business model canvas business plan template

The Business Model Canvas

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

The Business Model Canvas enables you to:

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

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Mastering business models

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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?

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The 20 Minute Business Plan: Business Model Canvas Made Easy

Table of Contents

What’s the Business Model Canvas?

How do you get started, why use the business model canvas, when should you use the business model canvas, how do you use the canvas to facilitate alignment and focus, step 1 (of 10): customer segments, step 2 (of 10): value propositions, step 3 (of 10): channels, step 4 (of 10): customer relationships, step 5 (of 10): revenue streams, step 6 (of 10): key activities, step 7 (of 10): key resources, step 8 (of 10): key partnerships, step 9 (of 10): cost structure, step 10 (of 10): applications, analysis & next steps, example a: enable quiz (startup), example b: hvac in a hurry (enterprise), using the google doc’s/powerpoint template.

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

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

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

• Customer Segments : Who are the customers? What do they think? See? Feel? Do?
• Value Propositions : What’s compelling about the proposition? Why do customers buy, use?
• Channels : How are these propositions promoted, sold and delivered? Why? Is it working?
• Customer Relationships : How do you interact with the customer through their ‘journey’?
• Revenue Streams : How does the business earn revenue from the value propositions?
• Key Activities : What uniquely strategic things does the business do to deliver its proposition?
• Key Resources : What unique strategic assets must the business have to compete?
• Key Partnerships : What can the company not do so it can focus on its Key Activities?
• Cost Structure : What are the business’ major cost drivers? How are they linked to revenue?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

LINK TO WORKSHOP PAGE

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Congratulations- you have a working canvas! The section below offers a few analytical ideas and suggestions for next steps.

Core Applications The most core and obvious applications of the Canvas are to ask: – Does it make sense? – Could it be better? – Does the rest of my team understand and agree? Have additional ideas? – (rinse and repeat at least quarterly)

Competitiveness The canvas does a good job of helping you figure out your business, which is a good place to start. You also want to look at the competitive environment and think about if and how you have/maintain a long term competitive advantage.

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

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

Want to make innovation an everyday thing?

What is Enable Quiz?

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

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

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

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

The Business Model Canvas at Enable Quiz

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

What is HVAC in a Hurry?

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

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

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

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

The Business Model Canvas at HVAC in a Hurry

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

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

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

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

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

Copyright © 2022 Alex Cowan · All rights reserved.

Business Model Canvas Template

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

Trusted by 65M+ users and leading companies

About the Business Model Canvas Template

The Business Model Canvas template, designed by Alexander Osterwalder and Yves Pigneur, provides a strategic and powerful way to understand your business. The Business Model Canvas (BMC)  displays a business model, and it contains nine blocks: fill in each one using stickies, links, sketches, pictures, and videos. Use this business model template collaboratively with your team to clearly explain and visualize your business.

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

The canvas provides nine key business elements to illustrate, summarize, and track. The nine building blocks of a BMC template are:

1. Key partners

List the key partnerships your business leverages or relies upon for success. Include the resources or value your business gets from these partnerships.

2. Key activities

Summarize the key activities that allow your business to provide services and deliver on your value proposition.

3. Key resources

List the key resources your business relies upon or uses in order to operate and provide services.

4. Key propositions

Summarize the different value propositions that set your business apart from your competition.

5. Customer relationships

Define and describe the primary relationships you have with your customers, including how you interact with them, how these interactions differ among different types of customers, what different customer needs are, and the level of support the different customers receive.

6. Channels

Detail how your customers are reached, how your services are provided, your different distribution channels, and how your value proposition is delivered.

7. Customer segments

Define the ideal customer personas your value proposition is intended to benefit, then describe the key differences between these segments and potential steps in the customer journey.

8. Cost structure

Identify the primary costs associated with operating your business and providing your services, then detail the relationship between these costs and other business functions.

9. Revenue streams

Describe how your business generates revenue through the delivery of your value proposition.

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When do you use the Business Model Canvas template?

Business Model Canvases are not intended to serve in place of a business plan . Instead, the BMC template is used to summarize and visually illustrate the most important information of a business model and to provide centralized ongoing clarity.

This canvas is appropriate for illustrating existing business models, regardless of whether the business is new. The Business Model template is also appropriate for visualizing new business models for startups, as it helps organize and consolidate ideas around your key functions. Keep in mind that the Business Model Canvas should be reviewed periodically, as all the factors listed can change over time.

5 Benefits of creating a Business Model Canvas online

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

1. Provides a structure for ideation

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

2. Focuses you on your value proposition

It can be easy to get distracted by the varying factors involved in running a business. The value proposition is at the heart of the entire Business Model Canvas template, so you can continually focus on why your business exists. You should use your value proposition as a guiding star to give you direction as you fill out all other parts of the canvas.

3. Fast to complete

Whether or not your business model is clearly defined or you are testing out different business models, the Business Canvas template can be completed quickly and helps you generate new business ideas. This allows for quicker feedback, quicker ideation, and faster iteration.

4. Provides a holistic view of your business

With the Business Model Canvas, you can see how all of the elements of your business are interrelated and inform or affect each other. This provides you with a better understanding of how your business operates as a system or ecosystem.

5. Gives you a central document to share externally

Once you’ve filled out your Business Model Canvas template, you can share it widely, get feedback, and make any needed updates. Because the visual presentation is easy to grasp and understand, teams, stakeholders, advisors, and partners should find the canvas relatively straightforward and easy to understand.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Get started with this template right now.

Project Scope Template

Works best for:.

Project Management, Decision Making, Project Planning

A project scope helps you plan and confirm your project’s goals, deliverables, features, functions, tasks, costs, and deadlines. A project manager and team should develop a project scope as early as possible, as it will directly influence both the schedule and cost of a project as it progresses. Though project scopes will vary depending on your team and objectives, they generally include goals, requirements, major deliverables, assumptions, and constraints. Aim to include the whole team when you create a project scope to ensure everyone is aligned on responsibilities and deadlines.

Priority Matrix Template

Business Management, Strategic Planning, Prioritization

If you need a little more than a basic to-do list, then you’d probably benefit from a Priority Matrix. The Priority Matrix template is designed to help you determine which tasks are critical so you can focus on the most urgent needs. In a 2x2 matrix, input your priorities based on whether they must be completed with high or low urgency and are of high or low importance. Applicable to project management and personal management alike, use the Priority Matrix template to improve business processes, create efficiency, remove blockers, and reduce operational waste.

Lean Coffee Template

Agile Methodology, Product Management, Meetings

What makes a great meeting (other than donuts)? It’s appreciating everyone’s skills, resources, and time by making the very best use of them. That’s what the Lean Coffee approach is designed to do. Great for team brainstorms and retrospectives, Lean Coffee breaks the meeting into three basic stages: what to discuss, what’s being discussed, and what’s been discussed. This template makes it easy for you to collect sticky notes and to update the columns as you go from topic to topic.

Love Bomb Icebreaker Template

Icebreakers

Encourage team members to show their appreciation for each other using Miro’s free Love Bomb Icebreaker Template. Participants can add words or phrases that show what they appreciate about their colleagues.

Event Planning Template

Planning, Workshops

Whether you’re planning a product launch, fully remote conference, or milestone event, the Event Planning Template will act as a visual checklist and map for all the details you need to consider before the big day. The Event Planning Template is an adaptable way to make sure the creative and strategic vision of your event doesn’t get lost in the details. By mapping out different sections - from the marketing plan, to the agenda, to snacks and swag for guests — you and your team can focus on the details most important to your functions, and collaborate as needed when overlaps occur.

Porter's Five Forces Template

Leadership, Strategic Planning, Market Research

Developed by Harvard Business School professor Michael Porter, Porter’s Five Forces has become one of the most popular and highly regarded business strategy tools available for teams. Use Porter’s Five Forces to measure the strength of your current competition and decide which markets you might be able to move into. Porter’s Five Forces include: supplier power, buyer power, rivalry among existing competitors, the threat of substitute products or services, the threat of substitute products and services, and the threat of new entrants.

Download the Business Model Canvas Template in Word (DOCX) - Neos Chronos

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DISCOVER MORE RESOURCES

Beside the Business Model Canvas (BMC) we have developed a wealth of complimentary business modelling tools, resources and templates for startup founders and enterprise executives who want to introduce lean methods into their businesses. Check our template library and feel free to use them for your work.

Download more resources No cost, no registration required.

We have created our resources in the template library as a service to the entrepreneur community. This is why we provide them under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License , unless marked otherwise. Like more than two (2) million people so far, you are free to use and adapt the content for your own purposes as long as you visibly acknowledge Neos Chronos as the source in any derivative work. In practical terms this means that you are free to use and adapt this Business Model Canvas Template as long as you do not remove our copyright notice, and you do not restrict the rights you received from us when sharing the result with others.

You are welcome to link back to this page if you found it useful. This is the easiest form of attribution and it helps us reach more people.

EXPLORE OUR SERVICES

If you want to make the most out of your brand new Business Model Canvas Template, then one of the following personalised services may be for you. At Neos Chronos we have helped over 120 startups progress in their entrepreneurial journey and our advisors created over £150 million of sales revenue for the companies they have served.

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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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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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When teams have clarity into the work getting done, there’s no telling how much more they can accomplish in the same amount of time.  Try Smartsheet for free, today.

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11 Free Business Model Canvas Templates in Word and ClickUp

Haillie Parker

March 13, 2024

The foundation of a successful business is an effective business model—your organization won’t be able to get off the ground without one!

At the same time, creating your business model is no walk in the park, and you’ll likely need to lean on some or all of your resources in the development process. One of the most accessible and time-saving resources in this area is a business model canvas template, and if you don’t have one yet or are seeking a new one, you’ve come to the right place!

Follow along as we dive into the top FAQs, benefits, and features of the best business model canvas templates and 11 downloadable examples for any type of business.

What is a Business Model Canvas Template?

What to look for in a business model canvas template, 1. business model canvas template by clickup, 2. startup business model canvas template by clickup, 3. lean canvas template by clickup, 4. business planning template by clickup, 5. business planning document template by clickup, 6. lean business plan template by clickup, 7. business development plan template by clickup, 8. business ideation template by clickup, 9. clickup business brainstorming template, 10. microsoft word business model canvas template by neos chronos, 11. microsoft work blank business model canvas template by the business model analyst, elements of a business model canvas.

Business model canvas templates are pre-built and customizable tools to outline and visualize your business model on a single page. These documents quickly define your company’s unique value proposition , target audience, revenue, cost, resources, key partnerships, and more.

Without a template, developing your business model canvas can be a lengthy and difficult process. Plus, business model canvas templates reduce the margin for error and ensure you’re thinking strategically, working efficiently, and meeting your stakeholder’s expectations.

Business model canvas templates are also great resources to share with the entire team and keep everyone aligned on your organization’s long-term goals.

There are tons of simple, accessible, and free business model canvas templates available for virtually every business management software —but not all templates are created equally! Here are five must-have features to look for before downloading:

• Multiple views to customize the structure of your business model plan and how you visualize it
• Collaboration features to involve the team, stakeholders, and other departments
• Ease of use and simplicity to ensure you’re using the template correctly
• Flexibility to accommodate different company sizes, industries, and business models
• Multiple integrations to bring context and information from other work tools into your template

11 Business Model Canvas Templates in Word & ClickUp

Searching for the perfect BMC template can be an overwhelming process.

Instead of fishing through pages of links or resorting to the trial-and-error method, start here with 11 of the best business model canvas templates for ClickUp and Microsoft. 

The Business Model Canvas Template by ClickUp empowers teams to create new and try different business models with ease on a collaborative Whiteboard . The template starts with nine main color-coded segments to structure your business model canvas:

Key Partners

Key activities, value proposition, customer relationships, customer segments, key resources, cost structure, revenue stream.

Defining these segments will help you develop every element of your business model and give your organization the foundation to thrive. This template also prompts you to indicate the company you’re creating the business model for, along with the designer involved and the date of creation. You can also specify the version name and number if you plan on creating multiple iterations of a business model using this template. And since ClickUp Whiteboards provide an infinite canvas, you’ll never run out of space developing your business ideas.

Startups have unique planning requirements and need a tool that can build a solid foothold for the new company. The Startup Canvas Whiteboard Template by ClickUp was designed with this in mind, and why ClickUp itself is one of the best tools for startups in the planning phase. 

This template includes everything you need to gauge the feasibility of your startup business based on various parameters. The template includes 13 segments that cover nearly every aspect of your startup to help you fully realize your vision for the business. Easily name your organization’s key partners, the problem your business or product will solve, your target market, measurable objectives , equipment costs, the key factor to your success, and more. 

This beginner-friendly Whiteboard template allows you to create a concise summary of your business, what you want to achieve with it, and how you can succeed. It can also serve as a skeletal roadmap for a more comprehensive business plan as your company grows.

The Lean Canvas Template by ClickUp helps business leaders identify the most crucial and dangerous assumptions in their organization. It’s especially helpful when launching a new product or service, as it presents all ideas and potential problems in an organized, easy-to-understand list. Another great resource for startups, this template isn’t just for the planning phase—you can use it multiple times to organize any area of your business throughout its lifecycle.

A little different than the Whiteboard diagrams we saw above, this template applies a pre-made List to your Workspace with three five views including ClickUp’s unique Form view , Kanban-like Board view , and Table view . Using these views, managers can choose how they visualize the issues at hand and can categorize them based on factors like customer segment, cost, metrics, channels, and more.

In this template, you’ll also find a detailed Getting Started Guide ClickUp Doc to support your setup process, three custom statuses, and eight Custom Fields to access key information quickly and directly from your tasks.

If you’re starting a new business idea, the Business Planning Template by ClickUp will help you develop a thorough business plan that leaves no areas overlooked. This details all tasks you and the team must complete and keep everything organized on a clear timeline .

This template will immediately prompt you to plug in your organization’s information, deadlines, and projects into ready-made tasks arranged on an interactive list, Kanban board , or table. With four custom statuses and three Custom Fields to add references, approvals, and sections to each task, this template is somewhat simpler to learn than the previous one but includes a comprehensive Business Plan ClickUp Doc to built-out your strategy.  

Ready to learn more about business strategy? Use this template along with another strategic planning template to ensure you’re taking the proper course of action.

If you’re not ready to put your business model plans into action, start with the Business Planning Document Template by ClickUp to fully outline and visualize your business strategy. What’s unique about this template is that it’s specifically and only for ClickUp Docs. And while it’s intuitive to learn and start using quickly, it’s by no means a simple one-pager !

