Why do I need a business model?

I just want to work and earn money doing what I like the most.

I’m sure that that’s exactly what you’re thinking right now. I’ve been there too.

However, the truth is that going freelance isn’t enough. You need to work on the inner structure of your business if you want to improve it over the years and have an ever-lasting business.

If you don’t do it now, maybe someone else is doing it for you!

Why should you design an inimitable business model?

• To stand out in the market. I’m sure that you have already noticed how many personal brands are emerging nowadays. This has to do with a change in the professional world. This isn’t something bad at all, if you ask me. But it means that we have to live in a crowded world of brands.

• People are going to copy you. If you have established your own business model and it’s working pretty well, you’ll notice that every now and then people trying to launch an offer or service similar to yours. It’s logical that if this business idea is working for you, someone wants to give it a try too. However, we have to make it hard to copy through a unique business model.

• Be a step ahead of your competitors. I always say that I’d rather collaborate with people in my industry than compete with them. But some people don’t see it like that. And we need to be ahead of them through innovative business models.

• To position yourself as an expert. At the end of the day, only those standing out in the market are the ones that you’re going to see as experts in an industry. They all stand out for some reason, maybe they’ve been in the industry for years and years, or maybe they’re using a different approach to add something new to it.

• Analyse and improve your business. If your business doesn’t have an inner structure, it will be more difficult to find out what’s working and what should be changed. We need to organise our business the same way we organise an office or our bedrooms, and make changes and replacements when necessary.

Where should you start?

Ok, that sounds amazing, but where should I start?

This is exactly what I was asking myself before designing my own business model.

I’m going to talk about a tool that will help you come up with the perfect business model.

• Business model canvas

Again?

If you follow any business blogs, I’m sure that you’ve already read something about this business model canvas.

I promise that I’m not going to repeat what it’s been said.

For those of you that aren’t familiarised with the business model canvas, you can start having a look at this video:

However, what I want you to do with this canvas is this:

• Take your time to analyse the current situation of your business. Maybe you haven’t specifically thought about some of the sections. If that’s the case, take your time to develop each of them. Think about what you’re doing and what needs to be changed.

• Take some time to analyse your competitors. I’m sure you’ll be able to find some trends in your industry. Analyse why people do what they do and how you can improve it or take a different approach.

• Be creative. For each section, think about the way you can do it differently. Think about what can be improved, but also think about what you can do to have the same impact but taking different steps as your competitors.

• Create objectives to reach your ideal business model canvas. Once you’ve come up with ideas to do things differently, you’ll need to set your objectives. Remember that you need a goal to aim at.

• Focus on your value preposition. Among the rest of the sections, this should be one that you should focus on when thinking about differentiate from the rest. Your services and products must be different and, hence, the value that you’re offering to your clients.

 

 

Practical tips and techniques to put business models into practice 

1. Your clients are unique and they only want to work with you.

This is what you have to achieve with your business model. If they aren’t unique, they won’t hesitate to hire someone else at some point.

That’s why your value preposition is so important.

[Tweet “You need to offer something that anyone out there is offering yet.”]

2. Be your own client at least once.

You need to know the experience that you’re offering to your clients.

How are you going to do that?

Being your own client.

Revise, step by step, the selling process that your clients have to do when hiring you, bearing in mind your business model canvas.

Once you’ve done this, think about what’s the most daunting part of the process and simplify it. We have to aim at running this process as smoothly as possible.

You can also ask someone to hire your services to test your business model. Think about questions that you’d ask to a client to improve your selling process and analyse the answers to know what’s working and what isn’t working.

3. Align your business goals to your business model.

Imagine that your main goal is to sell more.

That’s a good goal to start with, but a bit vague without a context.

Now that you have you business model in place, how are you going to achieve this?

Maybe you need to focus on a certain client segment to increase sales within a specific niche, or maybe you need to pay more attention to your income streams to analyse what needs to be improved.

This is how you’re going to hone your business model, through specific goals that will make your business grow.

 

[Tweet “Are you going to let your competitors to copy your business model?”]

 

Then it’s high time to spend some time to rethink your strategy and create a unique business model that no one else can imitate.

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