Once again, beyond the tips I give you to succeed in your student projects, I’m going to talk to you today about entrepreneurship. After all, you are students in business school and many will one day try the adventure of creating a company, if it is not already the case for some. A fundamental and even central tool for the entrepreneur, the Business Model is THE essential document on which you must work from the beginning of your reflection. Complete and complex, you will have to modify it constantly. But you still have to get your foot in the door. In the middle of the jungle of the resources of the net you surely say to you that all this is too complicated… Well not at all! The simple methodology of the Business Model Canvas allows you to lay down the fundamentals of your business plan without getting tangled up. This is the IN-DIS-PEN-SABLE tool.
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The BMC or Business Model Canvas, as its name suggests, is a table dedicated to your business model. Gathering all its components, it is a formidable tool that allows you to visualize your activity, to design it, to challenge it, to bring out the strong points, the omissions and the inconsistencies. Its operation, very simple, shows an organization by categories. This breakdown gives you real clarity by allowing you to focus on one thing at a time. This is very important because, in an entrepreneurial project, and especially when you are a budding entrepreneur, everything seems so interrelated that it can be difficult to organize your thoughts.
So let’s review each part:
CUSTOMER SEGMENT
Questions to ask yourself: Who is my client?
The answer to this question should be the result of a marketing survey or a thorough knowledge of your market. You need to be sure you are delivering the right product to the right people. You must do everything possible to know your target as well as possible.
VALUE PROPOSITION OR VP
Questions to ask: What is my value proposition? What is my added value?
It is the value added to the customer. Be sure of your differentiator!
CHANNEL
Questions to ask: What are the times or places where your customers will come into contact with your product? How do you reach your target audience? At what cost?
Look for ways to raise the issues that hurt. There is no need to lie to you.
CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP
Questions to ask yourself: What is the relationship you want to have with your customers with regard to the product you sell?
It’s up to you to make a strategic decision based on your company’s values.
REVENUE STREAMS
Questions to ask yourself: How will you make money? What is your model, what are your prices, what are your forecasts, etc.?
Put in writing in a very clear way the means you will have at your disposal to generate turnover.
Once your business takes shape, you will need to focus on your Key resources
KEY RESOURCES
Questions to ask yourself: What are the resources you will need to carry out your business (financial, human, material)?
List everything!
KEY ACTIVITIES
Questions to ask yourself: What should I not outsource?
These activities will be the ones that create your added value. They are very dependent on your Key resource policy. Remember to outsource only what does not produce value for your business. Everything you don’t need goes into Key Partnership.
KEY PARTNERSHIP
Questions to ask yourself: What are the activities I should outsource? Why? To whom? At what cost?
No need to go all the way to your future office cleaning company 😉
And finally…
COST STRUCTURE
Questions to ask yourself: How much does it cost me?
And here I’m going to surprise you, but there’s nothing better than keeping a good old Excel budget under your elbow, along with your beloved BMC.
One last tip for the road: print out your OMG matrix in the largest format possible and work with post-it notes, not by writing on them. Since you will be spending your time correcting it, this should make your job easier. I will now let you download your OMG below.
Updated 24 February 2022