The formatted Doc guides you from the top down. Starting with your company name, overview, background, and team, you’ll soon be prompted to define key metrics and research including:

• Your marketing analysis
• Sales and marketing strategy
• Operational strategy

And more! Plus, you can link tasks directly in your Business Plan Doc and turn any text into an action item, helping you act on new ideas the moment they come up. And with an automatically saved version history, collaborative live editing, and assigned comments, your Doc will remain updated and act as a referrable source of truth throughout the development of your business proposal and model.

For something a bit less extensive than our other business plan and Whiteboard templates, you can make the most of your resources with this Lean Business Plan Template by ClickUp . 

In this template, you’ll have access to multiple views depending on your preferred layout including a dynamic List, a pre-built Kanban board, and multiple Help Docs . Within each view, you’ll find convenient sections for all of your key information including your plan summary, business model canvas, prioritized tasks, or notes.

In your plan summary, you can categorize your tasks by five different custom statuses, add multiple assignees for cross-functional teams , set deadlines, attach Docs, and more. This template will establish the bare bones of a traditional business plan as you and your team get things done, working toward your business goals.

ClickUp’s Business Development Plan Template offers a comprehensive roadmap tailored for success. With its user-friendly interface, this template facilitates measurable goals and objectives, identification of key milestones for progress tracking, and the creation of clear action plans and strategies.

By utilizing this template, entrepreneurs can effectively chart their path towards sustainable growth and development, ensuring their business remains agile and responsive in today’s dynamic market landscape.

Need the perfect tool to practice and develop your ideation techniques ? Apply the Business Ideation Template by ClickUp to start mapping out new concepts. It’s also a great resource to have on hand during group discussions or brainstorming sessions . 

The template presents users with an Ideation Diagram that includes different segments to help categorize and organize ideas. You can jot down all ideas based on whether they’re business process, product, or people-oriented. The legend indicates each category, and the Pool of Ideas segment will allow you and others to add certain general ideas that you can categorize later.

The entire diagram is highly visual and organized using ClickUp’s digital whiteboard software to capture and develop ideas the moment you have them.

Especially if you rely on ClickUp as brainstorming software , the Business Brainstorming Template by ClickUp will help you nurture new ideas. 

This template allows you to categorize ideas based on:

• What you love
• What you know
• What people need
• What people will pay for 

Include multiple people on your Whiteboard diagram and use collaborative detection to see viewing your work and edit alongside each other without overlap.

This unique visual aid will make everyone feel like they’re actively contributing to discussions and brainstorming sessions, even if you work asynchronously. You can also take this template a step further and use your completed diagram to prioritize newer ideas and determine what’s worth exploring further.

Another option to help develop your business model is the Microsoft Word Business Model Canvas Template. It’s similar to ClickUp’s business model canvas templates and allows for simple organization of the various facets of your company.

Using this basic template, you can establish multiple key details about your business model including key partners and suppliers, your value proposition, and relationships. Identify the channels you’ll need to use to reach your customers, along with the resources required for each activity. In addition, you can add information about revenue streams and cost structure.

This tool is free to download and allows for instant use through Microsoft Word. If simplicity is something you’re looking for from your business model canvas template, this is a good place to start.

Looking for a different Word template to build your next business plan? This Blank Business Model Canvas Template is a little more complex and flexible than the previous document—it’s also free to download!

This template gives you and members of your team a centralized view of your business model, keeping everyone on the same page, literally and figuratively. It takes the segments from the template above and presents them in a diagram format . You can view all key partners, activities, and more in organized sections and add details in the form of sticky notes . Choose from different formatting options, including colors, fonts, and arrangements to optimize how you present your data.

Understanding the key components of a business model canvas is crucial for effectively applying it to your business strategy. Each element plays a vital role in presenting a comprehensive view of your business model. Here are the critical elements of a business model canvas template:

Key Partners are the external companies or individuals who contribute to your business’s success. These can include suppliers, manufacturers, and business allies who support your operations or market entry strategies, helping reduce risks or acquire resources.

Key Activities entail the essential actions your business must take to deliver its value proposition successfully. This can range from production, problem-solving, to delivery, crucial for your business model to thrive.

The Value Proposition defines the unique value your product or service offers to customers. It’s what sets you apart from competitors and addresses specific customer needs or problems, making your offering compelling.

Customer Relationships describe the types of relationships you establish with your customer segments. Whether personal, automated, or self-service, this element outlines how you interact and maintain engagement with your customers.

Customer Segments identify the different groups of people or organizations your business aims to serve. Different segments can have varied needs, and tailoring your approach to each segment can optimize satisfaction and value delivery.

Channels refer to the methods through which your business communicates with and reaches its customer segments to deliver the value proposition. Effective channels ensure the right products and services reach customers at the right time and place.

Key Resources are the assets vital for a business to create and deliver its value proposition, reach markets, maintain customer relationships, and generate revenue. This includes physical, intellectual, human, and financial resources.

The Cost Structure highlights the significant costs involved in operating the business model. Understanding these helps in strategizing on value optimization, cost reduction, and overall financial management.

Revenue Streams constitute the various sources from which the business earns money from each customer segment. This can include direct sales, subscriptions, licensing, or any other revenue-generating mechanisms.

Reach your Goals with Business Model Templates

Choosing the right business model template is essential for developing a successful plan that aligns with your business goals and objectives. With a variety of options available, it can be overwhelming to find the ideal template that fits your specific requirements.

ClickUp’s extensive Template Library offers a range of customizable templates to streamline your business planning process and achieve your goals. Plus, you can access any template, hundreds of productivity features , and over 1,000 integrations for free when you sign up for ClickUp today .

Questions? Comments? Visit our Help Center for support.

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

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

Business model canvas template

Collectively brainstorm new business models or chart the ones you already use.

Better business models. No blank canvases.

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

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

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

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

FigJam Model best practices with your business.

Create a collaborative culture from day one when you build your BMC on FigJam. Use widgets—like polls and alignment charts—to quickly get feedback from your team, marketers, researchers, and more.  And keep everyone engaged and contributing using cursor chat, stamps, and emotes.. Plus, seamless integration with Figma makes it a breeze to hand off ideas to design.

Build your business using all the available tools

With a free business model canvas template as well as roadmap and action plan templates, you can lay the groundwork for your company’s growth.

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What is the business model canvas?

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

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

What is the cost structure of a business model canvas?

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

How do you fill out a business model canvas?

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

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

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Business model canvas template

Summarize a new business model in its early stages.

Use this template to outline all the advantages, targets, challenges, risks, costs, and opportunities of your business. After completing each step, you'll have an exportable canvas representing all the key details.

A business model canvas (BMC) is a one-page model that provides a clear and concise overview of a company's value proposition, target customer segments, revenue streams, cost structure, key activities, resources, partnerships, and channels.

By filling out each section of the canvas, business owners and entrepreneurs can gain a deeper understanding of different business models, identify areas for improvement, and develop strategies to achieve their goals.

The business model canvas template helps with:

• Gathering observations across an organization and build a strategy
• Aligning teams around a common vision
• Identifying areas for improvement
• Making it easier to communicate your ideas to others

How to use the Business model canvas template

Use the following building blocks to build a cohesive business strategy:

1. Identify your customer segments

Who are the people or organizations that will be using your product or service? Try to be as specific as possible — build a customer persona to consider factors such as demographics, psychographics, and behaviors.

For an added level of detail, map out the customer journey to identify key touchpoints.

2. Define your value proposition

What is the unique value that your product or service offers to your customers? This should be a clear and concise statement that summarizes the benefits of your product or service, and how they address customer needs.

3. Identify your channels

Which methods of communication do you plan to use to spread the word about your business to your customers and your key partners? Will you be using online marketing, social media, direct mail, or some other method? List all the channels you plan to use.

4. Describe your customer relationships

How will you interact with your customer base? Will you be providing customer support, offering loyalty programs, or engaging in other ways? Be specific about the types of relationships you will be building with your customers.

5. Define your revenue streams

How will you generate revenue from your product or service? Will you be charging for subscriptions, selling products, or using advertising? List all the revenue streams and pricing models you plan to use.

6. Identify your key resources

What are the resources you need to deliver your value proposition? This could include things like technology, equipment, human resources, intellectual property, or physical assets.

7. Describe your key activities

What are the core activities required to operate your business? This could include things like product development, manufacturing, distribution channels, marketing, sales, or customer service.

8. Identify your partnerships

What external parties will you need to collaborate with to achieve your goals? This could include suppliers, distributors, or other businesses that complement your product or service. Understanding key partnerships can help give you a leg-up against potential competitors.

9. Define your cost structure

What are the costs associated with operating your business? This could include things like salaries, rent, utilities, marketing expenses, or product development costs.

10. Review the canvas

Once you have filled out all the sections, review your canvas and make any necessary adjustments. You may want to consider whether there are any areas that need further refinement, or if there are any inconsistencies that need to be resolved.

11. Next steps

Use the canvas to guide your decision-making and strategy development. You may want to share it with your team, investors, or other stakeholders to get their feedback and input. Update it regularly as your business evolves and grows to inform your roadmap.

Tips for creating a business model canvas

Invite more collaborators.

Invite more team members into the workflow to help with building out each section of the canvas. Team members can provide valuable feedback and unique insights that will strengthen the quality of your business model canvas

Try use cases other than business plans

A business model canvas can be used for more than new business models or an existing business strategy. For example, try gathering insights across an organization to build a more inclusive environment.

Keep it simple

The canvas is meant to provide a high-level overview of your idea on a single page. Avoid getting bogged down in details and keep your descriptions concise and to the point.

How to create a Business model canvas template

Get started with this template right now.

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When do you need a business model canvas, how do you use a business model canvas, what are some common mistakes with using a business model canvas.

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Business Model Canvas: Explained with Examples

Got a new business idea, but don’t know how to put it to work? Want to improve your existing business model? Overwhelmed by writing your business plan? There is a one-page technique that can provide you the solution you are looking for, and that’s the business model canvas.

In this guide, you’ll have the Business Model Canvas explained, along with steps on how to create one. All business model canvas examples in the post can be edited online.

What is a Business Model Canvas

A business model is simply a plan describing how a business intends to make money. It explains who your customer base is and how you deliver value to them and the related details of financing. And the business model canvas lets you define these different components on a single page.   

The Business Model Canvas is a strategic management tool that lets you visualize and assess your business idea or concept. It’s a one-page document containing nine boxes that represent different fundamental elements of a business.  

The business model canvas beats the traditional business plan that spans across several pages, by offering a much easier way to understand the different core elements of a business.

The right side of the canvas focuses on the customer or the market (external factors that are not under your control) while the left side of the canvas focuses on the business (internal factors that are mostly under your control). In the middle, you get the value propositions that represent the exchange of value between your business and your customers.

The business model canvas was originally developed by Alex Osterwalder and Yves Pigneur and introduced in their book ‘ Business Model Generation ’ as a visual framework for planning, developing and testing the business model(s) of an organization.

What Are the Benefits of Using a Business Model Canvas

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

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

How to Make a Business Model Canvas

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Customer Segments

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

• Value Proposition

When filling out a Business Model Canvas, you will brainstorm and conduct research on each of these elements. The data you collect can be placed in each relevant section of the canvas. So have a business model canvas ready when you start the exercise.  

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

These are the groups of people or companies that you are trying to target and sell your product or service to.

Segmenting your customers based on similarities such as geographical area, gender, age, behaviors, interests, etc. gives you the opportunity to better serve their needs, specifically by customizing the solution you are providing them.

After a thorough analysis of your customer segments, you can determine who you should serve and ignore. Then create customer personas for each of the selected customer segments.

There are different customer segments a business model can target and they are;

• Mass market: A business model that focuses on mass markets doesn’t group its customers into segments. Instead, it focuses on the general population or a large group of people with similar needs. For example, a product like a phone.  
• Niche market: Here the focus is centered on a specific group of people with unique needs and traits. Here the value propositions, distribution channels, and customer relationships should be customized to meet their specific requirements. An example would be buyers of sports shoes.
• Segmented: Based on slightly different needs, there could be different groups within the main customer segment. Accordingly, you can create different value propositions, distribution channels, etc. to meet the different needs of these segments.
• Diversified: A diversified market segment includes customers with very different needs.
• Multi-sided markets: this includes interdependent customer segments. For example, a credit card company caters to both their credit card holders as well as merchants who accept those cards.

Use STP Model templates for segmenting your market and developing ideal marketing campaigns

Visualize, assess, and update your business model. Collaborate on brainstorming with your team on your next business model innovation.

In this section, you need to establish the type of relationship you will have with each of your customer segments or how you will interact with them throughout their journey with your company.

There are several types of customer relationships

• Personal assistance: you interact with the customer in person or by email, through phone call or other means.
• Dedicated personal assistance: you assign a dedicated customer representative to an individual customer.  
• Self-service: here you maintain no relationship with the customer, but provides what the customer needs to help themselves.
• Automated services: this includes automated processes or machinery that helps customers perform services themselves.
• Communities: these include online communities where customers can help each other solve their own problems with regard to the product or service.
• Co-creation: here the company allows the customer to get involved in the designing or development of the product. For example, YouTube has given its users the opportunity to create content for its audience.

You can understand the kind of relationship your customer has with your company through a customer journey map . It will help you identify the different stages your customers go through when interacting with your company. And it will help you make sense of how to acquire, retain and grow your customers.

This block is to describe how your company will communicate with and reach out to your customers. Channels are the touchpoints that let your customers connect with your company.

Channels play a role in raising awareness of your product or service among customers and delivering your value propositions to them. Channels can also be used to allow customers the avenue to buy products or services and offer post-purchase support.

There are two types of channels

• Owned channels: company website, social media sites, in-house sales, etc.
• Partner channels: partner-owned websites, wholesale distribution, retail, etc.

Revenues streams are the sources from which a company generates money by selling their product or service to the customers. And in this block, you should describe how you will earn revenue from your value propositions.  

A revenue stream can belong to one of the following revenue models,

• Transaction-based revenue: made from customers who make a one-time payment
• Recurring revenue: made from ongoing payments for continuing services or post-sale services

There are several ways you can generate revenue from

• Asset sales: by selling the rights of ownership for a product to a buyer
• Usage fee: by charging the customer for the use of its product or service
• Subscription fee: by charging the customer for using its product regularly and consistently
• Lending/ leasing/ renting: the customer pays to get exclusive rights to use an asset for a fixed period of time
• Licensing: customer pays to get permission to use the company’s intellectual property
• Brokerage fees: revenue generated by acting as an intermediary between two or more parties
• Advertising: by charging the customer to advertise a product, service or brand using company platforms

What are the activities/ tasks that need to be completed to fulfill your business purpose? In this section, you should list down all the key activities you need to do to make your business model work.

