Forget the Business Plan: Use the Faster and More Flexible Business Canvas

This article is part of a series on how to start your own food business.

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Business plans are bloated documents that take a long time to prepare. The business canvas is a lightweight version that addresses the critical factors for a successful food operation. It’s a one-page document that can easily adapt to changing conditions or assumptions.

Where to start on the canvas?

Numerous websites and resources offer business canvas templates. Although they vary in design and specifics, they all contain nine basic topics. Most templates lack one crucial feature: they don’t guide you on where to start or what order to follow.

Having used the business canvas numerous times, we recommend starting with customer segments because everything your business does needs to focus on customers. From there, follow this order:

1. Customer segments
   • For whom are we creating value?
   • Who are our most important customers?
2. Value proposition
   • What value do we deliver to each customer segment?
   • Which problems are we helping solve and which needs are we satisfying?
   • What products and services are we offering?
3. Channels
   • How do we communicate with customers?
   • How do we deliver the value proposition?
4. Customer relationships
   • What kind of relationship does each customer segment expect?
5. Revenue
   • What are the top three revenue streams?
   • How much are customers currently paying?
   • How much does each stream contribute to overall revenue?
6. Key activities
   • Which activities are required to execute the value proposition and generate revenue?
   • Think about products, services, distribution channels, and customer relationships.
7. Key resources
   • What resources do our value propositions require?
   • Consider the people, knowledge, means, and money needed to run the business.
8. Key partners
   • Who are our key partners—not suppliers, which are resources?
   • Which activities do partners enable or perform?
9. Cost structure
   • What are the most important costs inherent in the business model?
   • Which resources and activities are most expensive?

This order worked best for us, but you should move around and find what works for you.

The 2Forks example

Like nearly all other caterers and restaurants, our corporate catering company 2Forks was hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic and shelter-in-place orders. Almost overnight, we lost all of our business. It became clear that buffet-style meals were not going to be in demand any time soon, so we set out to convert our offerings into individually boxed meals.

We relied on the business canvas to think through the critical pieces and considerations.

A lightweight tool

The canvas is straightforward. Use it to make assumptions visible, test them, and revise them as the business changes.

Special thanks to David Lettis for editorial support.