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Free Business Model Canvas Templates

We’ve assembled the top free business model canvas templates in multiple formats. You’ll learn the main components of a business model canvas, how to create a business model canvas, and when to use a business model canvas. Included in this article, you’ll also find a Lean business model canvas template, a social enterprise business model canvas template, an e-commerce business model canvas template, a tech startup business model canvas template, and more.

By Kate Eby | Updated August 29, 2024

Simple Business Model Canvas Template

Download this template when you need to outline your business ideas or plan a project. To use it, follow the designated sections to record your key partnerships, activities, value proposition, customer relationships, customer segments, resources, channels, cost structure, and revenue streams. Once you’ve filled it out, you’ll have a complete overview of your business strategy.

Lean Business Model Canvas Template

Entrepreneurs and small businesses can use this template to iterate their business ideas. Use it during the early stages of development when you need to ensure your idea is both viable and competitive. To use it, fill in each section, including customer segments, unique value proposition, solution, channels, key metrics, cost structure, and revenue streams.

Download Template for Microsoft Word PowerPoint Google Docs Google Slides

Social Enterprise Business Model Canvas Template

Social entrepreneurs and organizations can use this template when determining how their enterprise will achieve both social impact and financial viability. To use it, fill in each section, including social problem and solution, key partnerships, value proposition, customer relationships, revenue streams, and social impact to create an impactful business model.

Download Template for Excel Microsoft Word PowerPoint Google Docs Google Slides

E-Commerce Business Model Canvas Template

This template is useful for entrepreneurs and business strategists looking to refine their business models. To use it, fill in each section — including key partners, key activities, key resources, value proposition, and customer relationships — with relevant details specific to your business to create a comprehensive overview and identify areas for improvement.

Download Template for Excel PowerPoint Google Slides Google Sheets

Smartsheet Solution Templates

Smartsheet templates go beyond just a static spreadsheet and provide everything you need in one place. Easily manage your work with a familiar interface, beautiful dashboards, and intuitive reports, so everyone on your team is on the same page.

Tech Startup Business Model Canvas Template

Founders and strategic planners at tech startups can use this template to outline their business components. Simply enter details for key partners, key activities, key resources, value propositions, customer relationships, channels, customer segments, cost structure, and revenue streams into the designated spaces to create a clear tech business model overview.

Download Template for Excel Microsoft Word Adobe PDF PowerPoint Google Slides

Value Proposition Business Model Canvas Template

Product managers and marketing teams can use this template to define their unique value proposition or how their product meets customer needs and stands out from competitors. Users can fill in the sections with product details; customer wants, needs, and fears; and competitive substitutes to create a comprehensive view of your product's market positioning.

Download Template for Excel PowerPoint Google Slides Google Sheets

Customer-Focused Canvas Template

Customer experience managers and marketing teams that need to identify customer segments, needs, pains, and gains can do so with this template. The sections include space to identify customer segments and jobs, value propositions, customer relationships and feedback, key resources, cost structure, and more, resulting in a detailed, customer-first business model.

Download Template with Sample Copy for Microsoft Word PowerPoint Google Docs Google Slides Download Blank Template for Microsoft Word PowerPoint Google Docs Google Slides

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When teams have clarity into the work getting done, there’s no telling how much more they can accomplish in the same amount of time.  Try Smartsheet for free, today.

Main Components of a Business Model Canvas

The main components of a business model canvas are value propositions, customer segments, channels, customer relationships, revenue streams, key activities, key resources, key partnerships, and cost structure. This framework serves as the basis for your business plan. A business model canvas is a strategic management tool that allows you to visualize your business model across these nine key areas:

• Channels: These describe how your business delivers its value proposition to customers effectively.
• Cost Structure: These are the major costs involved in operating the business model.
• Customer Relationships: These are the types of relationships you establish with different customer segments to retain them.
• Customer Segments: These are the groups of people or organizations your business intends to serve.
• Key Activities: These are the most important actions your business must take to operate successfully.
• Key Partnerships:  This is the network of suppliers and partners that make the business model work.
• Key Resources: These are the assets required to offer and deliver the previously mentioned elements.
• Revenue Streams: These are the ways your business makes money from its value propositions.
• Value Propositions: These are the unique benefits and value your product or service delivers to customers.

