pick this company here as well to display real-life examples.

Customer Segments

Alexander recommends you to start with this section. Try to figure out who is the most important customer you’re delivering value to. The Persona method can help you create an imaginary representation of user categories. As an outcome, you’ll get a list of segments or Personas.

Feel free to spend much time on Customer Segments. Similarly to a lean methodology perspective, this section, together with Value Propositions, calls the shots of the entire canvas. For Uber, we have two categories of users – drivers and passengers. In this case, you may build two separate canvases per each one.

Answer to : Who do you deliver the value to?

Domain knowledge required :

  • Market dimensions

Value Propositions

Each Persona has a set of problems or needs that your product/service can solve. And that’s what you need to specify in the Value Propositions section. For this, we advise you to make use of the Jobs To Be Done framework.

Answer to : What problems and needs can you solve with your product?

  • Jobs To Be Done

A channel means a communication unit that entrepreneurs use to reach customer segments. If you’re selling your products via a website – that’s one of your channels business model canvas. Other solutions that draw customers’ attention to your products are also channels. These may include search engines and tools, social media, and even word of mouth marketing .

Answer to : Which are the optimum channels to reach your customer segments?

  • Market behavior

Customer Relationships

This section defines how you interact with customers. It goes beyond the sale-and-purchase interplay via the Channels. Business model canvas Customer Relationships involve post-sales liaison and feedback. If you use a call center or a chatbot to interact with users, mention them here.

Answer to : Which type of interaction suits best to each customer segment and how much do they cost?

Revenue Streams

Revenue Streams list the ways you use to get money for your product. They mostly derive from mapping Customer Segments to Value Propositions. For example, Uber passengers pay for their ride with a bank card. Uber gets revenue in the form of a ride commission. Other ways that generate money within your product are also revenue streams. These may include different billable add-ons, subscriptions, premium accounts, etc.

Answer to : What exactly do your customers pay for?

  • Jobs to be done

Key Activities

Now, the tough part begins. Key Activities cover all the things you need to accomplish to make your business work. For digital products, this involves ongoing product evolution and marketing. These activities, in turn, include recruiting, advertising, etc. If you deliver specific services, this may cover things that refine your propositions. When doing Key Activities business model canvas, take into account other sections you’ve already filled in.

Answer to : What do you need to implement for your business to deliver value to your customers?

Key Resources

Key Resources are the assets you need to run your business at full force. In other words, this is what you can’t do without. Uber rests on a sophisticated technological platform. Also, it requires drivers to complement its value proposition. Services-oriented businesses mostly rely on their staff and expertise.

Answer to : What resources can’t your business propositions do without?

Key Activities:

Key Partners

Now, let’s take a look towards external things that can contribute to your business. Key Partners is the section for this. Here, you need to define all the external stakeholders. We advise you to map them to Key Activities and Key Resources if any. For Uber example, investors can contribute to developing tech platform. Recruiting partners can help with hiring drivers. And so on.

Answer to : Which external stakeholders can contribute to your business?

Key Activities & Resources

Cost Structure

It’s time to strike a balance:) Actually, Cost Structure should tell you what you spend money for. Also, you need to specify prospective costs if your business is growing. This section covers costs for hardware purchases, software development, rental services, and so on.

Answer to : What are you paying for and which costs are most important in your business model?

That’s it. Once you have it done, the next step ahead is business model canvas analysis. You have a broad picture of things in your business and can discover bottlenecks. Also, make sure to share it with stakeholders to refine the content. The canvas is a flexible document, so you should not feel obligated to stick to the first version.

Why entrepreneurs hate business model canvas

A coin always has two opposite sides, unless you’re using Harvey Dent’s lucky coin:) It means that the business model canvas is not a one-size-fits-all tool. And here are some reasons why you may want to abandon it.

  • Learning needed You’ve read this business model canvas review and learned the basics on how to fill it in. Some enthusiasts prefer to skip this step and get at working with the canvas right away. If you use it in the wrong context, it may be misleading for your analysis.
  • Iterative planning The canvas requires an iterative approach to working with it. It means you have to update it regularly according to the business flow. Using the canvas for linear planning won’t let you experience business model canvas benefits to the full.
  • Not full picture The canvas lacks important business facets like existing alternatives, regulatory environment, and others. Planning without them can be a dead-end road. In this regard, the lean canvas offers you broader horizons. So, it’s essential to understand the purpose of the business model canvas. It can be a great augmentation to other business analytical tools you use.
  • Too simple Simplicity is not always a benefit. As a rather easy-to-use tool, the business model canvas cannot dive deep in analytics. Generally, it is an actionable communicative tool to get a general overview of the business flow. But, you should not rely on it as a full-fledged analytical tool.