These key activities should focus on fulfilling its value proposition, reaching customer segments and maintaining customer relationships, and generating revenue.

There are 3 categories of key activities;

• Production: designing, manufacturing and delivering a product in significant quantities and/ or of superior quality.
• Problem-solving: finding new solutions to individual problems faced by customers.
• Platform/ network: Creating and maintaining platforms. For example, Microsoft provides a reliable operating system to support third-party software products.

This is where you list down which key resources or the main inputs you need to carry out your key activities in order to create your value proposition.

There are several types of key resources and they are

• Human (employees)
• Financial (cash, lines of credit, etc.)
• Intellectual (brand, patents, IP, copyright)
• Physical (equipment, inventory, buildings)

Key partners are the external companies or suppliers that will help you carry out your key activities. These partnerships are forged in oder to reduce risks and acquire resources.

Types of partnerships are

• Strategic alliance: partnership between non-competitors
• Coopetition: strategic partnership between partners
• Joint ventures: partners developing a new business
• Buyer-supplier relationships: ensure reliable supplies

In this block, you identify all the costs associated with operating your business model.

You’ll need to focus on evaluating the cost of creating and delivering your value propositions, creating revenue streams, and maintaining customer relationships. And this will be easier to do so once you have defined your key resources, activities, and partners.  

Businesses can either be cost-driven (focuses on minimizing costs whenever possible) and value-driven (focuses on providing maximum value to the customer).

Value Propositions

This is the building block that is at the heart of the business model canvas. And it represents your unique solution (product or service) for a problem faced by a customer segment, or that creates value for the customer segment.

A value proposition should be unique or should be different from that of your competitors. If you are offering a new product, it should be innovative and disruptive. And if you are offering a product that already exists in the market, it should stand out with new features and attributes.

Value propositions can be either quantitative (price and speed of service) or qualitative (customer experience or design).

What to Avoid When Creating a Business Model Canvas

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

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

What Are Your Thoughts on the Business Model Canvas?

Once you have completed your business model canvas, you can share it with your organization and stakeholders and get their feedback as well. The business model canvas is a living document, therefore after completing it you need to revisit and ensure that it is relevant, updated and accurate.

What best practices do you follow when creating a business model canvas? Do share your tips with us in the comments section below.

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

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.

The Business Model Canvas: Better Than a Business Plan [+ Free Templates]

Some links included here may be affiliate links, meaning we may earn a small monetary bonus from referring you to them. In no way does this increase the price you pay.

Do you have a great idea for a business or a new product/service but don’t know how to get started?

The business model canvas is an easy-to-use tool that can help you understand your idea and make it more concrete. It’s also a great way to talk about your idea with others, so they can give feedback on what works and what doesn’t.

The Business Model Canvas will help you identify the key components of your venture and map out the relationships between them. You’ll be able to see all aspects of your venture in one diagram—from customer segments, value propositions, channels, revenue streams, costs structures to team roles and organizational structure.

While it’s often used by startups, larger businesses, and more “refined” companies, this honestly is a great tool, no matter how large or small your company is.

I’ve created a free toolkit that includes a business model canvas template and more helpful tools. You can grab it below:

In June I was accepted into a business coaching/learning program called “Power Up Your Business.” It’s sponsored by a local community college and essentially they teach you the framework for a powerful business, along with offering business coaching, working on tactical business plans, and more.

I had heard of this before, and even tried to use it for a “business” I was going to run about 4 years ago ( which clearly didn’t go anywhere).

When I previously used the canvas, I was really confused on everything and I kind of just put it to the side and never thought about it again. So when I heard the topic for the day I wasn’t wildly impressed. I was thinking it wasn’t worthwhile, and was just another “exercise” some trainers and professors make you do.

But this class was one of those times where you go from “yeah, I already know this” to “holy crap, I have a LOT of work to do.”

I felt energized and excited, and THAT NIGHT I went home and was thinking about this before bed. This led to an episode of entrepreneurial insomnia , and I woke up at 3am with my mind RACING about all kinds of ideas for my business.

I actually started a new note on my phone, wrote down everything that came to mind, and by the time I got done it was quite long!

I got out of bed around 5am and filled out an entirely new business canvas for a pivot I was going to be making in my business.

This exercise gave me so much clarity on how I’m going to be moving forward, so I had to share it with you.

What is the Business Model Canvas?

The Business Model Canvas was created by Alexander Osterwalder, and is a strategic management and entrepreneurial tool used to capture the essence of your new venture. It will help you determine if you are on the right path, saving valuable time, energy, and resources in the process. This tool helps entrepreneurs build businesses that can evolve over time with ease.

In short, the Business Model Canvas is a way to quickly put together a business plan without the need for writing a traditional 80-page business plan detailing every aspect of a business you have yet to create.

It’s a method that allows you to quickly iterate and make changes to the plan without having to start a new business plan.

A lot of you might be thinking:

“But Chenell, I just run a [blog, website, ecommerce store, freelancing business, etc] why would I need something like this?”

I’d say if you’re asking the question of whether or not you need to complete this exercise, that you probably need it more than you think.

Having a plan and strategy for going into business and knowing who your customers are and how you can help them is CRITICAL to success.

This tool is used as a template for lean startups and as a strategic management tool.

The 9 Blocks of the Business Model Canvas

If you’ve been following along, I put together a post about each of these throughout the last week or so.

If you look at the canvas as a whole,  the right half of the canvas is essentially the “front of the house” stuff, like what kind of customers you’re helping, how you keep them as customers, etc.

The left half of the canvas is like the “back of the house” where you’re focusing on the activities you are doing in the business, what resources you need, who your key partners are, etc.

Both sides meet in the middle at your value propositions,  which are essentially what kind of offering you have for your clients and customers.

There are nine blocks that make up a business model canvas.

1. Customer Segments

Who are your customers? Who are you creating value for?

This section is about figuring out who you are going to provide value for. In this block of the canvas, fill in characteristics of the people you are targeting.

I know you’ve heard all about determining your niche, and choosing your avatar for your business. This is building upon those exercises.

A customer segment is a group of people (or businesses if you’re a B2B company) that you are looking to sell your products and services to.  It’s essentially the common characteristics your target market has that will allow you to find and market to them more easily.

2. Customer Relationships

How do you get, keep and grow/upsell customers? How do you interact with your current and potential customers? What type of relationship do they expect from working with you?

Customer Acquisition

How are you getting new customers ? This could be anything from email marketing to search engine optimization (SEO) to going out and doing direct sales.

Think about the methods you are going to use to attract the right people to your business. Where are your customers currently hanging out? Are they on Facebook, or are they lingering in an industry-specific forum asking questions?

Customer Retention

Acquiring customers can be challenging, and it’s always easier to sell again to a current customer than to get a new one. How are you going to keep your customers around?

Are you going to mail out postcards for special occasions, have monthly check-in calls, or just surprise and delight them with free stuff? Maybe you’re promoting your customers on social media, whatever it is, take note of it.

Grab the Business Model Canvas Toolkit to more easily follow along. This includes a PDF template of the canvas, along with a step-by-step guide to completing your own canvas:

3. Channels

How do you deliver your product or service? Is it B2B, B2C? How are you reaching your customers and prospects?

There are a few phases of channels to keep in mind:

• Awareness  – these channels could be search engines, social media, etc.
• Evaluation  – Your website, review sites, and again social and search
• Purchase  – Merchant accounts, invoicing platforms, your website
• Delivering Value Proposition – postage or mail, email providers, systems you use to deliver the product or service. Are you going to be delivering value with an online course , consulting and coaching, or do you have a “done for you” kind of offering?
• Post-Purchase Support – your email newsletter, chat platforms, content marketing, and customer service reps.

4. Value Proposition & the Value Proposition Canvas

“A value proposition is a promise of value to be delivered, communicated, and acknowledged . It is also a belief from the customer about how value (benefit) will be delivered, experienced and acquired.” – Wikipedia

What value do you deliver to the customer? Which problem(s) are we helping to solve for the customer?

This is one of the more important exercises to do because if you don’t know what you’re providing and to who, you’re going to fall down a lot more than you need to.

It’s so important, that half of the business model canvas is actually called the value proposition canvas (I know, ALL of the canvases!).

Pause here, and go figure out your value proposition.

5. Key Activities

What do you need to do well to make money? What kind of activities do you need to do to provide that value to the customer?

How exactly are you going to provide value and what kinds of activities need to happen in order for your customer to get what they expected?

As we determined in the value proposition phase, there are certain things customers are going to expect from your business. The key activities block of the canvas helps us figure out what those are and what we should be paying attention to that might not necessarily drive value.

6. Key Resources

What key resources do you need to deliver that value proposition?

Key Resources are the important things your business needs to build out the value proposition you promise customers.  Without these resources, you wouldn’t be able to deliver value, and you wouldn’t have a business to build a business model canvas for.

There are four types of key resources: financial, intellectual, human and physical. These can be things like machinery, systems and processes, patents, salespeople, credit cards, and business loans.

7. Key Partners

This piece of the canvas can get a little confusing once you read through all the types of partnerships there are. But if you take a really granular look, these strategic partnerships can be as simple as a virtual assistant (VA) you’re going to hire, or someone you are going to get into an affiliate relationship with.

Having a partner can be as easy as referring customers to each other.  Or it can be as complicated as two businesses creating a third company together because they found a need in the market and can each contribute a piece of that new pie.

Partnerships are one of the essential building blocks of the business model canvas, and for any business. It’s almost impossible to have a business that provides value for its customer and doesn’t require some kind of partner.

Essentially, we are answering these questions: who is going to help you deliver on that value proposition? A business can’t be all things to all people, so what kind of partnerships do you need to deliver the best service?

8. Cost Structure

This piece is where we should be looking at your fixed costs and variable expenses. But also looking at whether you’re going to be a cost-driven or value-driven business. In short, this means  are you going to be focused on providing the lowest cost solution, or will you be focused on providing value and not worry so much about low costs.

There are a few types of cost structures, including cost-driven, value-driven, fixed costs, variable costs, etc.

What the major cost drivers for the business? Include key resources and key activities in this. What type of cost structure are you going to be using?

9. Revenue Streams

How is the business earning revenue from customers and delivering the value proposition?

There are a few main types of revenue streams (these are not exclusive):

• Subscription fees  – i.e. Netflix
• Fees for usage – i.e. cell phone companies
• Selling assets  – i.e. Amazon
• Lending/renting/leasing  – i.e. Airbnb, Zipcar, Turo
• Licensing  – photography and music
• Brokerage   fees  – i.e. real estate brokers
• Advertising  – i.e. Google Adsense or partnerships

When to Use the Business Model Canvas

The Canvas can be viewed as a one-page business plan, that can be easily updated. I think it’s extremely helpful for these business situations:

When you’re launching a new product or service.

Sure, it may seem as easy as saying, I’m going to start selling bread at my pastry shop. But then you dig deeper by filling out the canvas and realize you’re going to need new ovens, new employees (or at the very least  extensive training for current employees), new marketing strategies, a different managerial schedule (baking usually happens in the wee hours of the morning), and on, and on.

When you’re starting a new business (or blog!)

Many of us have literally “fallen into” entrepreneurship because we had a skill people wanted to pay us for, and we just started selling it without thinking strategically. It’s time to take a step back and get that clarity you’re missing. This will take a few hours out of your day, but it will add so much relief to your life, trust me!

When you need clarity on your current business (this was me!) and don’t have a serious business plan in place.

Similar to the one above, I fell into offering marketing services because the people around me needed help. I knew nothing about running a business, and have just been guessing my way through most of it. Not anymore!

When you want to compare a few different ideas for a new business, service, or product to sell.

This one is so critical! We always have a million ideas running around in our heads, why not narrow it down to the 2 or 3 we are most excited about and really dive deep into those ideas? Do we have a strong business model? Do people actually need what we are offering? Can we actually make a living from this?

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Business Model Canvas

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Visualize, design, and reshape your business model with ease

What is business model canvas template.

The Business Model Canvas is a strategic management and entrepreneurial tool that allows you to describe, design, challenge, invent, and pivot your business model. It's incredibly useful in sketching out and visualizing your business model, rather than writing a time-consuming business plan. Our Business Model Canvas template allows you to map out key aspects of your business, such as key partners, key activities, key resources, value propositions, customer relationships, channels, customer segments, cost structure, and revenue streams, in a structured way.

Try this template now

Who is this Business Model Canvas Template for?

This template is a must-have for entrepreneurs, startups, small businesses, and large corporations alike. It's perfect for:

- Entrepreneurs who are in the early stages of starting a business and need a simple, visual way to express their business idea.

- Startups that need to present their business model to potential investors in a clear and concise way.

- Small businesses that want to reassess their business model and explore new opportunities for growth.

- Large corporations that are launching a new product or service and need to define its business model.

- Business consultants and coaches who help businesses innovate and grow.

- Business and entrepreneurship educators and students who need a practical tool for understanding and discussing business models.

Why use this Business Model Canvas Template?

Using the Business Model Canvas template can provide several benefits:

- It provides a clear, visual overview of your business model, making it easier to understand and communicate.

- It allows you to easily identify how different components of your business relate to each other.

- It helps you to brainstorm and explore new business models and strategies.

- It enables you to easily update and change your business model as your business evolves.

- It can be used as a tool for aligning your team's actions with your business strategy.

- It can be a powerful tool for presenting your business model to stakeholders, investors, and partners.

- It can help you identify potential risks and opportunities in your business model.

Get Started with Business Model Canvas Template.

Follow these few steps to get started with Lark templates:

1. Click 'Use this template' on the top right corner to sign up for Lark

2. After signing up for Lark, you will be directed to the Business Model Canvas Template on Lark Base. Click 'Use This Template' on the top right corner of Lark Base to copy a version of the Business Model Canvas Template to your workspace.

3. Change fields of the template to fit your needs

4. Take advantage of the full potential of this Business Model Canvas Template.

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Need help with this template?

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Track and manage your investment portfolio with ease

Visualize and analyze circle data with ease

Personal financial statement, track your assets, liabilities, and net worth with ease.

Missing Poster

Create missing person posters with ease, evaluate and grade student work with ease using this rubric template, create mla format citations with ease, study guide, stay organized and track your study progress with this comprehensive study guide template, manage your book collection with ease.