A business model canvas template can help you map out, understand, and focus on these core aspects of your business, ensuring you can effectively plan, innovate, and strategize for success. For format-specific template options, see these collections of business model canvas templates for  Microsoft Word ,  Google Docs ,  PowerPoint , and  Google Slides .

How to Create a Business Model Canvas

Create a business model canvas using an existing template that provides a structure to map out your business's key components. Customizing the template allows you to align it with your specific business needs, enabling strategic clarity and facilitating growth planning.

Follow these step-by-step instructions to map out your business model canvas effectively, ensuring a clear path toward achieving your business goals.  

• Define Your Objectives Clearly articulate what you aim to achieve with your business model canvas, such as understanding your business structure or planning for growth.
• Identify Key Partnerships List your main business partners and suppliers, including any strategic alliances that play a crucial role in your business operations.
• Outline Key Activities Describe the most critical activities your business must undertake to deliver its value proposition effectively, such as production, marketing, or sales.

• Describe Customer Relationships Explain the type of relationships you establish with different customer segments, whether personal, automated, or self-service.
• Specify Channels Outline how your business reaches its customer segments to deliver the value proposition, including marketing, sales, and distribution channels.
• Segment Your Customers Divide your target market into segments based on similar needs, behaviors, or other attributes that impact how they value your product or service.
• Determine Cost Structure List all major costs involved in operating your business, distinguishing between fixed and variable costs.
• Identify Revenue Streams Describe how your business makes money, detailing the specific ways you generate income from each customer segment.
• Review and Iterate Regularly review the completed canvas, seek feedback from stakeholders, and be prepared to iterate and refine your model as you gather more insights or as your business evolves.  

Following these steps will help you create a comprehensive business model canvas, providing a clear overview of how your business operates and identifies areas for improvement or growth.

When to Use a Business Model Canvas

Use a business model canvas when you're starting a new business or looking to grow your current one. It helps you see how your business works, from what you offer to how you make money, making planning and improving easier.  The business model canvas is an essential tool for entrepreneurs and business managers. Here's more on when to use it:

• Starting a New Business:  When you have a new business idea, the canvas helps you visualize all aspects of your business on one page. It clarifies your business idea and guides you through the initial planning stages.
• Evaluating and Growing Your Current Business: If you're looking to expand or improve your existing business, the canvas can help you identify areas of strength and opportunities for growth. It encourages you to think about new customer segments, revenue streams, and ways to enhance your value proposition.
• Introducing a New Product or Service: Before launching a new product or service, use the canvas to map out how it fits into your current business model. This helps ensure it aligns with your business goals and meets the needs of your target market.
• Adapting to Market Changes: In response to shifts in the market or industry trends, the business model canvas can help you adapt your strategy. It allows you to reassess your customer segments, channels, and revenue streams to stay competitive.
• Seeking Investment: When presenting your business to potential investors, the canvas provides a clear and concise overview of your business model. It highlights how your business operates, your value proposition, and your financial model, making it easier for investors to understand your business.

By using a business model canvas, you can effectively:

• Break down complex business concepts into understandable components.
• Encourage innovative thinking by exploring different aspects of your business.
• Facilitate discussion and collaboration among team members or stakeholders.  

In essence, the business model canvas is a versatile tool that supports strategic decision-making and innovation, making it invaluable for businesses at any stage.

Discover why over 90% of Fortune 100 companies trust Smartsheet to get work done.

The Business Model Canvas

The Business Model Canvas is a strategic management and entrepreneurial tool. It allows you to describe, design, challenge, invent, and pivot your business model. This method from the bestselling management book Business Model Generation is applied in leading organizations and start-ups worldwide.

The Business Model Canvas enables you to:

• Visualize and communicate a simple story of your existing business model.
• Use the canvas to design new business models, whether you are a start-up or an existing businessManage a portfolio of business models
• You can use the canvas to easily juggle between "Explore" and "Exploit" business models.

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The 20 Minute Business Plan: Business Model Canvas Made Easy

Table of Contents

What’s the Business Model Canvas?

