Have you fallen into the: “You need to write a business plan trap“? Forget the business plan. Use a business model canvas instead.
The Business Model Canvas is a strategic management tool. It’s a lean startup template for developing new business models, or documenting existing business models (which is the foundation for continual improvement).
The business model canvas is a visual chart that helps you better organize your strategic thinking about your value proposition, your operating infrastructure, your customers, and your finances.
If you’re launching a startup, looking to re-invigorate your brand, or creating a new product, this is one way — a great way — to start.
The Business Model Canvas: Customer feedback is a key component
Once we create your business model canvas, the next step is to get out of the office and test your assumptions. It’s important to get customer feedback, and pivot — or modify your value proposition — until you find your product/market fit.
You want to create something so great you’ve got people knocking down your door to get it. And you want your customers to help you create it.
The goal is to do everything else the competition is doing, and add one thing that no-one else does or that you do better than anyone else. So that you’ve truly got a unique value proposition to carve out your niche in the marketplace.
Getting feedback from your customer is the key component of lean marketing. Too often, we marketers — and I am just as guilty of this myself as anybody — make invalid assumptions and then wonder why things fall flat. When maybe a different message, another channel, or a feature you never even dreamed of might spell the difference between failure and success.
Lean Marketing empowers your customer to guide the process. The student teaches the master.
It’s important to embrace failure as part of the process. Sometimes you’re going to get it really wrong before you get it really right.
Ready to start? Make your own copy of the Business Model Canvas from Google Drive.