Create professional quotes for your business

Create a comprehensive fish database with Lark

Employment verification letter, generate employment verification letters with ease.

2 Week Notice Letter

Create professional 2-week notice letters with ease.

Spelling Test

Track and analyze spelling test results, visualize your family tree with a genogram.

Book Review

Capture and organize book reviews with ease, eisenhower matrix, organize your tasks based on urgency and importance with the eisenhower matrix, employee evaluation, streamline employee evaluations and performance tracking, review of systems, review your symptoms and medical history with this comprehensive template.

Certificate Of Completion

Create professional certificates of completion for courses and workshops.

Organize and share your favorite recipes with ease

Construction contract, create and manage construction contracts with ease.

Employee Of The Month

Recognize and reward outstanding employees with the employee of the month template.

Weekly Budget

Character Reference Letter

Create a character reference letter with ease.

Create an organized outline for your projects

Decision Tree

Make informed decisions with a decision tree template.

Create a fact sheet to showcase your company's key information

Cleaning Schedule

Keep your workspace clean and organized with this cleaning schedule template, doctors note for work, generate doctors' notes for work with ease, streamline your essay writing process with this comprehensive essay template.

Organize travel itinerary with ease

Create a comprehensive syllabus for your course.

User Persona

Create user personas to understand your target audience, trading card, organize and track your trading card collection, credit dispute letter, resolve credit report inaccuracies with a professional dispute letter.

Discover different types of flowers and their characteristics

Create professional lab reports with ease, keep track of your professional references, logic model, create a logic model to plan and evaluate your projects.

Create your own cookbook with ease

Stay organized and on top of your tasks with this checklist template.

Simple Budget

Recipe card, create beautiful recipe cards with ease.

Create professional cover pages for your documents

Professional references, organize and manage your professional references with ease, create mla citations with ease.

Create engaging blog posts with ease

Recipe book, create your own recipe book with ease.

Binder Cover

Create personalized binder covers for your projects, letter of authorization, authorize parties and grant specific authorities with this letter of authorization template.

Acting Resume

Create a professional acting resume with ease, graph paper, create custom graphs and charts with ease, cease and desist letter, send professional cease and desist letters to protect your intellectual property rights, terms and conditions, create a comprehensive terms and conditions template for your website, free monthly budget, organize and track your board game collection, permission slip, create permission slips for student activities, attendance sheet, track employee attendance and manage work hours.

Business Contract

Create professional business contracts with ease, reading log, keep track of your reading progress and insights, create and manage scripts for your film or theater production.

Thesis Statement

Create effective thesis statements for various topics, create professional case study reports with ease.

Manage your bill of lading (BOL) with ease

Generate professional check stubs for your employees, employment letter, create personalized employment letters for your employees, debt verification letter, verify and dispute alleged debts with ease, shopping list, stay organized and never forget your shopping list again.

Door Hanger

Efficiently distribute messages and promotions with door hangers.

Baseball Lineup

Create and manage your baseball lineup with ease, plan and track your work projects with ease, demand letter, demand payment for outstanding invoices and unpaid fees, puzzle piece, organize and track your puzzle pieces with ease.

Notebook Paper

Organize your biology class with this notebook paper template.

Keep track of tree information and conservation status

Create a professional price list for your products or services.

Check Register

Track your financial transactions with ease.

Place Setting

Create personalized place settings for your event.

Gantt Chart Templ

Track project progress and manage tasks with this gantt chart template.

Needs Assessment

Assess your organization's needs and prioritize projects.

Mental Status Exam

Conduct comprehensive mental status exams with ease, checkbook register, keep track of your expenses and manage your finances with ease, customer journey map, visualize and understand your customer journey with ease, free org chart, visualize your organization's structure with ease.

Simple Monthly Budget

Letter of employment, generate professional letter of employment templates, problem statement, streamline problem identification and resolution.

Collect signatures for your petition with ease

Create personalized personas for your target audience.

Bill Of Sale

Create professional bill of sale documents with ease, research proposal, streamline your research proposal process with this template, create and analyze surveys with ease, buyer persona, create personalized buyer personas for your marketing strategy, certificate of appreciation, recognize and appreciate outstanding achievements with personalized certificates, social security card, create professional and secure social security card templates, one on one meeting, streamline your one-on-one meetings with this template, story board, visualize your story with a storyboard template.

Literature Review

Organize and analyze research literature for your literature review.

Bill Tracker

Track and manage your bills with ease, consulting contract, create a comprehensive consulting contract with ease, create your own screenplay with ease.

Exit Ticket

Gather feedback and assess student understanding with this exit ticket template, interview thank you email, express gratitude and follow up after an interview.

Bill Of Sale Word

Create a captivating story with our story map template.

Cleaning List

Keep your space clean and organized with this cleaning list template, police report, efficiently manage and track police reports with this template, succession planning, plan for the future of your organization with a comprehensive succession planning template, blank check, create professional and customizable blank checks.

Streamline user registration and account management

Reference List

Create a professional reference list for your research papers and publications, simple will, create a simple will to distribute your assets.

Grant Proposal

Streamline your grant proposal process and increase your chances of securing funding, essay format, format your essays with ease using this template.

Budget Tracker

Track your expenses and income with ease, letter of support, show your support with a letter of endorsement, college essay, streamline your college essay writing process with this comprehensive template, thank you letter, express gratitude and follow-up with personalized thank you letters, create your own game board with ease.

Collection Letter

Streamline your collection letter process with this customizable template, bullet journal, stay organized and productive with a bullet journal template, news article, create professional news articles with ease, birthday calendar, never miss a birthday with this customizable birthday calendar template.

Monthly Bills

Stay on top of your monthly bills with ease.

Visualize your data on a bubble map

Create an elegant gala event booklet

Stock Certificate

Create professional stock certificates for your shareholders.

Exit Interview

Streamline your exit interview process and gather valuable feedback from departing employees, financial plan, manage your personal finances with ease.

Value Proposition

Create compelling value propositions for your target customers, event proposal, create professional event proposals with ease, verification of employment letter, verify employment details with ease.

Doctor Excuse

Generate doctor excuse notes for patients, policies and procedures, manage and track your organization's policies and procedures, job posting, create professional job postings with ease, movie script, create a movie script with ease, food journal, track your daily meals and nutritional intake with ease.

Memo Format

Create professional and organized memos with ease, corrective action plan, track and manage corrective actions for identified issues, mission statement, craft a compelling mission statement for your organization.

To Whom It May Concern Letter

Create professional recommendation letters with ease.

Keep track of your calls and follow-ups with ease

Waiver of liability, create a waiver of liability for your activities, track your business financial performance and growth.

Monthly Work Schedule

Manage your team's work schedule with ease.

Block Schedule

Organize your school's block schedule with ease, birthday list, keep track of birthdays and gift ideas for your friends and family.

Journey Map

Visualize and analyze customer journey with ease, create a comprehensive site map for your website, notary acknowledgement, create professional notary acknowledgement templates with ease, job proposal, create professional job proposals with ease.

Rent Ledger

Track rent payments and balances with ease, cleaning checklist, efficiently manage cleaning tasks with this comprehensive checklist template.

Potluck Sign Up Sheet

Organize your potluck event with ease.

Birth Certificate

Create personalized birth certificates for newborns, questionnaire, create engaging and interactive quizzes with our questionnaire template, certificate of origin, create professional certificate of origin documents with ease, envelope address, create professional envelope addresses with ease, notarized letter, create professional notarized letters with ease.

Stakeholder Analysis

Analyze and manage project stakeholders effectively.

Instagram Carousel

Create engaging instagram carousels with ease.

Decision Matrix

Make informed decisions with the decision matrix template.

Create stunning mood boards with a variety of visual elements

List of references, create a comprehensive list of references for your research projects, bill of lading, create professional bill of lading documents with ease, monthly expenses, track and manage your monthly expenses with ease, reference sheet, organize and manage your references with ease, efficiently manage household chores with this chore list template, happy birthday, plan and organize birthday celebrations with ease.

Blank Bingo

Create your own customized bingo game, bank statement, track your financial transactions and balance with ease.

Create a personalized birth plan for a smooth delivery

Free itinerary, create a personalized travel itinerary with ease.

Custody Agreement

Create a comprehensive custody agreement for co-parenting, visualize your data with a colorful bar graph.

Policy And Procedure

Standardize your company policies and procedures with this template.

Track and manage handovers between team members

Create professional and customizable quotes for your clients

Contractor estimate, estimate the cost and materials needed for your construction project, itinerary temp, plan your travel itinerary with ease, create a personalized will with ease, free work schedule, efficiently manage employee schedules with this free work schedule template, manage your cloud resources with ease.

Rent To Own Contract

Create a rent-to-own contract for tenants and landlords, sales funnel, track your sales pipeline and manage deals effectively, budget proposal, create a budget proposal for your projects.

Create professional doctor's note templates for patients

Script Format

Create professional scripts with ease, gift letter, create personalized gift letters for donors and recipients.

Letterhead Word

Create professional letterheads with ease, missing person, track missing persons and their case details.

Contractor Agreement

Create a comprehensive contractor agreement with ease, recommendation letter, create personalized recommendation letters with ease, wanted poster, create a professional wanted poster for fugitives, monthly budget, track your monthly budget and manage your expenses with ease, letter of recommendation, create professional and compelling letters of recommendation, doctors note, keep track of patient visits and medical recommendations with this doctor's note template, create a professional newspaper with ease, vision board, visualize your goals and dreams with a vision board, create professional and personalized envelopes for your business, business plan, create a comprehensive business plan with ease, project plan, plan your projects with ease.

Create professional newsletters with ease

Account Based Marketing

Manage your account-based marketing strategies effectively.

Price Matrix

Track and compare product prices, bulk prices, and vendor details.

Content Calendar

Organize and plan your content strategy with ease.

Product Roadmap

Track and manage your product features with ease.

Gantt Chart

Track your project progress with a comprehensive gantt chart.

Availability

Manage your resources and schedule with ease, inventory sheet, manage your inventory with ease and precision, income statements, streamline your request for quotation process with this rfq template, manage your projects efficiently with a clear overview of all activities, project status report, track your project's progress, budget, and health with ease.

Requirements Gathering

Streamline your project requirements with a comprehensive overview.

Staff Availability

Manage your staff's availability with ease and efficiency.

Weekly Stand Up Meeting

Streamline your weekly stand-up meetings and keep track of team progress.

Release Management

Manage your software releases efficiently and effectively, networking spreadsheet, manage your professional contacts and networking activities effectively, process documentation, streamline your business processes with a comprehensive documentation, account planning, streamline your account management and planning process.

Action Item

Track and manage your team's tasks efficiently.

Business Requirements Document

Streamline your project requirements with a comprehensive and organized approach, communications plan, streamline your communication strategy with a comprehensive plan.

Post Mortem

Analyze your projects, identify successes and failures, and improve future endeavors.

Party Planning

Organize your party planning with ease and efficiency.

Vacation Itinerary

Plan your dream vacation with ease, track your company's financial health with a comprehensive p&l statement, manage your marketing campaigns effectively and efficiently.

Production Schedule

Streamline your production process with a comprehensive schedule, sprint planning, streamline your sprint planning with a comprehensive overview of tasks, assignments, and deadlines, construction daily report, track your construction project progress daily.

Product Backlog

Manage your product backlog with ease and efficiency, release plan.

10 Year Plan

Plan your personal and professional life for the next 10 years.

Event Run Of Show

Efficiently plan and manage your event schedule, 3 year plan, plan your business objectives and strategies for the next three years, order tracker, track your orders and deliveries in real-time, grant management, manage your grants effectively and efficiently, trade show planning, streamline your trade show planning process.

Manage your customer relationships with ease

Training plan, streamline your training sessions with a comprehensive plan.

Project Outline

Streamline your project management with a comprehensive outline, organize your meetings effectively with a comprehensive overview, interview guide, streamline your interview process with a comprehensive guide, manage and organize your team's profiles in one place, vendor management, manage your vendors, contracts, and services in one place, real estate schedule, manage your real estate showings, agent details, and property status in one place.

Jira Checklist

Streamline your project management with a comprehensive checklist, class schedule, organize your class schedule with ease, marketing campaign, plan, track, and analyze your marketing campaigns in one place, design brief, streamline your design projects with a comprehensive brief, manage and analyze your product reviews in one place.

Compare and contrast different products with ease

Project milestone, track your project milestones with ease and precision, track your events, responsibilities, and status with ease, manage your projects efficiently with a clear overview of tasks, deadlines, and priorities.

Holiday Schedule

Manage your team's holiday schedule with ease.

Interior Design Schedule

Manage your interior design project with ease, legal case management, manage your legal cases efficiently and effectively, grant calendar, track and manage your grant applications with ease, sales training plan, streamline your sales training with a comprehensive plan.

Key Policy For Employees

Manage and track your employees' key issuance and return with ease, track your project milestones, dependencies, and status with ease, book of business, manage your client's financial portfolio with ease, long term planning, strategize your long-term goals and track progress with ease, action plan for students, track your goals, actions, and progress with ease.

Story Mapping

Map your user stories and prioritize tasks with ease, social media content calendar, plan, schedule, and manage your social media posts effectively, hourly calendar, organize your day with precision using the hourly calendar template, marketing strategy, strategize your marketing efforts with clear objectives, target audience, key messages, and more, personal budget, performance evaluation, streamline your employee performance evaluations with ease, contact list, organize your contacts in one place, invoice tracker, track your invoices and payments with ease, schedule of real estate, manage your real estate activities with ease, media brief, organize your media briefs with ease and efficiency, manage your it assets efficiently and effectively, vacation coverage plan, ensure smooth operations during employee vacations with a comprehensive coverage plan.

Msp Client Onboarding Checklist

Streamline your client onboarding process with a comprehensive checklist.

Product Testing

Track and manage your product testing with ease, talent planning, track and plan your employees' career development, volunteer spreadsheet, manage your volunteers and their contributions effectively, intern onboarding, streamline your intern onboarding process with ease, product training, streamline your product training process with a comprehensive schedule, retrospective, track and improve your team's performance with a retrospective template.

Risk Matrix

Manage and mitigate risks effectively with our risk matrix template, project overview, manage your projects effectively with a comprehensive overview, google calendar, manage your events, meetings, and appointments with ease, organize your tasks, groceries, work, and home maintenance with ease.

Sprint Retrospective

Track and improve your team's sprint performance, event program, streamline your event planning with a comprehensive schedule, staff schedule, efficiently manage your staff's schedule and roles, track and improve your employees' performance with ease, product comparison.