How do you get started, why use the business model canvas, when should you use the business model canvas, how do you use the canvas to facilitate alignment and focus, step 1 (of 10): customer segments, step 2 (of 10): value propositions, step 3 (of 10): channels, step 4 (of 10): customer relationships, step 5 (of 10): revenue streams, step 6 (of 10): key activities, step 7 (of 10): key resources, step 8 (of 10): key partnerships, step 9 (of 10): cost structure, step 10 (of 10): applications, analysis & next steps, example a: enable quiz (startup), example b: hvac in a hurry (enterprise), using the google doc’s/powerpoint template.

If you’re already familiar, you can skip to the next section, ‘ How do I get started ?’.

The Business Model Canvas (BMC) gives you the structure of a business plan without the overhead and the improvisation of a ‘back of the napkin’ sketch without  the fuzziness (and coffee rings).

Together these elements provide a pretty coherent view of a business’ key drivers–

• Customer Segments : Who are the customers? What do they think? See? Feel? Do?
• Value Propositions : What’s compelling about the proposition? Why do customers buy, use?
• Channels : How are these propositions promoted, sold and delivered? Why? Is it working?
• Customer Relationships : How do you interact with the customer through their ‘journey’?
• Revenue Streams : How does the business earn revenue from the value propositions?
• Key Activities : What uniquely strategic things does the business do to deliver its proposition?
• Key Resources : What unique strategic assets must the business have to compete?
• Key Partnerships : What can the company not do so it can focus on its Key Activities?
• Cost Structure : What are the business’ major cost drivers? How are they linked to revenue?

The Canvas is popular with entrepreneurs and intrapreneurs for business model innovation. Fundamentally, it delivers three things:

• Focus : Stripping away the 40+ pages of ‘stuff’ in a traditional business plan, I’ve seen users of the BMC improve their clarify and focus on what’s driving the business (and what’s non-core and getting in the way).
• Flexibility : It’s easier to facilitate alignment by tweaking the model and trying things (from a planning perspective) with something that’s sitting on a single page.
• Transparency: Your team will have a much easier time understanding your business model and be much more likely to buy in to your vision when it’s laid out on a single page.

The first time you engage with the canvas, I recommend printing it out or projecting it on a whiteboard and going to town (see below for a PDF). However, if you’re ready to put together something a little more formal (for distribution, presentation, etc.) here’s a Google App’s template you can copy or download as MSFT PowerPoint:

*Omnigraffle a popular diagramming program for the Mac. It has a fairly easy to use layering environment which you may find handy as you want to tinker with and produce different views of the canvas. You can try Omnigraffle for free (the basic paid version is $99).

The short answer is this: because it’s simple yet focused and that means more of your audience is likely to pay attention to it. Also, it’s highly amenable to change on the margins.

This matters a lot- more than most people think. A company that wants to innovate has to be ready to be wrong . A good VC in early stage investments succeeds with a prevalence of something like a 1/10. If you think you’re doing a lot better than that with substantial new innovation investments (a startup or a new line of business inside an enterprise) you’re probably throwing good money after bad.

Transparency, simplicity, and focus are great facilitators of the ‘creative destruction’ a good innovation program needs, and the Canvas does a nice job of delivering that across lines of business. For a large corporation with multiple lines of business at various levels of maturity, I actually prefer the Corporate Innovation Canvas as a starting point. However, from there, the Business Model Canvas does an excellent job of bringing clarity to the questions of how, for example, a given line of business creates focus and then implements it in an innovation-friendly way with, for example, ‘objectives and key results’ OKR’s . It’s a central element in the ‘innovation stack’ where an enterprise is able to go from priority innovation areas (with the Corporate Innovation Canvas) to testable business model designs (with the Business Model Canvas) to product charters (with an agile team charter ) to individual learning pathways to cultivate the talent they need to execute.

Even more important than the top down cascading of objectives with testable results and KPI’s is the improvement in the feedback in outcomes that helps the overall innovation program learn and adapt quickly. With layer appropriate innovation metrics, it’s much easier for the achievements of individuals to cohere (or not) to the job of teams and in turn from there to lines of business back up to corporate objectives. This helps both help the company’s talent understand where they might benefit from more practice and learning as well as what constitutes success in their individual roles and collaborations.

