Entrepreneurship 101: Understanding Business Model Canvas - Introduction

How's an Entrepreneur different from a Businessman ? That's a question that many people still have. Thinking out of the box, adding value to the customer, innovation at its best and so on are some of the characteristics of an entrepreneur. To make this much simpler and relatable, Mr Harsh Goenka tweeted this photo sometime back and said "The entrepreneur always searches for an opportunity , thinks out of the box and creates special value for the customer" And this photo surely defines the difference between an entrepreneur and a businessman perfectly.

It may sound easy to think out of the box and create value for the customer. But that's just about your offering. As an entrepreneur you need to consider various other aspects - resources and partners - along with the finances before actually getting things started. The Business Model Canvas is there to get you started.

Entrepreneurship 101: Understanding Business Model Canvas

One of the starting points - much before you get into the funding business - you need to get your product / service in the right place. And that doesn't only mean your product or service. That would include everything and everyone right from your suppliers, vendors, resources etc. Until unless you haven't thought over all of these things, it would be tough to proceed. To make things simpler, there's this really awesome tool that will help you do just that - Business Model Canvas.

Business Model Canvas. Image Courtesy: instructables

Business Model Canvas - Stepping Stone for Entrepreneurship

The Business Model Canvas is the easiest yet the most powerful tool to get your idea on paper right. It gives you the complete picture of what your idea is all about, what value it provides to the customers, who are the vendors, suppliers and other key partners and so on. There are precisely 9 parts of a Business Model Canvas, and they are:

1. Value Proposition
2. Customer
3. Distribution Channels
4. Customer Relationship
5. Revenue Stream
6. Key Activities
7. Key Resources
8. Key Partners
9. Cost Structure

Over the course of next few posts, we would learn about each of these 9 parts of the Business Model Canvas in detail. How to go about creating the Business Model Canvas and putting your complete idea on the table. The idea of this series of posts on Entrepreneurship 101: Understanding Business Model Canvas was all about educating people about how to go about their entrepreneurial dream without missing out on anything.  Stay tuned for the upcoming posts on Entrepreneurship 101: Understanding Business Model Canvas.

Pro Tip: The Business Model Canvas isn't necessarily only for entrepreneurs, in fact anyone could use it. Even if you are working on a small idea, planning everything as to how your idea would scale up to become a business, the business model canvas is the perfect tool.