Track your project tasks and employee hours with precision

Activity calendar, organize your team's activities with a comprehensive calendar.

Product Design

Streamline your product design process with a comprehensive overview, project portfolio management, manage your projects, track progress, and align with strategy.

Free Pay Stub

Manage your employee payroll with ease and accuracy, manage your project tasks, deadlines, and deliverables effectively, operations plan, streamline your operations with a comprehensive plan.

Goal Tracking

Track your personal and professional goals with ease, training schedule, organize and manage your training sessions effectively.

Lifecycle Powerpoint

Manage your project lifecycle with ease and precision.

Grant Tracking

Track your grants, deadlines, status, and more with ease.

Conference Itinerary

Organize your conference itinerary with ease.

Subscription

Manage your subscriptions with ease and never miss a renewal date, sprint demo, track and manage your sprint demos with ease.

Consultant Timesheet

Track your consultants' work hours and billable status with ease, project scope, define your project's boundaries with clarity and precision, track and achieve your personal and professional goals with ease, project management plan, manage your project tasks, resources, and timelines effectively, manage your project estimates with ease and precision, manage your sales and purchases with a comprehensive proforma invoice, hourly weekly schedule, organize your week with precision and ease.

Request For Quote

Streamline your procurement process with a comprehensive rfq template, strategic roadmap, strategically plan your company's future with a comprehensive roadmap.

5 Whys Root Cause Analysis

Identify, analyze, and solve problems effectively, manage your volunteers and their tasks efficiently, purchase order, streamline your purchase order process with ease.

Donation Tracker

Track your donations and donors with ease, requirements document, manage your project requirements with ease and efficiency, marketing brief, plan and execute your marketing strategies effectively, monthly goals, track and manage your monthly goals effectively, track, manage, and resolve issues efficiently, travel planner.

Board Meeting Agenda

Streamline your board meetings with a comprehensive agenda.

Fundraising

Track your donors, donations, and follow-ups with ease, project retrospective, analyze your project's success and areas for improvement, conference planning, effortlessly plan and manage your conferences.

Product Launch Plan

Efficiently plan and track your product launches, manage your project backlog with ease and efficiency, sprint planning meeting, streamline your sprint planning meetings and keep track of your team's progress.

Reporting Specifications

Streamline your reporting process with a comprehensive overview, 24 hour planner, plan your day hour by hour with this 24 hour planner template, workback plan, streamline your project management with a comprehensive workback plan, template management, manage your templates effectively and efficiently, event schedule, organize and manage your events with ease, resource planning, efficiently manage your resources and tasks with a comprehensive view, construction proposal, manage your construction proposals efficiently, project kickoff, kickstart your projects with a comprehensive plan.

Organize and analyze your data with ease

Best Practices Documentation

Document and implement best practices across various business functions.

Supply Request Form

Streamline your supply requests with a simple and efficient form, legal case management spreadsheet.

Legal Case Tracking

Track and manage your legal cases efficiently, track and manage your project tasks efficiently, account plan, manage your client relationships effectively with a comprehensive account plan, employee task list, manage your team's tasks efficiently and effectively, weekly goals, track and manage your team's weekly goals with ease, daily task employee task list, streamline your daily tasks and improve productivity, deliverables, track and manage your project deliverables with ease, project pipeline, manage your projects efficiently with a clear overview, streamline your order management process with ease, track and evaluate participant performance with ease, manage your request for information (rfi) process with ease, professional development plan, track your professional growth and plan for future skills with ease, competitive analysis, analyze your competition with a comprehensive overview, google sheets calendar temp, manage your personal and professional life with a comprehensive calendar.

24 Hourly Schedule

Organize your day with a 24-hour schedule, create a new database from the time card, track your employees' work hours and tasks efficiently, case management, manage your cases efficiently and effectively, risk benefit analysis, analyze the potential benefits and risks of your business decisions, business case, streamline your business case creation process, manage your projects efficiently with a comprehensive overview, gap analysis, identify and address gaps in your business operations, workforce planning, streamline your workforce planning with a comprehensive overview of your employees, streamline your project management with clear roles and responsibilities, streamline your testing process with a comprehensive test case template.

30 60 90 Day Plan

Streamline your first 90 days in a new role with a clear plan, performance review, streamline your performance review process with a comprehensive template, strategic planning, strategically plan and track your company's goals with ease.

Software Comparison

Compare and choose the best software for your needs, interview notes, streamline your interview process with a comprehensive overview of each candidate, success plan, track your goals and measure your success with ease, risk register, manage and mitigate potential risks with a comprehensive overview, creative brief, streamline your project management with a comprehensive creative brief.

Student Progress Tracker

Track and analyze student progress with ease, construction budget template goog, track your construction budget with ease and accuracy, employee availability, manage your team's availability and shift preferences with ease, sprint backlog, manage your project tasks efficiently with a sprint backlog.

Google Docs Timeline

Track your project's progress with a comprehensive timeline, elevator pitch, craft compelling elevator pitches with ease, strategize your business goals and objectives with ease, event budget, track and manage your event expenses effectively, team charter, streamline your team's mission, roles, and norms with a comprehensive team charter, social media calendar template goog, streamline your social media posts and track engagement metrics.

Travel Itinerary Template Go

Plan your travel itinerary with ease and precision, project deliverables, work breakdown structure, streamline your project management with a detailed work breakdown structure, implementation plan, streamline your project implementation with a clear and concise plan, organize your meetings effectively with a detailed agenda.

Manage your projects, tasks, and deadlines with ease

Expense Report

Track and manage your team's expenses with ease, weekly schedule, organize your week efficiently with a clear schedule, time blocking, organize your day efficiently with time blocking.

Standard Operating Procedure

Streamline your operations with our standard operating procedure template, google docs itinerary, plan your business trips with ease and precision, root cause analysis, analyze, track, and prevent incidents with a comprehensive root cause analysis, performance improvement plan, track and manage employee performance improvement plans, market analysis, analyze your market with precision and ease, 12 week year, plan and track your goals and actions for each week of the year.

Profit And Loss

Track your company's financial performance with ease, action plan, streamline your project management with a comprehensive action plan, cost benefit analysis, analyze the cost and benefits of your projects with ease, products list, manage your product inventory with ease, organize your events, meetings, and activities with ease, cost analysis, analyze and manage your company's expenses effectively, project charter, streamline your project management with a comprehensive project charter, income statement, travel itinerary.

Streamline your project management with a comprehensive workflow

Manage your project risks, assumptions, issues, and dependencies with ease, vendor list, manage your vendors efficiently and effectively, mutual action plan, streamline your business objectives and action plans with mutual action plan templates, daily schedule, organize your daily activities with a clear and concise schedule, track your expenses and savings with ease, go to market strategy, strategize your market entry with comprehensive planning, risk assessment, manage and mitigate risks effectively with a comprehensive overview, raci matrix, workback schedule, streamline your project management with a detailed workback schedule, action items, track and manage your team's action items effectively.

Business Plan Temp

Craft a comprehensive business plan with ease.

Proof Of Concept

Track and manage your innovative projects with ease, free business plan, streamline your business planning process with a comprehensive template, timeline template go, track your project's progress from start to finish, smart goals, track and achieve your goals with precision and clarity, process mapping, streamline your project process with a clear roadmap, gantt chart template goog, manage your project timelines and tasks efficiently, vacation planning, staff roster, manage your team's information and hours with ease.

Sales Tracker

Track your sales, analyze trends, and maximize profits.

Uat Sign Off

Track and manage your user acceptance testing (uat) with ease.

Technical Debt Register

Track, manage, and resolve technical debts efficiently, marketing calendar, plan and track your marketing campaigns with ease, sample rollout plan, streamline your product rollout with a comprehensive plan, photo directory, create a comprehensive photo directory for your organization, process flow chart, visualize and streamline your sales process, investment agreement, track and manage your investment agreements with ease.

College Schedule

Organize your college life with a comprehensive schedule, meeting tracker, track your meetings, attendees, and action items with ease, business travel itinerary, organize your business travel details in one place, plumbers invoice, manage your plumbing services invoices with ease.

Employee Daily Activity Report

Track and manage your team's daily activities efficiently, work breakdown, streamline your project management with a comprehensive work breakdown.

Html Report

Create comprehensive html reports with ease, plan and manage your events with ease, end of day report, track your team's daily progress with ease, cna report sheet, track and manage patient care with ease, rank tracker report, track your keywords and their performance across different search engines.

Classroom Seating Chart Whiteboard

Organize your classroom seating with ease and efficiency, delegation of authority matrix, streamline your task delegation and authority levels with ease, executive project status report, track your projects' progress, budget, risks, and more in one place, decision log, track and manage your team's decisions with ease, simple payment agreement, manage your payment agreements with ease and precision, medical chart, manage your patient's medical records efficiently, level 10 meeting, streamline your team meetings with the level 10 meeting template, capability matrix, track and manage your team's skills and certifications, benchmark analysis, analyze your competitors' strengths, weaknesses, and opportunities, content plan, streamline your content planning and execution with ease, seo competitor analysis, analyze your competitors' seo strategies and improve your own.

Campaign Brief

Streamline your marketing campaigns with a comprehensive brief.

Streamline your deal management process with a comprehensive overview

24 hours schedule, organize your day efficiently with a 24-hour schedule, weekly planner, organize your tasks and deadlines with a weekly planner, software change log, track and manage software changes efficiently, construction gantt chart, track your construction project progress with a gantt chart, termination of contract letter, manage your contract terminations effectively and efficiently, manage your projects, tasks, and deadlines efficiently, daily to do list, organize your day efficiently with a comprehensive to-do list, seo project management, manage your seo tasks efficiently and effectively, project management decision log, track and manage your project decisions with ease, content management, manage your content effectively across different platforms, organize your legal memos with ease.

Marriage Contract

Simplify your marriage contract creation process.

Approval Matrix Whiteboard

Streamline your approval process with the approval matrix whiteboard template, company contact list, organize and manage your company's contacts with ease, data analysis report, analyze and present your data effectively.

Shift Schedule

Manage your team's shifts efficiently and effectively, project roadmap, track your project's progress with a comprehensive roadmap, commission sheet, track and manage your sales team's performance with ease, report requirements, streamline your report creation process with this comprehensive template, weekly report, track your team's weekly progress with ease.

Camp Schedule

Organize your camp activities with ease and precision, policy memo, streamline your policy memo creation and management, leader standard work, streamline your leadership tasks and priorities, employee schedule, streamline your employee scheduling process, it incident report, track, manage, and resolve it incidents effectively.

User Acceptance Testing Checklist

Streamline your user acceptance testing (uat) process with this comprehensive checklist, 5050 partnership agreement, create fair and balanced partnership agreements, contractor invoice, manage your contractor invoices with ease and efficiency, plan of record, track your project tasks, deadlines, and progress with ease, governance plan, streamline your governance plan with a comprehensive overview of tasks, roles, and deadlines, meeting minutes, track your meetings, attendees, agendas, and action items with ease, urgent important matrix, prioritize your tasks effectively with the urgent important matrix template, customer success plan, track and manage your customer success journey, business development plan, strategize your business growth with a comprehensive plan, out of office coverage plan, manage your team's leaves and ensure smooth task delegation with our out of office coverage plan template, staffing matrix, manage your staffing needs efficiently and effectively, college pros and cons list, compare and contrast different colleges with ease.

75 Hard Wellness Challenge

Track your daily wellness activities and progress with ease, social media posting schedule, schedule and manage your social media posts effectively, test report, track and manage your software testing process, scheduling matrix, streamline your tasks and manage your team efficiently, user story mapping, map your user stories, track progress, and manage tasks with ease.

Monthly Planner

Organize your work and personal life with a monthly planner, investigation report, track and manage your investigations with ease, budget report, track your budget, income, expenses, and net profit/loss with ease, change of shift report, streamline your shift changes with a comprehensive report, request form, streamline your request management process with a comprehensive request form, workshop agenda, streamline your workshop planning with a comprehensive agenda.

For Dummies Book

Streamline your book writing process with a structured approach, organizational chart, visualize your company's hierarchy with our organizational chart template, llc annual meeting minutes, streamline your annual meetings with our llc annual meeting minutes template, pto calendar, manage your team's time off with a comprehensive pto calendar, addendum to a contract, track and manage your contract amendments with ease, minutes of meeting mom, streamline your meetings and keep track of decisions with the minutes of meeting (mom) template.

Identify the root cause of problems and devise effective solutions

Profit and loss statement, streamline your standard operating procedures with this comprehensive sop template, website migration project plan, streamline your website migration process with a comprehensive project plan, inventory report, action register, trip report, track your business trips, objectives, expenses, and insights, event brief, kinship diagram whiteboard, visualize and understand your family tree with ease, alignment chart, align your team's goals and strategies with clear execution steps, end of day cash register report, track your daily sales and cash register status with ease.

Communication Matrix Report

Streamline your project communication with a comprehensive matrix, streamline your standard operating procedures with this sop template, meeting agenda, streamline your meetings with a comprehensive agenda.

Organize your tasks efficiently with a clear view of priorities and deadlines

Project timeline, manage your project timeline efficiently and effectively.

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Business model canvas template

Modify this business model canvas template to map out your business model and identify ways to test or optimize it. Collaborate with others to visualize cost centers, profit centers, and key value propositions.

or continue with

What is the Lucidspark business model canvas?

When it comes to starting a business—or improving an existing one—planning is everything. But you may not have the time (or need) for a full-fledged business plan. At least not right away.

This is where a business model canvas layout comes in. The business model canvas template is a single-page document for outlining your business plan and strategy. If your business were a ship, a business model canvas would help you answer that crucial question: Will it float?

Your business can’t succeed if you are spending more money than you are making. (Hopefully this isn’t news to anyone!) Before starting a business, it’s crucial that you consider the cost and revenue centers in your business model. Creating a business model with a project model canvas template breaks this process down into just nine steps, which we’ll dive into below. Utilize Lucidspark to easily create your business model canvas.

How to use the Lucid business plan canvas template

The Lucid business model canvases are meant to be quick and effective. You need to focus on the content of the document, not the structure. And with Lucid’s chart template for a business model canvas, you don’t have to worry about structure at all.

Use our business canvas template maker to create a blank business model canvas and work through these nine steps.