Anytime you want to have a focused discussion about what matters to a given line of business, the Business Model Canvas is a good place to start. The Canvas has received a lot of attention as a tool for startup entrepreneurship. While this may be one of the ‘sexier’ and more ostensibly simple applications of the Canvas, I actually think it’s one of the least compelling. For a startup, the only thing that matters is product/market fit, which the Canvas represents as a set of relationships between Customer Segments and Value Propositions. The Canvas doesn’t do a bad job of describing this, but it’s kind of overkill- the whole left side of the Canvas which describes the delivery infrastructure is mostly irrelevant for startups that are still finding product market fit, since all that’s provisional about where (and whether) they arrive at product/market fit.

Where the Canvas really shines is describing an existing line of business to answer questions like: a) What does product/market fit mean for this business? b) Where have we focused our company building and is it still relevant to ‘a’? c) What are our key revenue, cost, and profit drivers, and how do we improve those?

Now we’re taking! Whether you’re an ‘intrapreneur’ exploring a new extension to the business or a ‘digital transformation’/IT consultant trying to facilitate a discussion about what ‘strategic IT’ means and how you’ll know if you achieve it, the Canvas is a quick and productive place to anchor such a discussion.

First and foremost, I’d try it out for yourself. Fill out the elements the business you’re working on and then ask yourself ‘Does this make sense?’ ‘What are the most important linkages and components of the model?’

From there, you may just want to use the Canvas you sketch to facilitate alignment on some other topic. However, if you’re working with a team on a new venture or with a client on a new project, you may then want to take it from the top and facilitate a workshop where you facilitate a fresh take on the Canvas, levering your experience thinking through it once. The link below will take you to a related curriculum item that has workshop slides, prep. items, and agenda.

LINK TO WORKSHOP PAGE

Otherwise, the next sections (10 steps) offer a tutorial on how to think through a business model design with the Canvas. The closing sections offer notes on how to use the Google Doc’s/PowerPoint and Omnigraffle templates.

Output : a list of Personas, organized by Customer Segment if you have more than one segment. I recommend trying to prioritize them- Who would you pitch first if you could only pitch one? Who next? And so forth…

Notes : If you’re spending a lot of time on this first item, that’s OK (and it’s probably good). The Canvas is a tool, not a strategy and not all the nine blocks are equal. The pairing of Customer Segments and Value Propositions is really the ‘independent variable’ that should be driving everything else in your business model. When I use the Canvas in my Venture Design classes, we usually spend all of the first session (plus time for field research) on Customer Segments and Value Propositions.

For example, at Leonid, an enterprise software company I founded, we thought our largest customers worked with us because of the cost savings we offered and our knowledge about best practices. It turned out that was mostly wrong- reducing their time and risk to get new services to market was the most important. It’s not that the other things weren’t important, but they weren’t the top Value Proposition. That made a difference on how we sold the product and how we focused on operationalizing it for customers.

This mapping says ‘We have 3 personas. Persona 1 cares about VP 1 & 2. Persona 2 cares about VP 2; Persona 3 cares about VP3. (One segment only so segments not noted)’.

Output : a prioritized list of Value Propositions and linkages from each Personas to the VP’s relevant to them.

Notes: Again, this pairing is the key driver for most business models and if you want more on how to describe and discovery what to put in this part of the canvas, I recommend this: Tutorial- Personas .

Maybe you feel like you’re in good shape on understanding the customer’s world but you don’t have any validation on whether the Value Propositions are clicking because this is a new venture? If you’re not sure, that’s OK and good for you for acknowledging the uncertainty! It’s the responsible thing to do. The key is to write down those assumptions, prioritize them, and figure out the quickest and cheapest way to prove or disprove them. That’s what Lean/Startup is about and there are resources here to help you with that, if you’d like- Tutorial: Lean Startup .

Channels includes entities you use to communicate your proposition to your segments, as well as entities through which you sell product and later service customers (see AIDAOR journey below). For example, if you sell bulbs for light houses and there’s a website all light house attendants purchase equipment, that site is a sales Channel. If you use Google AdWords, that’s a Channel, too (for getting attention). If you use a third party company to service the bulbs when they break, that’s also a Channel.

