7. BMC

A Business Model Canvas was probably one of the best tools I learned to use during this course. I’m the kind of person who likes things to be organized; I strive on order, and yet I still like to be able to have fun and make things interesting. The Business Model Canvas is able to combine these two things very well. When I was first introduced to however, I did not have such a positive view of it. At first glance a BMC can be very scary, with all the different boxes and not knowing exactly what they meant it was pretty intimidating. A Business Model Canvas has 9 sections to it that are divided by subcategories. The first is infrastructure which has Key Activities: The most important activities in doing a company's value propos, Key Resources, the resources that are necessary to create value for the customer, and Key Partnerships which optimize operations and reduce risks for a business model. The second is offering which has Value Proposition, which is what a company offers and sets it apart from competition. The next section is devoted to customers: Customer Segments, to build an effective business model, a company must identify which customers it tries to serve. A Business Model Canvas can go even deeper and show the kind of customer is reaching, Customer Channels, basically how a company reaches the customer, Customer Relationships: To ensure the survival and success of any businesses, companies must identify the type of relationship they want to create with their customer segments. The last part of the Business Model Canvas are the finances, Cost Structure, this is what a company has to spend to get their business off the ground, lastly there Revenue Streams, which is essentially how a business makes money. As you can see with all these sections you can create a really solid and in depth business model. As you go along a new business will often validate the hypotheses they create for each block of the Business Model Canvas as the business does research. The more detailed Business Model Canvas the better. Once everything is in it and everything is validated it is very easy to create the story for a business. When you are able to see a story from a Business Model Canvas that’s when you know you have a solid business, everything in the Business Model Canvas should connect. It feels really good to be able to visually see everything you have done for your business. Business Model Canvases are great for visual learners or people like me who likes to write everything down. It is very good to have a Business Model Canvas because it can very clearly show where strengths and weaknesses are. All you’d have to do is see which sections of it have less detail and you know where you need to focus next. I’m glad that I learned how to properly use a Business Model Canvas because that kind of organization style can help me in many other parts of life. When you are clearly able to see everything that you have and need you can see where you need to improve.