A solid alternative to the Business Model Canvas

It’s clear that the Business Model Canvas has its limitations, even when it’s combined with the Value Proposition Canvas tool. Since neither allows you to delve deep into the context of your product idea, it’s likely that you will need to make use of another tool in order to achieve this.

We recommend using BRIDGeS, an all-in-one tool for flexible idea generation , validation, and selection. When compared directly to the Business Model Canvas, BRIDGeS bears several key advantages, including the fact that it’s versatile, easy to use, and allows for deep context understanding. The framework also gives you the opportunity to analyze a Subject from all angles in order to discover new insights or approaches. By the end of the process, you won’t just have a general overview of the problem you are trying to solve — you’ll have a firm idea of how to move forward with your business/product idea.

To get a better understanding of how BRIDGeS compares to the Business Model Canvas, check out the Uber Case Study.

Not sure if you should try the Business Model Canvas?

We would not pressure you to go with Osterwalder’s canvas. It is a specific tool and not every business can benefit from it. If, however, you’d like to give it a shot, we do advise you to start with the value proposition canvas*** . It’s derived from the business model canvas components – Value Propositions and Customer Segments. At the same time, it lets you understand the value of your product/service from the customer’s standpoint.

If you are a startup founder, BRIDGeS or the Lean Canvas is what you need from the outset. Check out how Amazon, Google, and other big names could have taken advantage of the lean canvas tool earlier. As an all-in-one tool, BRIDGeS can also be beneficial for nailing down your product idea during the early stages of your startup journey. Apart from that, it probably won’t be until your business is up and running that you’ll understand if other discovery tools are a better fit or whether the Business Model Canvas is the way to go.

* Lean Canvas was designed by Ash Maurya, based on the Business Model Canvas designed by Alex Osterwalder, Strategyzer.com , licensed under CC BY SA 3.0.

** Business Model Canvas is designed by Alex Osterwalder, Strategyzer.com , licensed under CC BY SA 3.0.

*** Value Proposition Canvas is designed by Alex Osterwalder,  Strategyzer.com .

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Canvas: One-Page Business Plan

Class details, regular fee*.

$200 (valued at $1,500)

Class Schedule

See Class Schedule Options below.

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Smart entrepreneurial training (set), business consulting, create a one-page business plan using the lean business canvas model..

A lean business canvas helps entrepreneurs challenge their assumptions and define their businesses’ competitive advantage. In this one-page business plan, you will chart out your target market, cost structure, revenue streams and key metrics to measure your business success.

Identify key performance metrics to track your progress toward meeting your business goals.

Each week you will identify a SMART goal that is connected to the metrics you use to track your businesses success. Owning your business goals will help you prioritize the activities to pursue to work more efficiently and effectively.

Engage with others as you strategize and refine your business goals.

This course facilitates connections between like-minded entrepreneurs. You will have the opportunity to share ideas, provide feedback, and encourage one another throughout the course.

Class Schedule Options

During enrollment, you will have the opportunity to select one of the following class schedules to participate in. Class spaces are limited.

*Alternative pricing available – review FAQs for more detail

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"The Canvas method is one of my favorites because it is an efficient and effective way to define a business and understand where the focus should be for success."

Eileen Brewer, Canvas: One-Page Business Plan Instructor

What people are saying…

Tools for my business goals, this class has changed my mindset on my business and provided tools in my toolbox to accomplish my business goals., starting a business, i have exceeded my goals and am actually doing the work of starting a business. so awesome., you may also like.

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What's your plan for success? Does your business have a plan? The one-page business model demonstrates that you have determined your product or service, understood the need and market opportunity, researched the competition, and determined your costs and pricing. We highly recommend that you attend the workshop on this topic. 

Copyright © 2024 SCORE Association, SCORE.org

Funded, in part, through a Cooperative Agreement with the U.S. Small Business Administration. All opinions, and/or recommendations expressed herein are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the SBA.

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COMMENTS

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    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. ... 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 ...

  3. Business Plan Canvas (One Page) Template

    Business in a Box templates are used by over 250,000 companies in United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Australia, South Africa and 190 countries worldwide. Quickly create your Business Plan Canvas (One Page) Template - Download Word Template. Get 3,000+ templates to start, plan, organize, manage, finance and grow your business.

  4. Free One Page Business Plan Template for Word

    How to use the one-page business plan template. Here are the steps for filling out our template: Enter your contact details to download the template in Microsoft Word or as a PDF. Gather your relevant business documents, such as market research results and financial statements, in case you need to include details from them.