Output : a list of important Channels, linked to Personas or Segments if they differ substantially. Make notes on what steps are relevant for each- promotion, sales, service, etc. See Note this section for more structure on this.

Notes: Channels and the next item, Customer Relationships, define your interface with the Customer. It’s important to think all the way through the customer ‘journey’ in specific terms. For most businesses, the way they get a customer’s attention is different than the way they onboard them or support them over the long term. For this, I recommend the AIDA.OR framework (attention-interest-desire-action-onboarding-retention) and storyboarding your way through it. Here’s a post explaining all that- Storyboarding AIDA(OR) . If you don’t want to do the storyboards, I recommend at least making notes about your customer journey through the AIDA(OR) steps.

Another consideration is whether your channels will give you enough visibility into the user, including, for example, a way to follow up with users. Not sure? Document your assumptions Lean Startup style and figure out how you’ll quickly prove or disprove them.

Output : a description of Customer Relationships, with notes if they differ across Customers (between Segments or among Personas within a Segment) or across the customer journey.

Notes: If you’re a startup, be sure to document and review critical assumptions here. Also, the focal items are in a kind of specific order- you should validate your Segments and their relationship to the Propositions above all else. If this means you provide personal support in the early days (a ‘concierge test’ in Lean Startup terms) to do discovery and validation of Segments and Propositions, that’s OK. You can subsequently test the Customer Relationship models. (Here’s a post on using consulting as a concierge vehicle in B2B if you want more detail: Consulting as B2B Concierge Vehicle ).

Notes : If you have a startup or are re-engineering the business, this is a time to look at where you’re driving revenue and whether it aligns with the rest of your focal points. Are you charging on value? Perceived value? They say everyone loves their banker; hates their lawyer. Why is that? Is there an actionable analog in your business?

For a product-driven business, this probably includes ongoing learning about users and new techniques to build better product. If you’re focused on doing a bunch of things for a particular set of customers (ex: comprehensive IT for law offices), this probably includes maintaining superior expertise on the segment(s) and creating or acquiring products and services that are a good fit, whatever that entails. For an infrastructure business (ex: electric utility), it probably includes keeping the infrastructure working reliably and making it more efficient.

Outputs : a list of Key Activities linked to your business’ Value Propositions.

Notes : One question this analysis should raise for you is whether or not certain Activities and Resources are actually core, actually focal to your business, something you’ll want to think through .

Outputs : a list of Key Resources linked to your business’ Key Activities.

Notes : Product-driven businesses have a differentiated product of some sort. Rovio, the company that makes the popular app Angry Birds, is such a company. Key Resources in product-driven businesses are typically key talent in critical areas of expertise and accumulated intellectual property related to their offering.

Scope-driven businesses create some synergy around a particular Customer Segment. For example, if you started a business that would take care of all the IT needs for law firms, that would be a scope-driven business. These businesses typically have key knowledge about their segment, a repeatable set of processes, and sometimes infrastructure, like service centers.

Infrastructure-driven businesses achieve economies of scale in a specific, highly repeatable area. Telecommunications is traditionally an infrastructure business. Retailers focused on retail, like Walgreens or Costco, are primarily infrastructure-driven businesses. The Key Resources for this type of business are, you guessed it, various types of physical or virtual infrastructure.

Let’s take a single product category: diapers. The Honest Company or another innovating around compostable or otherwise more environmentally friendly diapers would be a product-driven take on the category. Procter & Gamble which has a cradle-to-grave strategy for providing consumer products is a scope-based take; so are various baby-focused retailers. Kimberly-Clark (wood pulp) or DuPont (chemicals and polymers) are both infrastructure-based takes: diapers is just another way to sell something they produce at scale with relatively little differentiation.

If there are major cost components that don’t map to a Key Activity, I’d take a closer look at those costs.

Output : a list of Cost Structure elements with notes on their relationship to Key Activities.

Congratulations- you have a working canvas! The section below offers a few analytical ideas and suggestions for next steps.

