Business Model Canvas Template

Nine building blocks with evidence or assumption flags, break-even maths, ranked assumptions, test plan, fictional worked example

BusinessStandardBusiness Model Canvas (Osterwalder, Strategyzer)model canvas mathAktualisiert 29.10.2026

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Anleitung: Use it when you need to describe how one business model creates, delivers and captures value, and decide what to test next. Fill the customer segments and value propositions first, marking each line as evidence or assumption. The main pitfall is filling blocks with features and internal activity instead of what customers get and pay for.

Vorschau

Business Model Canvas: [Business or product]

A structured description of how one business creates, delivers and captures value, written as nine building blocks, then turned into a list of risky assumptions and a test plan. The nine-block idea comes from the Business Model Canvas by Alexander Osterwalder and Strategyzer (Business Model Generation, Osterwalder and Pigneur, Wiley, 2010); the section structure and wording here are original. Replace every [bracketed] value and every row marked Example.

Document control

Field	Value
Document ID	[BMC-YYYY-NN]
Business or product	[Name]
Customer segment covered	[One primary segment]
Version	[0.1]
Status	[Draft / Testing / Validated / Retired]
Owner	[@owner]
Reviewers	[@reviewer, @reviewer]
Last updated	YYYY-MM-DD
Classification	[Internal / Confidential]

Revision history

Version	Date	Author	Change
0.1	YYYY-MM-DD	[@author]	First canvas from team workshop
0.2 (Example)	YYYY-MM-DD	[@author]	Price block updated after 8 sales calls

The worked example throughout is Pellwick Repair Co., a fictional firm that offers small offices a monthly subscription to keep their chairs and desks repaired and refurbished on site.

1. Scope and decision

Item	Value
Decision this canvas informs	[For example: launch in a second city next year?]
Time horizon	[For example: next 12 months]
Current stage	[Idea / Pilot / Revenue / Scaling]
Inputs used	[Customer interviews, sales data, competitor scan]

Example: Pellwick decides whether to hire a second technician team after a six-month pilot with 40 offices.

2. Customer segments

ID	Segment	Size estimate	Who pays	E / A
CS-1	[Segment]	[Number of customers]	[Role]	[E / A]
CS-1 (Example)	Offices of 10 to 80 staff that own their furniture	1,900 in the home city (business register count)	Office manager budget	E
CS-2 (Example)	Shared co-working spaces	60 in the home city	Operator	A

3. Value propositions

ID	For segment	Outcome promised	Current alternative	E / A
VP-1	[CS-n]	[Outcome]	[What they do today]	[E / A]
VP-1 (Example)	CS-1	Every chair and desk works, with no purchasing or disposal effort	Buy new furniture every few years, discard broken items	A

4. Channels

Phase	Channel	E / A
Awareness	[Channel]	[E / A]
Example: Awareness	Referrals from facilities firms that clean the same offices	A
Example: Purchase	Online quote and direct debit sign-up	E
Example: Delivery	Quarterly on-site visit by a technician with a van workshop	E
Example: After-sales	Report-a-fault form, next-week visit	E

5. Customer relationships

Segment	Relationship type	How it is kept	Cost driver
[CS-n]	[Type]	[Method]	[Driver]
CS-1 (Example)	Personal, low touch	Named technician, visit report emailed after each visit	Technician time

6. Revenue streams

ID	Stream	Pricing mechanism	Price	E / A
RS-1	[Stream]	[Subscription / usage / one-off]	[Amount]	[E / A]
RS-1 (Example)	Furniture care subscription	Per seat per month	4.50	E (pilot)
RS-2 (Example)	Refurbished chairs sold to existing customers	One-off sale	90 each	A

7. Key resources

[Resource and why it is essential]
Example: Trained upholstery and mechanism technicians.
Example: A van fitted as a mobile workshop, and a spare-parts stock.

8. Key activities and key partnerships

Type	Item	Why it matters	Risk
Activity	[Activity]	[Reason]	[Risk]
Activity (Example)	Scheduling visits to fit office hours	Drives technician utilisation	Low utilisation if routes are poor
Partner (Example)	Parts wholesaler for gas lifts and castors	Cheaper parts than retail	Single supplier
Partner (Example)	Facilities cleaning firms	Referral channel	Partner may start its own service

9. Cost structure

Cost	Fixed or variable	Monthly amount
[Cost]	[Fixed / Variable]	[Amount]
Example: Two technicians	Fixed	6,400
Example: Van, workshop and insurance	Fixed	1,800
Example: Scheduling software	Fixed	200
Example: Parts per seat	Variable	1.20 per seat

Example calculation: fixed costs are 6,400 + 1,800 + 200 = 8,400 per month. Contribution per seat is 4.50 - 1.20 = 3.30. Break-even is 8,400 / 3.30 = 2,545.5, so about 2,546 seats. The pilot covers 40 offices with an average of 30 seats (1,200 seats), earning 5,400 per month in revenue and a monthly contribution shortfall of 1,200 x 3.30 - 8,400 = -4,440. Reaching break-even is the main risk.

10. Assumptions ranked by risk

ID	Assumption	Block	Impact if wrong	Confidence
AS-001	[Assumption]	[Section]	[Fatal / High / Medium]	[Low / Medium / High]
AS-001 (Example)	One technician pair can keep 2,546 subscribed seats serviced with quarterly visits	9	Fatal	Low
AS-002 (Example)	Facilities firms will refer customers	4	High	Low
AS-003 (Example)	Customers buy refurbished chairs	6	Medium	Medium

11. Test plan

Assumption	Test	Pass rule	Owner	Deadline	Result
[AS-NNN]	[Test]	[Observable threshold]	[@owner]	YYYY-MM-DD	[Pass / Fail / Pending]
AS-001 (Example)	Time-and-motion log of 4 weeks of visits	Average under 6 minutes per seat per quarterly visit	[@ops-lead]	YYYY-MM-DD	Pending
AS-002 (Example)	Referral offer to 3 cleaning firms	5 or more qualified leads in 6 weeks	[@founder]	YYYY-MM-DD	Pending

12. Related templates

Value proposition canvas for the detail behind section 3
Lean canvas for an earlier-stage, problem-first view
Customer discovery to gather evidence for sections 2 to 5
Unit economics analysis once section 9 has real numbers
SWOT analysis and PESTLE analysis for the competitive and external context
MVP experiment plan to run the tests in section 11

Glossary

Building block: one of the nine areas the canvas describes.
Contribution per unit: price minus variable cost per unit.
Break-even: the volume at which contribution equals fixed costs.
Evidence (E): something observed, measured or paid for.
Assumption (A): a belief that has not been tested.

Standard and licence note

Structure aligned with the nine building blocks of the Business Model Canvas, created by Alexander Osterwalder and published by Strategyzer AG, described in Business Model Generation (Alexander Osterwalder and Yves Pigneur, Wiley, 2010). Copies of the canvas diagram carry a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported notice. This template does not reproduce the canvas layout or its box prompts: the blocks are named and the section text, the assumption ranking and the fictional Pellwick example are original, so the template keeps the MIT licence. For the official canvas and its current terms, see https://www.strategyzer.com/library/the-business-model-canvas. Check the current version before use. Template licence: MIT.