• Value proposition: What problem do your customers have and how are you going to solve it for them?
• Customer relationships: How will you communicate and build rapport with your customers? Each instance of communication should further promote your product or brand as a solution to a particular problem.
• Customer segments: What people and organizations do you create value for? List them out.
• Channels: At what points do you interact with customers to deliver value? How are they purchasing your product? It should be easy for customers to say "yes" to your solution!
• Key partners: What individuals, businesses, or other entities do you rely on to deliver your product to customers? These might be distributors, suppliers, etc.
• Key activities: What activities are absolutely essential to create, deliver, and promote your product? Those are your key activities.
• Key resources: What resources do you need to create, deliver, and promote your product? If it’s not essential, it’s not a key resource.
• Cost structure: How much will you spend on key resources, partners, and activities? That’s roughly how much it will cost you to run your business.
• Revenue streams: How will customers purchase your product and how much will it cost them? Is it a one-time purchase or subscription-based?

With Lucidspark, you can invite others to your board to contribute their ideas or give feedback. If you’re ready to present your business plan and strategy, you can even use Presentation Mode , to turn your sticky notes into a more polished slide deck.

Strategyzer

Our purpose is to unlock millions of people’s potential to create value for themselves, organizations, and society. We succeed when inspired people find the clarity to drive healthy growth and build invincible companies worldwide. Learn more about Strategyzer here .

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8 Business Plan Templates You Can Get for Free

8 min. read

Updated April 10, 2024

A business plan template can be an excellent tool to simplify the creation of your business plan. 

The pre-set structure helps you organize ideas, covers all critical business information, and saves you time and effort on formatting.

The only issue? There are SO many free business plan templates out there. 

So, which ones are actually worth using? 

To help remove the guesswork, I’ve rounded up some of the best business plan templates you can access right now. 

These are listed in no particular order, and each has its benefits and drawbacks.

What to look for in a business plan template

Not all business plan templates are created equal. As you weigh your options and decide which template(s) you’ll use, be sure to review them with the following criteria in mind:

• Easy to edit: A template should save you time. That won’t be the case if you have to fuss around figuring out how to edit the document, or even worse, it doesn’t allow you to edit at all.
• Contains the right sections: A good template should cover all essential sections of a business plan , including the executive summary, product/service description, market/competitive analysis, marketing and sales plan, operations, milestones, and financial projections. 
• Provides guidance: You should be able to trust that the information in a template is accurate. That means the organization or person who created the template is highly credible, known for producing useful resources, and ideally has some entrepreneurial experience.
• Software compatibility: Lastly, you want any template to be compatible with the software platforms you use. More than likely, this means it’s available in Microsoft Word, Google Docs, or PDF format at a minimum. 

1. Bplans — A plan with expert guidance

Since you’re already on Bplans, I have to first mention the templates that we have available. 

Our traditional and one-page templates were created by entrepreneurs and business owners with over 80 years of collective planning experience. We revisit and update them annually to ensure they are approachable, thorough, and aligned with our team’s evolving best practices.  

The templates, available in Word, PDF, or Google Doc formats, include in-depth guidance on what to include in each section, expert tips, and links to additional resources. 

Plus, we have over 550 real-world sample business plans you can use for guidance when filling out your template.

Download: Traditional lender-ready business plan template or a simple one-page plan template .

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2. SBA — Introduction to business plans

The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) offers two different business plan templates along with a short planning guide. 

While not incredibly in-depth, it’s enough to help you understand how traditional and lean plans are structured and what information needs to be covered. The templates themselves are more like examples, providing you with a finished product to reference as you write your plan.

The key benefit of using these templates is that they were created by the SBA. While they may provide less guidance, you can be assured that the information and structure meet their expectations.

Explore: The SBA’s planning guide and free templates

3. SCORE — Planning workbook

SCORE’s template is more like a workbook. It includes exercises after each section to help you get your ideas down and turn them into a structured plan.

The market research worksheets are especially useful. They provide a clear framework for identifying your target market and analyzing competitors from multiple angles. Plus, they give you an easy way to document all the information you’re collecting.

You will likely have to remove the exercises in this template to make it investor-ready. But it can be worth it if you’re struggling to get past a blank page and want a more interactive planning method.

Download: SCORE’s business plan template

4. PandaDoc — A template with fillable forms

PandaDoc’s library offers a variety of industry-specific business plan templates that feature a modern design flair and concise instructions. 

These templates are designed for sharing. They include fillable fields and sections for non-disclosure agreements, which may be necessary when sending a plan to investors.  

But the real benefit is their compatibility with PandaDoc’s platform. Yes, they are free, but if you’re a PandaDoc subscriber, you’ll have far more customization options. 

Out of all their templates, the standard business plan template is the most in-depth. The rest, while still useful, go a bit lighter on guidance in favor of tailoring the plan to a specific industry.

Explore: PandaDoc’s business plan template library  

5. Canva — Pitch with your plan

Canva is a great option for building a visually stunning business plan that can be used as a pitch tool. It offers a diverse array of templates built by their in-house team and the larger creative community, meaning the number of options constantly grows.

You will need to verify that the information in the template you choose matches the standard structure of a traditional business plan. 

You should do this with any template, but it’s especially important with any tool that accepts community submissions. While they are likely reviewed and approved, there may still be errors.

Remember, you can only edit these templates within Canva. Luckily, you only need a free subscription, and you may just miss out on some of the visual assets being used. 

To get the most value, it may be best to create a more traditional planning document and transfer that information into Canva. 

Explore: Canva’s business plan gallery

6. ClickUp — The collaborative template

Out of all the project management tools that offer free business plan templates, ClickUp’s is the most approachable.

Rather than throwing you into all the features and expecting you to figure it out—ClickUp provides a thorough startup guide with resource links, images, and videos explaining how to write a plan using the tool. 

There’s also a completed sample plan (structured like an expanded one-page plan) for you to reference and see how the more traditional document can connect to the product management features. You can set goals, target dates, leave comments, and even assign tasks to someone else on your team. 

These features are limited to the ClickUp platform and will not be useful for everyone. They will likely get in the way of writing a plan you can easily share with lenders or investors. 

But this is a great option if you’re looking for a template that makes internal collaboration more fluid and keeps all your information in one place.

Sign Up: Get a free trial of ClickUp and explore their template library

7. Smartsheet — A wide variety of templates

I’m including Smartsheet’s library of templates on this list because of the sheer number of options they provide. 

They have a simple business plan template, a one-page plan, a fill-in-the-blank template, a plan outline, a plan grading rubric, and even an Excel-built project plan. All are perfectly usable and vary in visual style, depth of instructions, and the available format.

Honestly, the only drawback (which is also the core benefit) is that the amount of templates can be overwhelming. If you’re already uncertain which plan option is right for you, the lengthy list they provide may not provide much clarity.

At the same time, it can be a great resource if you want a one-stop shop to view multiple plan types.

Explore: Smartsheet’s business plan template library  

8. ReferralRock affiliate marketing business plan

I’m adding ReferralRock’s template to this list due to its specificity. 

It’s not your standard business plan template. The plan is tailored with specific sections and guidance around launching an affiliate marketing business. 

Most of the template is dedicated to defining how to choose affiliates, set commissions, create legal agreements, and track performance.

So, if you plan on starting an affiliate marketing business or program, this template will provide more specific guidance. Just know that you will likely need to reference additional resources when writing the non-industry sections of your plan.

Download: ReferralRock affiliate marketing business plan template

Does it matter what business plan template you use?

The short answer is no. As long as the structure is correct, it saves you time, and it helps you write your business plan , then any template will work. 

What it ultimately comes down to, is what sort of value you hope to get from the template. 

• Do you need more guidance? 
• A simple way to structure your plan? 
• An option that works with a specific tool?
• A way to make your plan more visually interesting?

Hopefully, this list has helped you hone in on an option that meets one (or several) of these needs. Still, it may be worth downloading a few of these templates to determine the right fit. 

And really, what matters most is that you spend time writing a business plan . It will help you avoid early mistakes, determine if you have a viable business, and fully consider what it will take to get up and running. 

If you need additional guidance, check out our library of planning resources . We cover everything from plan formats , to how to write a business plan, and even how to use it as a management tool . 

If you don’t want to waste time researching other templates, you can download our one-page or traditional business plan template and jump right into the planning process.

See why 1.2 million entrepreneurs have written their business plans with LivePlan

Kody Wirth is a content writer and SEO specialist for Palo Alto Software—the creator's of Bplans and LivePlan. He has 3+ years experience covering small business topics and runs a part-time content writing service in his spare time.

Table of Contents

• Qualities of a good template
• ReferralRock
• Does the template matter?

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A Simpler and Better Alternative to the Business Model Canvas Template

Posted november 3, 2022 by noah parsons.

If you’re looking to quickly document your business idea, but don’t want to take the time to develop a complete business plan, you’ve probably come across the Business Model Canvas. The Business Model Canvas was developed to solve the two key problems with business plans—they take too long to write and are difficult to update.

However, the Business Model Canvas introduces its own problems and can often give you an incomplete picture of your business. That’s why we’ve developed a one-page business plan template. It can help you spend even less time creating a flexible, much more useful snapshot of your business roadmap.

So, which planning format should you use? Let’s explore the pros and cons of the Business Model Canvas and introduce you to the basics of the one-page plan to help you decide.

What is the Business Model Canvas?

If you’re new to the Business Model Canvas, here’s a quick definition:

The Business Model Canvas is a one-page overview of a business’s strategy and business model. It’s intended to be used by startups and founders who are trying to identify a business model that will work for their business. The Business Model Canvas is intended to provide all of the structure of a business plan, without the inconsistencies and vagaries of “back of the napkin” business idea sketches.

Here’s what the Business Model Canvas template looks like:

Pros of the Business Model Canvas

The core purpose of the Business Model Canvas is to demystify the business planning process. It removes the need for a traditional, text-heavy business plan, in favor of a single-page outline that can help you and outside parties better explore your business idea. Here are a few key benefits that come with this template.

Visualize your plan

The structure of the Business Model Canvas ditches a linear structure in favor of a cell-based template. This is done to encourage you to build connections between every element of your business from the start. Rather than writing out disjointed expenses, value propositions, and potential customers — you work through them side-by-side and can easily reference previous sections as you develop them.

Faster to create

Now, you do have limited space to leverage with the Business Model Canvas. That’s really the point, as this is meant to be a faster and easier plan to create. Even the size of each cell is designed purposefully. 

For example, the problem takes up a larger section of the page, but your solution and metrics are each half the size. This tells you, without detailed instruction, that you need to take a deep and extended dive into potential issues and explore as many current alternatives as possible. But your solution and data measurements should be streamlined and purposeful in relation to those issues that you’ve uncovered.

Documents your business model

The layout of the Business Model Canvas is also useful for you, your team, and any third parties to visualize your business model . It showcases the framework of your business and helps connect the dots between business components, without needing to have intricate knowledge. It’s a useful visual to kick off any discussions about elements of your business and an easy visual to work with during pitch or strategy discussions.

Cons of the Business Model Canvas

Unfortunately, the Business Model Canvas template doesn’t work for everyone.

As my team and I have worked with entrepreneurs over the years (and we’ve worked with thousands), we’ve consistently found that the Business Model Canvas can be difficult to understand without substantial training. It’s also difficult to read, especially for people who aren’t familiar with the format. 

It’s difficult to adapt into a full business plan

There will likely come a time when you need to pitch to investors or seek out funding. At that point, lenders and investors may expect to see a traditional business plan that provides greater detail regarding the functions and financials of your business. A one-page Business Model Canvas may be beneficial to provide as an introduction to your business — but you’ll need to back it up with a full exploration of milestones, startup and operational costs, potential revenue streams, marketing activities, and financial forecasts.

By starting with a Business Model Canvas, you’ll potentially need to start over when developing a full business plan. This is due to the formatting and simplified sections of the Canvas. Yes, they are beneficial to use when exploring an idea, but difficult to expand on when actually executing them.

No room for validation

Regardless of what your business does, it’s critical that it’s solving a real problem for customers. If your products and services don’t fill a need, customers will never walk in the door. Known as validation, it’s an element that is lacking within the building block style of the Business Model Canvas.

Yes, this one-page setup helps you connect disparate pieces of your business plan, but it can also encourage you to make those connections when they don’t exist. For example, you may have outlined a problem and a few current solutions. Based on the structure of the Canvas, you work through your own solution, value proposition, and potential marketing channels. Then you start trying to tackle your customer segments and realize that you’re struggling to actually define them.

Rather than arriving at this issue earlier, and setting out to validate if your idea is attractive to anyone, you’re suddenly met with the need to find a target market that has the problem. This leads to the next issue with the Business Model Canvas.

No focus on product/market fit

The core issue is that the Business Model Canvas doesn’t focus on making sure a business is solving a real problem for their customers. People like to call this “ product/market fit .” In other words, customers (the market) don’t have a reason why they need the product the business is selling.

In our experience, if a company can’t find a good product/market fit, it will almost certainly fail.

Why is the lack of product/market fit such a killer for businesses? Well, when a customer is shopping for something, they’re looking to solve a problem or fill a need. A good business offers products and services that help people solve their problems and fulfill their desires.

For example, Mailchimp helps customers easily send email newsletters. A hair salon helps people achieve the style that they’re looking for. Restaurants give people not only the kind of food they’re looking for, but a specific experience—think upscale dining, or a hip and trendy bakery.

If a business doesn’t solve a real problem for potential customers, it’s going to have a very hard time attracting customers. Just think for a moment, do you shop for things that you don’t need or want?

It’s not that a business needs to solve a completely unique problem. In fact, competition is actually a good thing . But, businesses do need to have a unique take on a customer’s problem. 

Unfortunately, the Business Model Canvas doesn’t directly address product/market fit even though it’s such a critical issue.

Our solution — a one-page business plan

Instead of forcing the Business Model Canvas to solve the problem of product/market fit, we took a new approach and created an alternative to the Business Model Canvas Template. We call it a one-page business plan and it’s a core part of growth planning , a better way to plan and grow a business.

If you want to get started right away, download the one-page business plan template now. Or, read on to learn about what we changed and how to use the template.

What is a one-page business plan?

The one-page business plan format takes the best of the Business Model Canvas template and makes it easier to use and easier to read. It can be completed in under an hour and delivers three things that entrepreneurs need in their planning process: 

1. Focus 

Instead of developing a lengthy, traditional business plan, the one-page plan requires entrepreneurs to focus on the key drivers of their business and find a strategy that will truly bring success.

2. Simplicity

Anyone can start using the one-page business plan template without any training or business background. And, anyone can easily read it and understand it.