Core Applications The most core and obvious applications of the Canvas are to ask: – Does it make sense? – Could it be better? – Does the rest of my team understand and agree? Have additional ideas? – (rinse and repeat at least quarterly)

Competitiveness The canvas does a good job of helping you figure out your business, which is a good place to start. You also want to look at the competitive environment and think about if and how you have/maintain a long term competitive advantage.

For this, I like Michael Porter’s Five Forces framework ( Wikipedia Page ; see also Chapter 2 of ‘ Starting a Tech Business ‘). Try walking through the Five Forces for your company and then bounce back to your canvas. How does it all hang together?

Next Steps Every business is a work in progress (sorry, I try to avoid saying things like that but it seemed to fit here). As you go through the canvas, you may encounter areas that give you trouble. The table below summarizes a few of the most common that I see in my work as a mentor and coach:

Want to make innovation an everyday thing?

What is Enable Quiz?

Enable Quiz is a (fictional) startup that’s building a lightweight quizzing application for companies that hire a lot of technical talent (engineers). Their take is:

For hiring managers who need to evaluate technical talent, Enable Quiz is a talent assessment system that allows for quick and easy assessment of topical understanding in key engineering topics. Unlike formal certifications or ad hoc questions, our product allows for lightweight but consistent assessments of technical talent.

Why and how would Enable Quiz use the Business Model Canvas?

They have a small team, but arriving at a clear, shared understanding of what they’re after is still important. That said, it’s important that the way they talk about this is both highly visible and amenable to change. Given that, the Canvas is a good fit.

The Business Model Canvas at Enable Quiz

This page shows Enable Quiz’s current working view of product/market fit:

What is HVAC in a Hurry?

HVAC in a Hurry is a mid-sized enterprise that services commercial HVAC (heating, ventilation, and air conditioning) systems. Their take on the business is:

For facilities managers & business owners who need their heating & cooling systems managed and repaired, HVAC in a Hurry is a full service provider that allows for easy and responsible management of a business’ HVAC systems. Unlike smaller firms, our commitment to best practices and training allows customers to worry less and realize superior total cost of ownership for their HVAC systems.

Why and how would HVAC in a Hurry use the Business Model Canvas?

HVAC in a Hurry has a working version of product/market fit. However, their industry is competitive and successful firms increasingly use technology to improve customer experience (CX) and reduce cost (overhead) in their operations. HVAC in a Hurry has a small ‘digital transformation’ team that’s working on digital applications to improve the company’s performance. This team decided to use the Canvas to ‘manage upwards’ in order to facilitate better discussions about where they should focus, how that aligns with the business as a whole, and what success definition makes sense for them.

The Business Model Canvas at HVAC in a Hurry

Here’s their current view of product/market fit:

If you’re not familiar with it, Google Doc’s is a web-based office suite, similar to MS Office. If you have a gmail account, you can access it (no guarantees- that was the case last time I checked).

First, you’ll want to link to the template file: BUSINESS MODEL CANVAS TEMPLATE IN GOOGLE DOC’S .

Once you’re accessed the file, you can make make it your own by going to the File menu and either ‘Make a copy…’, creating a copy in your own Google App’s domain or you can use the ‘Download as…’ option to download it as PowerPoint (and a few other formats).

What’s your experience with the Canvas? How have you used it? What worked? What didn’t? Please consider posting a comment!

Copyright © 2022 Alex Cowan · All rights reserved.

Business model canvas template

Summarize a new business model in its early stages

Use this template to outline all the advantages, targets, challenges, risks, costs, and opportunities of your business. After completing each step, you'll have an exportable canvas representing all the key details.

What is a business model canvas?

A business model canvas (BMC) is a simple, one-page tool that breaks down the key components of a business model. It provides a clear, concise overview of a company's value proposition, target customer segments, revenue streams, cost structure, partnerships, and channels. Think of it as a blueprint that you’ll base your entire business off of (no pressure).

It also covers how you'll engage with customers , generate revenue, and the key resources and activities needed to keep things running. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, about 20% of new businesses fail within their first year. Prevent that by filling out a BMC so you can gain a deeper understanding of different business models, identify areas for improvement, and develop strategies to achieve their goals.

