THE BUSINESS MODEL – TRAINING

The 9^th webinar that is held in the webinar series. The business model comes to you from a long series of webinars right from ideation of your concept to the product development and now we have the business model. Bring your inquisitive mind to analyzing, what is it all about, what does it take for one to do a business model. Do all businesses need a business model? These and very many other questions are answered by our panelist today, Ms. Agnes Akello Jurua. An investment associate with Ortus Africa capital. PLEASE follow and feel free to comment. All these are not a direct translation of the webinar. But most of all are the similar or the same.

What is a business model?

Is a document which outlines how a business is going to affect its customers. It involves three things

• What your product is
• Who your customers are
• What channels to use while delivering to the customers (advertisements)

What are the importance of a business model? Why is it important to have a business model in your enterprise?

Being a document outlining the three things earlier mentioned one should know the advantages that come along with this document.

• It helps you define your business concept.
• It helps you define your customers. Thus get the best ways to reach your target market.
• It helps you stay competitive. Due to the constant updates of the trends in the market among others
• It helps you know how your

What should one know / requirements before starting this up?

One needs to structure it around the three pillars. Product customers and the channels.

1. Products (what do you need to know about your product.) must ensure a product market fit, and a problem solution fit. You must make sure that you are reaching a product market fit, that your product is fit for the market. So you do interviews among other to know whether your product is solving an actual problem, and the target market is existent.
2. Customers; One shall under take rigorous customer segmentation. You must look at your target and be focused on it.
3. Channels. Based on the target market you are looking at, what is the best way to reach your customers. How are you bringing that product into the market? If your target is farmers in the rural areas.

You need to outline properly what your product is, who your customers are and the channel through which you shall reach your customers.

How does one go about creating a business model?

There is a six step procedure.

1. Define the problem you want to solve in the market. Look at the problem you have identified in the market and clearly define it. You set boundaries to the problem. E.g. lack of good seeds for farmers in the northern part of Uganda.
2. Define the customers. The people you think are experiencing that particular problem. It could be one person or a group of people. Write them down on paper. It’s good to come up with three.
3. Define your key customer and your key problem. These you get them from the sample space used in I and2. Narrowing that down shall help you come up with good solutions for your problem for your target customer
4. Define a set of possible solutions for the customer and problem that you have come up with.
5. Set of possible monetization strategies for the solutions that you have come up with. You need to define a product or service that you will deliver for that particular solution yo have picked.
6. Test and choose. To make sure the solution you have chosen is the one feasible with your problem earlier identified

Does someone have to hire another to do this or one can do it on his own?

Usually you know the problem, the kind of business you are doing or even your product more than any other person so you are the best candidate for this exercises

Are there tools that simplify this work.

There are two types of tools that a startup can use ie, a business model canvas, and a link start up canvas. However, a business model canvas has a longer procedure of about 9 steps. They are the important things that you look at while developing your models, some of the steps include; key business partners, key activities of your business, value preposition (how you stand out in the market), customer relationship, customer segment, among others and they go hand on hand with what has been explained.

The link starts up canvas is a continuation of the business model canvas

All in all, while using these different canvases, there are three things that need to come out well and clearly. The product, customers and channels

How do you expect a regular business professional go about a business model?

You need you confirm that your product or service delivers the necessary solution that you anticipated

You need to test your channels that you are using depending on your target market. How are they getting to know about you and your product?

Basically by doing the market research so well.

When do you think a business model should come into play.

In the product market fit. When you are trying to know whether your product shall meet

Is a business model a one-time venture?

No it’s not a one-time venture, the reason is businesses change and grow from one scale to another. So the business model should change when such changes hit your businesses. Inevitable things like the pandemic can also mean a lot.

Which type of company require a business model?

Business models vary per company. Between a nonprofit and a profit company, the whole idea is the same. While one looks at the impact another looks at how much gain so they all round up on a level ground, success.

What would you expect a company to achieve?

Ideally a company should build a business model at the start irrespective of what achievements they have achieved or not achieved. this is specifically because of the advantages aforesaid. A business model is very fundamental strategy for a business because it marks out the costing / pricing structure of your products. You as a business owner must make sure that your products are legit and that people understand exactly what you are bringing to the market.

There are other types of business models such as the B to B, and the B to C. B to B is simply the business to business kind of model. Such businesses usually target other businesses as they operate. B to C is the business to customer or consumer kind of business model, this one particularly focuses on the customer. Most of the businesses fall under this kind of scope. They have products that are targeted for the consumers or the customers who are not other businesses.

On top of that there is also the business to business to consumer/customer kind of model, the B to B to C Business Model. This combines the three all at once. Examples of such companies include: the JUMIA, Java, Glovo, among other companies.

Thank you so much for being a part of this webinar and blog. We hope to see you around a gain. Do not hesitate to sign up with us for our services@ www.techbuzzhub .org, we do not disappoint. For now that is it we wish you all the best.