3. Flexibility

Successful planning is all about revising your ideas as you try and learn new things. The one-page business plan template is easy to update and tweak as you go.

What is in the one-page plan?

The one-page plan has 12 elements, including: 

• Identity: A one-sentence overview of your business.
• Problem: What problem are you solving for your customers?
• Solution: What’s your solution to the problem? Describe your products and services here.
• Target Markets: Who are your customers?
• Competition: Who are your competitors and what alternative solutions do your customers currently buy and use?
• Sales Channels: How will you sell your products and services to your customers? 
• Marketing Activities: What are the key activities or approaches that you’re going to use to reach your customers? What’s your pricing or cost structure?
• Revenue Streams: How are you going to make money? 
• Expenses: What are your key expenses when you’re running your business?
• Milestones: What is your roadmap to test and start your business?
• Team: What are the key roles that you need in your business to be successful?
• Partners & Key Resources: Do you need to work with other businesses to make your business work?

Together, these elements provide a comprehensive overview of a business and its strategy. A one-page business plan focuses up-front on finding product/market fit by helping entrepreneurs identify the key problem they’re solving for their customers and how their solution fills their customers’ needs.

Here’s what it looks like:

With the one-page business plan, we kept the concept of “value proposition” because we think it’s important to have a one-line overview of what you do. This is somewhat similar to a tagline that explains what you do in as simple and concise a way as possible.

But, instead of focusing on “customer relationships,” as the Business Model Canvas does, we replaced it with sections to describe your “problem worth solving” and your “solution.” Since making sure you have a solid understanding of your customers’ needs and the problems they have is so critical to business success, including these sections as the foundation of the one-page business plan makes sense.

The one-page business plan also pairs the problem and solution boxes with sections to describe the target market and competition . These four sections together form the core of your business idea: What you’re doing, who you’re doing it for, and what the competition looks like.

How to use your one-page business plan

When you sit down to write your one-page business plan, I encourage you to move through it quickly. Try and finish your first draft in under 30 minutes. Write bullet points instead of sentences. Then take a step back and see if it makes sense. 

Share your one-page business plan with key partners, friends, and family and see if it makes sense to them. If you need to make changes, it’s fast and easy since you’re just editing a single page. If you need more step-by-step guidance, we have a series of articles that will walk you through the process.

When you’ve completed your one-page business plan, you now have the building blocks for a more detailed business plan —if you need one.

At this stage, however, your one-page business plan is really just a set of assumptions—it’s your best guess at who your customers are and what they want. We’ll just call this early version of your one-page plan your “guess.”

Now, you need to go out into the world and actually talk to your potential customers and make sure your “guess” is correct—sometimes this is called idea validation . Do your potential customers have the problem or need that you think they have? What do they think of your solution? Will they be willing to pay you?

In this article on market research , I go into more detail about how to actually talk to your potential customers.

As you talk to people, come back to your one-page business plan and review and revise it. After a couple of rounds of this, you’ll have a plan for a business that has a good chance of success. It’s a good idea to get a business plan review meeting on your calendar each month, so you’re always reviewing and changing your plan as you go.

Download a one-page business plan template— a better alternative to the Business Model Canvas

You can download the one-page business plan template here for free. Project it on a whiteboard and fill it in, or just print it out and work on it from there. You can also use sticky notes to add your ideas instead of filling them in just with a pen or pencil. 

Or check out LivePlan’s Pitch feature . It really is the fastest way to get started. Plus, you can share a private link to it with key stakeholders, or export it to PowerPoint to easily present it to investors or other stakeholders. 

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How to create a business plan: examples & free template.

This is the ultimate guide to creating a comprehensive and effective plan to start a business . In today’s dynamic business landscape, having a well-crafted business plan is an important first step to securing funding, attracting partners, and navigating the challenges of entrepreneurship.

This guide has been designed to help you create a winning plan that stands out in the ever-evolving marketplace. U sing real-world examples and a free downloadable template, it will walk you through each step of the process.

Whether you’re a seasoned entrepreneur or launching your very first startup, the guide will give you the insights, tools, and confidence you need to create a solid foundation for your business.

Table of Contents

How to Write a Business Plan

Embarking on the journey of creating a successful business requires a solid foundation, and a well-crafted business plan is the cornerstone. Here is the process of writing a comprehensive business plan and the main parts of a winning business plan . From setting objectives to conducting market research, this guide will have everything you need.

Executive Summary

The Executive Summary serves as the gateway to your business plan, offering a snapshot of your venture’s core aspects. This section should captivate and inform, succinctly summarizing the essence of your plan.

It’s crucial to include a clear mission statement, a brief description of your primary products or services, an overview of your target market, and key financial projections or achievements.

Think of it as an elevator pitch in written form: it should be compelling enough to engage potential investors or stakeholders and provide them with a clear understanding of what your business is about, its goals, and why it’s a promising investment.

Example: EcoTech is a technology company specializing in eco-friendly and sustainable products designed to reduce energy consumption and minimize waste. Our mission is to create innovative solutions that contribute to a cleaner, greener environment.

Our target market includes environmentally conscious consumers and businesses seeking to reduce their carbon footprint. We project a 200% increase in revenue within the first three years of operation.

Overview and Business Objectives

In the Overview and Business Objectives section, outline your business’s core goals and the strategic approaches you plan to use to achieve them. This section should set forth clear, specific objectives that are attainable and time-bound, providing a roadmap for your business’s growth and success.

It’s important to detail how these objectives align with your company’s overall mission and vision. Discuss the milestones you aim to achieve and the timeframe you’ve set for these accomplishments.

This part of the plan demonstrates to investors and stakeholders your vision for growth and the practical steps you’ll take to get there.

Example: EcoTech’s primary objective is to become a market leader in sustainable technology products within the next five years. Our key objectives include:

• Introducing three new products within the first two years of operation.
• Achieving annual revenue growth of 30%.
• Expanding our customer base to over 10,000 clients by the end of the third year.

Company Description

The Company Description section is your opportunity to delve into the details of your business. Provide a comprehensive overview that includes your company’s history, its mission statement, and its vision for the future.

Highlight your unique selling proposition (USP) – what makes your business stand out in the market. Explain the problems your company solves and how it benefits your customers.

Include information about the company’s founders, their expertise, and why they are suited to lead the business to success. This section should paint a vivid picture of your business, its values, and its place in the industry.

Example: EcoTech is committed to developing cutting-edge sustainable technology products that benefit both the environment and our customers. Our unique combination of innovative solutions and eco-friendly design sets us apart from the competition. We envision a future where technology and sustainability go hand in hand, leading to a greener planet.

Define Your Target Market

Defining Your Target Market is critical for tailoring your business strategy effectively. This section should describe your ideal customer base in detail, including demographic information (such as age, gender, income level, and location) and psychographic data (like interests, values, and lifestyle).

Elucidate on the specific needs or pain points of your target audience and how your product or service addresses these. This information will help you know your target market and develop targeted marketing strategies.

Example: Our target market comprises environmentally conscious consumers and businesses looking for innovative solutions to reduce their carbon footprint. Our ideal customers are those who prioritize sustainability and are willing to invest in eco-friendly products.

Market Analysis

The Market Analysis section requires thorough research and a keen understanding of the industry. It involves examining the current trends within your industry, understanding the needs and preferences of your customers, and analyzing the strengths and weaknesses of your competitors.

This analysis will enable you to spot market opportunities and anticipate potential challenges. Include data and statistics to back up your claims, and use graphs or charts to illustrate market trends.

This section should demonstrate that you have a deep understanding of the market in which you operate and that your business is well-positioned to capitalize on its opportunities.

Example: The market for eco-friendly technology products has experienced significant growth in recent years, with an estimated annual growth rate of 10%. As consumers become increasingly aware of environmental issues, the demand for sustainable solutions continues to rise.

Our research indicates a gap in the market for high-quality, innovative eco-friendly technology products that cater to both individual and business clients.

SWOT Analysis

A SWOT analysis in your business plan offers a comprehensive examination of your company’s internal and external factors. By assessing Strengths, you showcase what your business does best and where your capabilities lie.

Weaknesses involve an honest introspection of areas where your business may be lacking or could improve. Opportunities can be external factors that your business could capitalize on, such as market gaps or emerging trends.

Threats include external challenges your business may face, like competition or market changes. This analysis is crucial for strategic planning, as it helps in recognizing and leveraging your strengths, addressing weaknesses, seizing opportunities, and preparing for potential threats.

Including a SWOT analysis demonstrates to stakeholders that you have a balanced and realistic understanding of your business in its operational context.

• Innovative and eco-friendly product offerings.
• Strong commitment to sustainability and environmental responsibility.
• Skilled and experienced team with expertise in technology and sustainability.

Weaknesses:

• Limited brand recognition compared to established competitors.
• Reliance on third-party manufacturers for product development.

Opportunities:

• Growing consumer interest in sustainable products.
• Partnerships with environmentally-focused organizations and influencers.
• Expansion into international markets.
• Intense competition from established technology companies.
• Regulatory changes could impact the sustainable technology market.

Competitive Analysis

In this section, you’ll analyze your competitors in-depth, examining their products, services, market positioning, and pricing strategies. Understanding your competition allows you to identify gaps in the market and tailor your offerings to outperform them.

By conducting a thorough competitive analysis, you can gain insights into your competitors’ strengths and weaknesses, enabling you to develop strategies to differentiate your business and gain a competitive advantage in the marketplace.

Example: Key competitors include:

GreenTech: A well-known brand offering eco-friendly technology products, but with a narrower focus on energy-saving devices.

EarthSolutions: A direct competitor specializing in sustainable technology, but with a limited product range and higher prices.

By offering a diverse product portfolio, competitive pricing, and continuous innovation, we believe we can capture a significant share of the growing sustainable technology market.

Organization and Management Team

Provide an overview of your company’s organizational structure, including key roles and responsibilities. Introduce your management team, highlighting their expertise and experience to demonstrate that your team is capable of executing the business plan successfully.

Showcasing your team’s background, skills, and accomplishments instills confidence in investors and other stakeholders, proving that your business has the leadership and talent necessary to achieve its objectives and manage growth effectively.

Example: EcoTech’s organizational structure comprises the following key roles: CEO, CTO, CFO, Sales Director, Marketing Director, and R&D Manager. Our management team has extensive experience in technology, sustainability, and business development, ensuring that we are well-equipped to execute our business plan successfully.

Products and Services Offered

Describe the products or services your business offers, focusing on their unique features and benefits. Explain how your offerings solve customer pain points and why they will choose your products or services over the competition.

This section should emphasize the value you provide to customers, demonstrating that your business has a deep understanding of customer needs and is well-positioned to deliver innovative solutions that address those needs and set your company apart from competitors.

Example: EcoTech offers a range of eco-friendly technology products, including energy-efficient lighting solutions, solar chargers, and smart home devices that optimize energy usage. Our products are designed to help customers reduce energy consumption, minimize waste, and contribute to a cleaner environment.

Marketing and Sales Strategy

In this section, articulate your comprehensive strategy for reaching your target market and driving sales. Detail the specific marketing channels you plan to use, such as social media, email marketing, SEO, or traditional advertising.

Describe the nature of your advertising campaigns and promotional activities, explaining how they will capture the attention of your target audience and convey the value of your products or services. Outline your sales strategy, including your sales process, team structure, and sales targets.

Discuss how these marketing and sales efforts will work together to attract and retain customers, generate leads, and ultimately contribute to achieving your business’s revenue goals.

This section is critical to convey to investors and stakeholders that you have a well-thought-out approach to market your business effectively and drive sales growth.

Example: Our marketing strategy includes digital advertising, content marketing, social media promotion, and influencer partnerships. We will also attend trade shows and conferences to showcase our products and connect with potential clients. Our sales strategy involves both direct sales and partnerships with retail stores, as well as online sales through our website and e-commerce platforms.

Logistics and Operations Plan

The Logistics and Operations Plan is a critical component that outlines the inner workings of your business. It encompasses the management of your supply chain, detailing how you acquire raw materials and manage vendor relationships.

Inventory control is another crucial aspect, where you explain strategies for inventory management to ensure efficiency and reduce wastage. The section should also describe your production processes, emphasizing scalability and adaptability to meet changing market demands.

Quality control measures are essential to maintain product standards and customer satisfaction. This plan assures investors and stakeholders of your operational competency and readiness to meet business demands.

Highlighting your commitment to operational efficiency and customer satisfaction underlines your business’s capability to maintain smooth, effective operations even as it scales.

Example: EcoTech partners with reliable third-party manufacturers to produce our eco-friendly technology products. Our operations involve maintaining strong relationships with suppliers, ensuring quality control, and managing inventory.

We also prioritize efficient distribution through various channels, including online platforms and retail partners, to deliver products to our customers in a timely manner.

Financial Projections Plan

In the Financial Projections Plan, lay out a clear and realistic financial future for your business. This should include detailed projections for revenue, costs, and profitability over the next three to five years.

Ground these projections in solid assumptions based on your market analysis, industry benchmarks, and realistic growth scenarios. Break down revenue streams and include an analysis of the cost of goods sold, operating expenses, and potential investments.

This section should also discuss your break-even analysis, cash flow projections, and any assumptions about external funding requirements.

By presenting a thorough and data-backed financial forecast, you instill confidence in potential investors and lenders, showcasing your business’s potential for profitability and financial stability.

This forward-looking financial plan is crucial for demonstrating that you have a firm grasp of the financial nuances of your business and are prepared to manage its financial health effectively.

Example: Over the next three years, we expect to see significant growth in revenue, driven by new product launches and market expansion. Our financial projections include:

• Year 1: $1.5 million in revenue, with a net profit of $200,000.
• Year 2: $3 million in revenue, with a net profit of $500,000.
• Year 3: $4.5 million in revenue, with a net profit of $1 million.

These projections are based on realistic market analysis, growth rates, and product pricing.

Income Statement

The income statement , also known as the profit and loss statement, provides a summary of your company’s revenues and expenses over a specified period. It helps you track your business’s financial performance and identify trends, ensuring you stay on track to achieve your financial goals.

Regularly reviewing and analyzing your income statement allows you to monitor the health of your business, evaluate the effectiveness of your strategies, and make data-driven decisions to optimize profitability and growth.

Example: The income statement for EcoTech’s first year of operation is as follows:

• Revenue: $1,500,000
• Cost of Goods Sold: $800,000
• Gross Profit: $700,000
• Operating Expenses: $450,000
• Net Income: $250,000

This statement highlights our company’s profitability and overall financial health during the first year of operation.

