Eat Sleep Breath Business Canvas

Wow have we been busy!  So many new things to talk about. ;-)

So…it’s always been a priority of mine to write a business plan, but as I’ve immersed myself into the world of entrepreneurship, I’ve learned the business plan I created in grad school was just that… academic.  The textbooks we used were all static and archaic in their approach. 

When Katie, Kim (UM business consultant) and I decided to apply for HUB Ventures – a seed-stage accelerator program here in SF (we will blog about it!) – we learned of a new approach to business planning from a recommended book, Business Model Generation by Alexander Osterwalder and Yves Pigneur.  If you don’t own it… rush to the store and buy it TODAY!  It has become our BIBLE for generating different business model ideas.  It’s been a joy to learn about business and to apply it to our new heart throb Urban Matters. The authors laid a phenomenal 9 part canvas that helps you understand the whole picture.  It’s a great way to visually see how your business model works and helps you get a handle on who your customer segment (see Katie’s blog) is and the value that you’re bringing them.

Oh and before we began business canvasing, we spent time developing our mission statement and core values.  I highly recommend doing this step first, as it’s going to be difficult to define your value proposition unless this is understood.

So here’s our (Urban Matter’s) mission: drum roll please

Urban Matters establishes and empowers citizen-sustained communities

And here are our awesome core values:

1. Collaborate Deliberately

2. Innovate Disruptively

3. Create a Joyful Impact

Here’s the 9 part canvas (the book recommends doing the canvas in this order, and so do we!)

1. Customer Segment

2. Value Propositions

3. Channels

4. Customer Relationships

5. Revenue Streams

6. Key Resources

7. Key Activities

8. Key Partnerships

9. Cost Structure

Interested to see what a business canvas looks like... check out Urban Matter's! 

Our office walls have become great vertical brainstorming surfaces…we can’t wait to add idea paint and corkboard…stay tuned.

So if you ever hear us say we’re “business canvasing” this is what we’re talking about. 

So what’s next?

Katie mentioned our next steps are to chat with our customer segment to find out our true value!  Can’t wait to get crack’in on this.

In tandem we’ll be updating our website to reflect our mission and values…tailored to our well-rounded customer segment SPACE ACTIVATORS!  Thanks for sharing in this journey with us.   Space Activators we can’t wait to meet you and Key Partners we are truly excited about working together with you!

Other News:

Our next posts will be more about NOMADgardens – our first customer segment project, brought to you by yours truly.  It’s our baby at the moment and we (SUCH AN AMAZING TEAM) have worked so hard to make it happen….and it’s about to!  We are putting the finalizing touch on our first fundraising event...so stay tuned!

PS. Business Canvasing ROCKS!

- iheartcities