Few business owners have extra time for a lengthy business planning process, yet every entrepreneur needs a solid blueprint. The Lean Canvas – designed by Running Lean author Ash Maurya – is a simple, effective planning tool that helps you assess and test your ideas before investing too deeply in building a product. For the small business owner it’s an ideal bare-bones business plan: a one-pager you can easily update and act on.
How to use a Lean Canvas
An adaptation of Alexander Osterwalder’s Business Model Canvas, the Lean Canvas provides a quick visual sketch of your idea via a simple nine-block matrix. What makes it so useful is that it gets you thinking, up front, about one of the biggest obstacles facing every start-up: risk. It can be adapted for many purposes – drafting a basic business plan, evaluating business models, or identifying new revenue streams.
What’s unique about the Lean Canvas
The main idea is to craft a tool that actually increases your chances of success by deeply considering the problem your business will solve. Many start-ups fail because they focus on the solution – building the product before its market viability is properly researched and tested. With a Lean Canvas you focus first on the problem, then list your customer segments, unique value proposition, revenue streams and key metrics, and finally define your unfair advantage.
Recognising an advantage can be tough for new owners, but understanding how you stand out is key to long-term success. An unfair advantage can be many things – a loyal customer base, or an enviable talent pool. As you complete your canvas, think about how you can nurture and protect that advantage so you always have an edge on competitors.
Final thoughts
A Lean Canvas isn’t a substitute for the detailed business plan a lender will want before approving a loan, but it’s an excellent starting point. Some owners begin with a canvas to record ideas, then expand them into a longer plan; others use it as a quarterly planning tool or to communicate an updated mid-year outlook. It’s free to get started, and how you use it to serve your business is entirely up to you.