Creating the Business of Palisade Posh – Continued …
Starting your own business is exciting and often overwhelming to say the least. Coming to this endeavor with limited business knowledge and or expertise makes learning this part of the dream super interesting! Unfortunately, the business class I signed up for has been temporarily postponed by a month. Not being one to EVER let grass grow under my feet, I’m continuing to study independently using the Business Model Generation book by Alexander Osterwalder & Yves Pigneur. This book was recommended to me by my business consultant, Nancy Barnett from SBDC.
I love this book! It is designed for visual learners and is geared specifically for Visionaries! Today I’m going to focus on “The Business Model Canvas” which is a key component throughout the book. This tool metaphorically acts like a painter’s canvas, preformatted with the nine business model building blocks, it allows business owners to visually create a picture of new or existing business models. Using the diagram in the book as my guide, I took a large piece of paper and drew out the template on my paper.
Each section represents one of the nine building blocks which are: Customer Segments, Value Propositions, Channels, Customer Relations, Revenue Streams, Key Resources, Key Activities, Key Partnerships, and Cost Structures. Each section is described as such:
Customer Segments - An organization serves one or several Customer Segments
Value Propositions – It seeks to solve customer problems and satisfy customer needs with value propositions
Channels – Value propositions are delivered to customers through communications, distribution, and sales Channels
Customer Relationships – Customer relationships are established and maintained with each Customer Segment
Revenue Streams – Revenue streams result from value propositions successfully offered to customers
Key Resources – Key resources are the assets required to offer and deliver the previously described elements…
Key Activities - … by performing a number of Key Activities
Key Partnerships – Some activities are outsourced, and some resources are acquired outside the enterprise
Cost Structure – the business model elements result in the cost structure.
The book goes over each block in greater detail and while reading through it, I took copious notes. These notes I then transferred to post-its that I then organized on the canvas. The post-it notes help me visually see the various aspects of the business and will ultimately help me design a solid and effective business plan! I will be using this canvas as I work my way through the rest of the book. I also think it will be very useful, with my business class! Since the start date of the class has been moved to the end of June, my goal is to get through the book prior to the start of class. The next section of the book is titled ‘Patterns’, I’ve not yet started it so I will save it for a future blog post!
Resources:
Business Model Generation
By: Alexander Osterwalder & Yves Pigneur
$34.95 USA/ $41.95 CAN (I bought it on Amazon used for much less!)
ISBN 978-0-470-87641-1
