A canvas does one job: it makes visible how your business creates, delivers and captures value — and where you are fooling yourself. Below are the nine blocks with a real example and the mistake each one usually hides.
Who exactly you create value for. Not 'small businesses' — a group specific enough that you could name ten of them.
Example: Solo bookkeepers with 15–40 recurring clients who still reconcile by hand.
Common mistake: Describing a market instead of a person.
The specific job you get done and the pain you remove. Stated in the customer's words, not yours.
Example: Month-end reconciliation goes from two evenings to twenty minutes.
Common mistake: Listing features instead of the outcome the customer buys.
How the customer discovers, evaluates, buys and gets your offer.
Example: Bookkeeper Facebook groups → free reconciliation template → trial.
Common mistake: Assuming a channel works before you have sent one message through it.
What the customer expects from you after they say yes: self-serve, hands-on onboarding, community.
Example: One 20-minute setup call, then fully self-serve.
Common mistake: Promising a level of support the price cannot fund.
What people actually pay for, how much, and how often.
Example: €29/month per bookkeeper, annual option at two months free.
Common mistake: A price picked by looking at competitors instead of at value delivered.
The assets the model cannot run without: people, data, IP, capital, brand.
Example: Bank-feed integrations and a rules engine trained on real ledgers.
Common mistake: Listing things you wish you had rather than what you have.
The handful of things you must do well every week for the model to work.
Example: Keeping integrations alive, and improving match accuracy.
Common mistake: Writing a to-do list instead of the two or three activities that matter.
Who does what you deliberately choose not to do, and who gives you reach.
Example: Accounting software vendors listing you in their marketplace.
Common mistake: Naming partners who have never committed anything.
What it costs to keep the model running, split into fixed and variable.
Example: Integration fees per connected bank, hosting, one part-time support person.
Common mistake: Forgetting the cost of acquiring each customer.
A one-page template with nine blocks that describes how a business creates, delivers and captures value: customer segments, value proposition, channels, customer relationships, revenue streams, key resources, key activities, key partners and cost structure.
Start with customer segments and value proposition, and only then work down to costs and revenue. Write short, checkable sentences rather than slogans. Every block should be something a real conversation could confirm or kill.
Completing the whole canvas in one sitting without talking to anyone. The canvas is not a document — it is a map of assumptions that gets corrected on contact with customers.
Inside Playground for Entrepreneurs your canvas is assembled from your own conversations and practice sessions, and you edit it block by block. Free to start.