What is a business model?

Your business model is a way of describing how your social business works, how and why it makes a profit and has a positive impact. It isn’t the same as a business plan  –  there’s a lot less detail –  but it has the same role in providing a way to analyse and understand your current and future business activities. It’s also a team activity, a chance to share ideas and assumptions.

What is a Business Model Canvas?

• A Business Model Canvas helps map out a business model
• It considers eleven key ideas: Value proposition; Customers; Beneficiaries; Competitors; Channels; Key partners; Key activities; Key Resources; Costs; Impact; Revenue

Why use it?

The Business Model Canvas can be used to:

• Assess your organisation’s business model as a whole
• Assess the model of a particular product / service / programme
• Test out a new product / service / programme

The model is particularly useful when assessing the financial viability of a trading or enterprise activity, for example offering training & consultancy, selling space in your building, selling products.

Resources:

Linked below are two Business Model Canvas templates that you can download:

Detailed template: Business Model Canvas Template – instructions.docx

This includes a description of the sort of things that need to be in each section. It’s a good guide for your team on what to include.

Blank template: Business Model Canvas Template – blank.docx

This is a blank document that can be used to create a business model canvas for your own organisation

This accessible Youtube series looks at how to build a Social Business Model Canvas

The original Business Model Canvas was developed by Strategyzer. If you’d like to learn more about the original version you can check out this explainer video from Strategyzer: Business Model Canvas Explained

The model we discuss throughout this resource is a ‘Social Business Model Canvas’ and was originally developed by Social Innovation Lab. It edits the original to be more appropriate for VCSE sector organisations

Disclaimer

We make every effort to ensure that our information is correct at the time of publication. 

This is only intended as a brief summary of relevant issues and information. Legal advice should be sought where appropriate. The inclusion of other organisations in this information does not imply any endorsement of independent bodies, they are just for signposting purposes.

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