The business model canvas template helps with:

• Gathering observations across an organization and build a strategy
• Aligning teams around a common vision
• Identifying areas for improvement
• Making it easier to communicate your ideas to others

How to use the Business model canvas template

Use the following building blocks to build a cohesive business strategy. Here’s an example to get your creative juices flowing:

Step 1. Identify your customer segments

Who are the people or organizations that will be using your product or service? Try to be as specific as possible — build a customer persona to consider factors such as demographics, psychographics, and behaviors.

For an added level of detail, map out the customer journey to identify key touchpoints.

Step 2. Define your value proposition

What is the unique value that your product or service offers to your customers? This should be a clear, concise statement that summarizes the benefits of your product or service, and how they address customer needs.

Step 3. Identify your channels

Which methods of communication do you plan to use to spread the word about your business to your customers and your key partners? Will you be using online marketing, social media, direct mail, or some other method? List all the channels you plan to use.

Step 4. Describe your customer relationships

How will you interact with your customer base? Will you be providing customer support, offering loyalty programs, or engaging in other ways? Be specific about the types of relationships you will be building with your customers.

Step 5. Define your revenue streams

How will you generate revenue from your product or service? Will you be charging for subscriptions, selling products, or using advertising? List all the revenue streams and pricing models you plan to use.

Step 6. Identify your key resources

What are the resources you need to deliver your value proposition? This could include things like technology, equipment, human resources, intellectual property, or physical assets.

Step 7. Describe your key activities

What are the core activities required to operate your business? This could include things like product development, manufacturing, distribution channels, marketing, sales, or customer service.

Step 8. Identify your partnerships

What external parties will you need to collaborate with to achieve your goals? This could include suppliers, distributors, or other businesses that complement your product or service. Understanding key partnerships can help give you a leg-up against potential competitors.

Step 9. Define your cost structure

What are the costs associated with operating your business? This could include things like salaries, rent, utilities, marketing expenses, or product development costs.

Step 10. Review the canvas

Once you have filled out all the sections, review your canvas and make any necessary adjustments. You may want to consider whether there are any areas that need further refinement, or if there are any inconsistencies that need to be resolved.

Step 11. Next steps

Use the canvas to guide your decision-making and strategy development. You may want to share it with your team, investors, or other stakeholders to get their feedback and input. Update it regularly as your business evolves and grows to inform your roadmap.

Tips for creating a business model canvas using this template

• Invite more collaborators : More team members in your Mural workflow can help with building out each section of the canvas. Team members can provide valuable feedback and unique insights that will strengthen the quality of your business model canvas.
• Try use cases other than business plan s: A business model canvas can be used for more than new business models or an existing business strategy. For example, try gathering insights across an organization to build a more inclusive environment. ‍
• Keep it simple : The canvas is meant to provide a high-level overview of your idea on a single page. Avoid getting bogged down in details and keep your descriptions concise and to the point.

How to create a Business model canvas template

Better brainstorming, collaboration, and planning with mural.

Sticky notes & text

Add ideas, action items, and more as a sticky note or text box — then change the colors and cluster to identify patterns and new solutions.

Asynchronous collaboration

Innovate and collaborate effectively together without booking time on calendars.

Add comments and tag collaborators for smooth asynchronous communication.

Easy sharing

There are no barriers to collaboration with the ability to safely and securely share murals with others.

Presentation mode

Build presentations collaboratively, then deliver engaging sessions that go beyond one-way talk tracks.

Export as a download or embed the mural as an iframe into documentation and more.

Business model canvas template frequently asked questions

When do you need a business model canvas, what are the benefits of creating a business model canvas, how do you use a business model canvas, what are some common mistakes of the business model canvas, how often should i update or review the bmc for my business.

Template by Strategyzer

Strategyzer aims to put practical tools into the hands of every business strategy practitioner. They’ve assembled an amazing team of creative, technical, and business professionals from around the world to build products and create experiences that benefit individuals, organizations, and society.

Mural is the only platform that offers both a shared workspace and training on the LUMA System™, a practical way to collaborate that anyone can learn and apply.

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