Cash Flow Statement

A cash flow statement is a crucial part of a financial business plan that shows the inflows and outflows of cash within your business. It helps you monitor your company’s liquidity, ensuring you have enough cash on hand to cover operating expenses, pay debts, and invest in growth opportunities.

By including a cash flow statement in your business plan, you demonstrate your ability to manage your company’s finances effectively.

Example:  The cash flow statement for EcoTech’s first year of operation is as follows:

Operating Activities:

• Depreciation: $10,000
• Changes in Working Capital: -$50,000
• Net Cash from Operating Activities: $210,000

Investing Activities:

•  Capital Expenditures: -$100,000
• Net Cash from Investing Activities: -$100,000

Financing Activities:

• Proceeds from Loans: $150,000
• Loan Repayments: -$50,000
• Net Cash from Financing Activities: $100,000
• Net Increase in Cash: $210,000

This statement demonstrates EcoTech’s ability to generate positive cash flow from operations, maintain sufficient liquidity, and invest in growth opportunities.

Tips on Writing a Business Plan

1. Be clear and concise: Keep your language simple and straightforward. Avoid jargon and overly technical terms. A clear and concise business plan is easier for investors and stakeholders to understand and demonstrates your ability to communicate effectively.

2. Conduct thorough research: Before writing your business plan, gather as much information as possible about your industry, competitors, and target market. Use reliable sources and industry reports to inform your analysis and make data-driven decisions.

3. Set realistic goals: Your business plan should outline achievable objectives that are specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART). Setting realistic goals demonstrates your understanding of the market and increases the likelihood of success.

4. Focus on your unique selling proposition (USP): Clearly articulate what sets your business apart from the competition. Emphasize your USP throughout your business plan to showcase your company’s value and potential for success.

5. Be flexible and adaptable: A business plan is a living document that should evolve as your business grows and changes. Be prepared to update and revise your plan as you gather new information and learn from your experiences.

6. Use visuals to enhance understanding: Include charts, graphs, and other visuals to help convey complex data and ideas. Visuals can make your business plan more engaging and easier to digest, especially for those who prefer visual learning.

7. Seek feedback from trusted sources: Share your business plan with mentors, industry experts, or colleagues and ask for their feedback. Their insights can help you identify areas for improvement and strengthen your plan before presenting it to potential investors or partners.

FREE Business Plan Template

To help you get started on your business plan, we have created a template that includes all the essential components discussed in the “How to Write a Business Plan” section. This easy-to-use template will guide you through each step of the process, ensuring you don’t miss any critical details.

The template is divided into the following sections:

• Mission statement
• Business Overview
• Key products or services
• Target market
• Financial highlights
• Company goals
• Strategies to achieve goals
• Measurable, time-bound objectives
• Company History
• Mission and vision
• Unique selling proposition
• Demographics
• Psychographics
• Pain points
• Industry trends
• Customer needs
• Competitor strengths and weaknesses
• Opportunities
• Competitor products and services
• Market positioning
• Pricing strategies
• Organizational structure
• Key roles and responsibilities
• Management team backgrounds
• Product or service features
• Competitive advantages
• Marketing channels
• Advertising campaigns
• Promotional activities
• Sales strategies
• Supply chain management
• Inventory control
• Production processes
• Quality control measures
• Projected revenue
• Assumptions
• Cash inflows
• Cash outflows
• Net cash flow

What is a Business Plan?

A business plan is a strategic document that outlines an organization’s goals, objectives, and the steps required to achieve them. It serves as a roadmap as you start a business , guiding the company’s direction and growth while identifying potential obstacles and opportunities.

Typically, a business plan covers areas such as market analysis, financial projections, marketing strategies, and organizational structure. It not only helps in securing funding from investors and lenders but also provides clarity and focus to the management team.

A well-crafted business plan is a very important part of your business startup checklist because it fosters informed decision-making and long-term success.

Why You Should Write a Business Plan

Understanding the importance of a business plan in today’s competitive environment is crucial for entrepreneurs and business owners. Here are five compelling reasons to write a business plan:

• Attract Investors and Secure Funding : A well-written business plan demonstrates your venture’s potential and profitability, making it easier to attract investors and secure the necessary funding for growth and development. It provides a detailed overview of your business model, target market, financial projections, and growth strategies, instilling confidence in potential investors and lenders that your company is a worthy investment.
• Clarify Business Objectives and Strategies : Crafting a business plan forces you to think critically about your goals and the strategies you’ll employ to achieve them, providing a clear roadmap for success. This process helps you refine your vision and prioritize the most critical objectives, ensuring that your efforts are focused on achieving the desired results.
• Identify Potential Risks and Opportunities : Analyzing the market, competition, and industry trends within your business plan helps identify potential risks and uncover untapped opportunities for growth and expansion. This insight enables you to develop proactive strategies to mitigate risks and capitalize on opportunities, positioning your business for long-term success.
• Improve Decision-Making : A business plan serves as a reference point so you can make informed decisions that align with your company’s overall objectives and long-term vision. By consistently referring to your plan and adjusting it as needed, you can ensure that your business remains on track and adapts to changes in the market, industry, or internal operations.
• Foster Team Alignment and Communication : A shared business plan helps ensure that all team members are on the same page, promoting clear communication, collaboration, and a unified approach to achieving the company’s goals. By involving your team in the planning process and regularly reviewing the plan together, you can foster a sense of ownership, commitment, and accountability that drives success.

What are the Different Types of Business Plans?

In today’s fast-paced business world, having a well-structured roadmap is more important than ever. A traditional business plan provides a comprehensive overview of your company’s goals and strategies, helping you make informed decisions and achieve long-term success. There are various types of business plans, each designed to suit different needs and purposes. Let’s explore the main types:

• Startup Business Plan: Tailored for new ventures, a startup business plan outlines the company’s mission, objectives, target market, competition, marketing strategies, and financial projections. It helps entrepreneurs clarify their vision, secure funding from investors, and create a roadmap for their business’s future. Additionally, this plan identifies potential challenges and opportunities, which are crucial for making informed decisions and adapting to changing market conditions.
• Internal Business Plan: This type of plan is intended for internal use, focusing on strategies, milestones, deadlines, and resource allocation. It serves as a management tool for guiding the company’s growth, evaluating its progress, and ensuring that all departments are aligned with the overall vision. The internal business plan also helps identify areas of improvement, fosters collaboration among team members, and provides a reference point for measuring performance.
• Strategic Business Plan: A strategic business plan outlines long-term goals and the steps to achieve them, providing a clear roadmap for the company’s direction. It typically includes a SWOT analysis, market research, and competitive analysis. This plan allows businesses to align their resources with their objectives, anticipate changes in the market, and develop contingency plans. By focusing on the big picture, a strategic business plan fosters long-term success and stability.
• Feasibility Business Plan: This plan is designed to assess the viability of a business idea, examining factors such as market demand, competition, and financial projections. It is often used to decide whether or not to pursue a particular venture. By conducting a thorough feasibility analysis, entrepreneurs can avoid investing time and resources into an unviable business concept. This plan also helps refine the business idea, identify potential obstacles, and determine the necessary resources for success.
• Growth Business Plan: Also known as an expansion plan, a growth business plan focuses on strategies for scaling up an existing business. It includes market analysis, new product or service offerings, and financial projections to support expansion plans. This type of plan is essential for businesses looking to enter new markets, increase their customer base, or launch new products or services. By outlining clear growth strategies, the plan helps ensure that expansion efforts are well-coordinated and sustainable.
• Operational Business Plan: This type of plan outlines the company’s day-to-day operations, detailing the processes, procedures, and organizational structure. It is an essential tool for managing resources, streamlining workflows, and ensuring smooth operations. The operational business plan also helps identify inefficiencies, implement best practices, and establish a strong foundation for future growth. By providing a clear understanding of daily operations, this plan enables businesses to optimize their resources and enhance productivity.
• Lean Business Plan: A lean business plan is a simplified, agile version of a traditional plan, focusing on key elements such as value proposition, customer segments, revenue streams, and cost structure. It is perfect for startups looking for a flexible, adaptable planning approach. The lean business plan allows for rapid iteration and continuous improvement, enabling businesses to pivot and adapt to changing market conditions. This streamlined approach is particularly beneficial for businesses in fast-paced or uncertain industries.
• One-Page Business Plan: As the name suggests, a one-page business plan is a concise summary of your company’s key objectives, strategies, and milestones. It serves as a quick reference guide and is ideal for pitching to potential investors or partners. This plan helps keep teams focused on essential goals and priorities, fosters clear communication, and provides a snapshot of the company’s progress. While not as comprehensive as other plans, a one-page business plan is an effective tool for maintaining clarity and direction.
• Nonprofit Business Plan: Specifically designed for nonprofit organizations, this plan outlines the mission, goals, target audience, fundraising strategies, and budget allocation. It helps secure grants and donations while ensuring the organization stays on track with its objectives. The nonprofit business plan also helps attract volunteers, board members, and community support. By demonstrating the organization’s impact and plans for the future, this plan is essential for maintaining transparency, accountability, and long-term sustainability within the nonprofit sector.
• Franchise Business Plan: For entrepreneurs seeking to open a franchise, this type of plan focuses on the franchisor’s requirements, as well as the franchisee’s goals, strategies, and financial projections. It is crucial for securing a franchise agreement and ensuring the business’s success within the franchise system. This plan outlines the franchisee’s commitment to brand standards, marketing efforts, and operational procedures, while also addressing local market conditions and opportunities. By creating a solid franchise business plan, entrepreneurs can demonstrate their ability to effectively manage and grow their franchise, increasing the likelihood of a successful partnership with the franchisor.

Using Business Plan Software

Creating a comprehensive business plan can be intimidating, but business plan software can streamline the process and help you produce a professional document. These tools offer a number of benefits, including guided step-by-step instructions, financial projections, and industry-specific templates. Here are the top 5 business plan software options available to help you craft a great business plan.

1. LivePlan

LivePlan is a popular choice for its user-friendly interface and comprehensive features. It offers over 500 sample plans, financial forecasting tools, and the ability to track your progress against key performance indicators. With LivePlan, you can create visually appealing, professional business plans that will impress investors and stakeholders.

2. Upmetrics

Upmetrics provides a simple and intuitive platform for creating a well-structured business plan. It features customizable templates, financial forecasting tools, and collaboration capabilities, allowing you to work with team members and advisors. Upmetrics also offers a library of resources to guide you through the business planning process.

Bizplan is designed to simplify the business planning process with a drag-and-drop builder and modular sections. It offers financial forecasting tools, progress tracking, and a visually appealing interface. With Bizplan, you can create a business plan that is both easy to understand and visually engaging.

Enloop is a robust business plan software that automatically generates a tailored plan based on your inputs. It provides industry-specific templates, financial forecasting, and a unique performance score that updates as you make changes to your plan. Enloop also offers a free version, making it accessible for businesses on a budget.

5. Tarkenton GoSmallBiz

Developed by NFL Hall of Famer Fran Tarkenton, GoSmallBiz is tailored for small businesses and startups. It features a guided business plan builder, customizable templates, and financial projection tools. GoSmallBiz also offers additional resources, such as CRM tools and legal document templates, to support your business beyond the planning stage.

Business Plan FAQs

What is a good business plan.

A good business plan is a well-researched, clear, and concise document that outlines a company’s goals, strategies, target market, competitive advantages, and financial projections. It should be adaptable to change and provide a roadmap for achieving success.

What are the 3 main purposes of a business plan?

The three main purposes of a business plan are to guide the company’s strategy, attract investment, and evaluate performance against objectives. Here’s a closer look at each of these:

• It outlines the company’s purpose and core values to ensure that all activities align with its mission and vision.
• It provides an in-depth analysis of the market, including trends, customer needs, and competition, helping the company tailor its products and services to meet market demands.
• It defines the company’s marketing and sales strategies, guiding how the company will attract and retain customers.
• It describes the company’s organizational structure and management team, outlining roles and responsibilities to ensure effective operation and leadership.
• It sets measurable, time-bound objectives, allowing the company to plan its activities effectively and make strategic decisions to achieve these goals.
• It provides a comprehensive overview of the company and its business model, demonstrating its uniqueness and potential for success.
• It presents the company’s financial projections, showing its potential for profitability and return on investment.
• It demonstrates the company’s understanding of the market, including its target customers and competition, convincing investors that the company is capable of gaining a significant market share.
• It showcases the management team’s expertise and experience, instilling confidence in investors that the team is capable of executing the business plan successfully.
• It establishes clear, measurable objectives that serve as performance benchmarks.
• It provides a basis for regular performance reviews, allowing the company to monitor its progress and identify areas for improvement.
• It enables the company to assess the effectiveness of its strategies and make adjustments as needed to achieve its objectives.
• It helps the company identify potential risks and challenges, enabling it to develop contingency plans and manage risks effectively.
• It provides a mechanism for evaluating the company’s financial performance, including revenue, expenses, profitability, and cash flow.

Can I write a business plan by myself?

Yes, you can write a business plan by yourself, but it can be helpful to consult with mentors, colleagues, or industry experts to gather feedback and insights. There are also many creative business plan templates and business plan examples available online, including those above.

We also have examples for specific industries, including a using food truck business plan , salon business plan , farm business plan , daycare business plan , and restaurant business plan .

Is it possible to create a one-page business plan?

Yes, a one-page business plan is a condensed version that highlights the most essential elements, including the company’s mission, target market, unique selling proposition, and financial goals.

How long should a business plan be?

A typical business plan ranges from 20 to 50 pages, but the length may vary depending on the complexity and needs of the business.

What is a business plan outline?

A business plan outline is a structured framework that organizes the content of a business plan into sections, such as the executive summary, company description, market analysis, and financial projections.

What are the 5 most common business plan mistakes?

The five most common business plan mistakes include inadequate research, unrealistic financial projections, lack of focus on the unique selling proposition, poor organization and structure, and failure to update the plan as circumstances change.

What questions should be asked in a business plan?

A business plan should address questions such as: What problem does the business solve? Who is the specific target market ? What is the unique selling proposition? What are the company’s objectives? How will it achieve those objectives?

What’s the difference between a business plan and a strategic plan?

A business plan focuses on the overall vision, goals, and tactics of a company, while a strategic plan outlines the specific strategies, action steps, and performance measures necessary to achieve the company’s objectives.

How is business planning for a nonprofit different?

Nonprofit business planning focuses on the organization’s mission, social impact, and resource management, rather than profit generation. The financial section typically includes funding sources, expenses, and projected budgets for programs and operations.

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