Why is the business model canvas such a great tool to develop a business plan? The question that you have to ask yourself and provide answers for are the same as in the chapter above. And still, for entrepreneurs who are developing a new business plan or for existing businesses that need to re-think their business model is the business canvas a very helpful tool.


The nine “building blocks” of the business model design template that came to be called the Business Model Canvas were initially proposed in 2005 by Alexander Osterwalder.

The way it is structured makes it easily visible how the different area of a business plan are connected with each other and influence each other. That allows you to look at the bigger picture and gain a good overview. This helps not to focus on those questions that you can easily answer, but to realize where questions are still unanswered. But the biggest advantage that the business canvas provides is its flexibility. You can start filling it at any point of the canvas and keep adding information as it becomes clearer in the process.

Usually, you would start filling that area first from which your business idea originates. That can be your value proposition, or the customer segment. Especially if you are catering for a niche market, these to go usually hand in hand. But your business idea could also originate from your key partners. You just realized that you have great passionfruit producers in your network and a company that wants to venture into juice making. There is your business idea - fruit aggregation, transport, storage, marketing platform, you name it.

Or your business idea stems from a totally different angle. If you think about the cost of a new iphone or new Samsung phone for example. Does anybody on Earth truly need a mobile phone that costs around 1000 $? Probably not. But still, everytime a new version is released, the first lot is sold out immediately. I want you to think about this: would people still be so keen to by these devices if they cost only 100 $? Probably not. The value that the customers assign to these devices lies not in their functionality (it's great I am sure), but in the fact that every time they whip this phone out of their pocket everyone around them sees that they own a brandnew 1000 $ phone. In this case the product does not answer a customer need but a customer want. Interestingly enough, customers are often willing to pay more for an answered want than for an answered need. Basic food and water that every person surely needs on a daily basis, is usually sold at the lowest prices and customers bargain hard to keep it this way. For a phone, which they do not really need, they happily pay a fortune...

Another example: you have seen a need to connect farmers with livestock and vetenerians in such a way, that farmers can easily access the service when in need and the vet can at the same time be assured to receive payment once s:he has made he/his way out to a remote village. You develop a mobile payment platform, where a farmer can post a demand and a vet who is available can respond to it (just like booking an uber or bolt taxi). To ensure payment, the farmer has to upload the amount to the platform upfront, where it is kept until the service is delivered. The vet who wants to provide the service receives a QR code on her/his phone. S:he then goes to see the farmer and provides the service. Once the farmer is happy with the service s:he scans the QR code on the vets phone and the payment is released to the vets account. Therefore, your business model is a platform model where you provide the service of bringing people together and offer a solution to a trust issue (secured payments and service delivery).

As you can see, a business idea can originate at different angles, but to turn it into a business, you have to plan out all the other sectors as well. In the next paragraph (Training session) we will guide you through the questions of each section. Feel free to answer them in any order that makes sense to you and fill them into the business canvas template that we have provided for you to use under the Activities & Assignements section. Enjoy the process, you will feel great at the end of it. I promise!


Last modified: Monday, 9 October 2023, 10:00 AM