  5. Business Model Canvas: How to use the 1 page business plan

    Put simply, the Business Model Canvas is a one page business plan. Initially developed by Swiss business theorist, author and consultant Alexander Osterwalder, this strategic planning tool is used by many organisations across the globe. Essentially, it uses a template that can help your business simplify its planning in a highly visual way.

  6. How To Use A Business Model Canvas

    The 15-Second Summary: The Business Model Canvas is a one-page business plan. It describes how you win and delight customers, how your team works behind the scenes and how you consistently make money. The canvas can help you design a strong model, and spot ways of improving your business. The 60-Second Summary: The Business Model Canvas is one ...

  7. How to Write a One-Page Business Plan

    You should describe the market needs right at the beginning of your business plan. Your entire business idea relies on solving a specific problem, so make sure you describe it clearly. 2. Business solution. Once you've described the problem, it's time to explain how your business is going to solve it.

  8. Business Model Canvas: How to use a one page business plan

    Put simply, the Business Model Canvas is a one page business plan. Initially developed by Swiss business theorist, author and consultant Alexander Osterwalder, this strategic planning tool is used by many organisations across the globe. Essentially, it uses a template that can help your business simplify its planning in a highly visual way.

  9. Your guide to the Lean Business Model Canvas

    A lean business model canvas is a one-page business plan that helps you break down your product or business model, question and test your assumptions, and determine if your idea actually has legs. ... You might also hear a lean business model canvas referred to as a variety of other, similar terms like a lean business canvas, lean business plan ...

  10. Business Model Canvas

    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.

  11. Lean Canvas

    Lean Canvas is a 1-page business plan template created by Ash Maurya that helps you deconstruct your idea using twelve business modeling building blocks. A Lean Canvas can describe a business model, a product release, or even a single feature, making it a highly popular business model innovation and product management tool used by millions ...

  12. How to Write a One Page Business Plan Template & Example

    Ever heard of the 1 page business plan? It's called the Business Model Canvas, and its a single page document that you can use to map out your entire busine...

  13. Business Model Canvas

    This is where the Business Model Canvas comes in. Developed by Swiss business theorist, author and consultant Alexander Osterwalder, the Business Model Canvas is a strategic tool that acts a one-page supplement to a full business plan. Due to its simple layout, the Business Model Canvas allows you to plan in a highly visual way.

  14. Free Business Model Canvas Templates

    A lean canvas template is a one-page business plan that summarizes a business and breaks it down into nine key elements. Those elements include problems, solutions, key metrics, value propositions, advantages, channels, customer segments, cost structures, and revenue streams.

  15. Easy-to-use one-page business plan template

    A one-page business plan template helps you map out what elements are the most important to include and how you'll organize them to make the most sense to the audience. A traditional business plan goes into great detail and could be dozens of pages long. With a one-pager, the idea is to condense all the important information into one high ...

  16. Template: Business Model Canvas

    Give it 5/5. Download Template. If writing a full business plan seems overwhelming, start with a one-page Business Model Canvas. Developed by Founder and CEO of Strategyzer, Alexander Osterwalder, it can be used to easily document your business concept. Download this template to fill out the nine squares focusing on the different building ...

  17. Business Model Canvas: Definition, Benefits, and Examples

    As Jim explains, here are a few of the benefits of using a business model canvas to think through product strategies: 1. You can use a business model canvas to roadmap quickly. You can use this canvas approach in just a few hours (and as Jim says, you can even do it with sticky-notes). This way, rather than trying to write out every detail ...

  18. Business Model Canvas Explained

    Here is a short intro to the business model canvas framework. It is the brainchild of Alexander Osterwalder. He offered it as an alternative to the business plan, which he considered a time-waster. The idea was to single out the crucial components of a company that are required to make money.

  19. Canvas: One-Page Business Plan

    A lean business canvas helps entrepreneurs challenge their assumptions and define their businesses' competitive advantage. In this one-page business plan, you will chart out your target market, cost structure, revenue streams and key metrics to measure your business success. Identify key performance metrics to track your progress toward ...

  20. One Page Business Plan Template

    Download Template. What's your plan for success? Does your business have a plan? The one-page business model demonstrates that you have determined your product or service, understood the need and market opportunity, researched the competition, and determined your costs and pricing. We highly recommend that you attend the workshop on this topic.

  21. How To Create A 1 Page Business Plan In 20 Minutes

    Adapted from Alex Osterwalder's Business Model Canvas, Ash Maurya created the Lean Canvas — a one-page business plan template. The Lean Canvas is a framework so startups can spend more time ...