How to Create a Stakeholder Engagement Plan (+ Templates)
If you’re looking to create your own business, there are two things you need: a business plan and a business model. Your business plan helps you explore your overall business idea; your business model determines how your business will make money.
Creating a business model from scratch can be overwhelming—this is why working with a business model template or canvas is such a great idea.
Throughout this article, we’re going to cover what a business model is, introduce you to different types of business models, show you how to create a business model and share a number of templates you can use to get started with your own business model.
A business model provides the overall structure for your new business idea. A business model canvas (BMC) is often used as a starting point for this structure, including nine key elements (that we’ll address shortly) that help you flesh out your business model.
The typical structure for your business model should look something like this:
Using a business model makes sure you’re ready to launch a successful business. Especially if you’re hoping to pitch investors, you need to have a solid business model and plan to showcase why they should invest and how your business will generate revenue.
A few other benefits of a business model—especially if you use a business model template—include:
Essentially, you shouldn’t consider starting a business until you’ve created a business model. However, with a business model template, the process is relatively straightforward. We’ll walk you through each of the elements your business model needs and provide you with a number of templates to help you get started.
As we’ve mentioned, there are nine key elements that you need to include in your business model. A good business model canvas template will have space for you to input information about each of these sections.
Let’s walk through each one so you can start thinking about how they’ll pertain to your business.
Who are the key partners in your business? This will be the people or companies that your business will rely on for supplies, processes, etc., to succeed.
Some questions to ask yourself here are:
Key activities refer to the essential processes your business needs to perform in order to offer its products and/or services to customers. This is what allows you to deliver on your company’s value proposition.
Your key resources are the supplies, equipment and other assets that your business needs in order to operate. For example, a brewery needs brewing equipment and a photographer needs a camera and editing software.
What sets your business apart from the competition? What is your company offering and what is the value for your customers? Share pain points that your company is solving for its customers along with the specific products and services you’re planning to sell.
What kind of relationship will you have with your customers? How will you help them? Will your relationship be fully online? Will you have an in-person location? How will you be accessible to your customers?
Describe the channels you will use to reach your customers—website, social media, retail store, front desk, etc. Also include information on the specific channels you’ll be using to provide your business’s products and services.
Who are your ideal customers? Build out a user persona for each customer segment you plan to service. For example, you might offer a direct-to-consumer model where you’d list out the specific types of customers who might buy your product directly, while also offering a wholesale model where you’d include customer segments about decision makers in retail stores.
List out the costs that your business will have based on your key resources and activities. What do you have to pay in order to operate your business?
How will your business make money? What are the available areas that your business can use to bring in revenue and stay afloat? For example, an information business might offer paid coaching calls, paid online courses, as well as a few different types of services to generate revenue.
There are many different types of business models, or rather, different ways that businesses can structure themselves to generate revenue.
We’ll walk you through the top 10 types of business models and share a pre-made template for each so you can easily get started fleshing out your own business model.
Subscription business models are based around regular payments, typically monthly. However, they can also be quarterly or annually, where subscribers input their payment information and automatically have the subscription fee pulled out of their account on the same day each month.
This model has long been popular for service-based businesses, but many product-based businesses selling monthly subscription boxes are getting into this business model as well.
Some examples of businesses using this model include BarkBox, Netflix, Massage Envy, Stitch Fix, QuickBooks, Spotify and Dollar Shave Club.
Subscription-based models are popular because they provide a guaranteed revenue stream from month to month. While yes, a certain percentage of subscribers will likely cancel every month, there isn’t quite as much stress on generating new customers because you know you’ll have $X amount of revenue from month to month.
Use the template above to flesh out your own subscription business. Make it interactive by adding clickable elements to your business plan, financial statements or other documentation.
A bundling business model offers standalone products while also offering “bundles” or “kits” of multiple products in one for a much more appealing price point. While we all know the most common users of the bundling business model—cable companies—there are actually a lot of ways to make this model work.
Yes, companies like AT&T and Xfinity offer things like internet and cable in a bundled package with a discount. Insurance companies like Geico and Progressive also offer discounts when customers bundle things like home and auto insurance into one.
However, this can also be used for product-based businesses. Men’s grooming brand Harry’s offers standalone products while also offering a bundled starter kit. Some companies might offer some sort of BOGO (buy one, get one) sale that offers 50% off a second item if multiple are purchased.
The bundling business model can be a great idea if offering multiple products or services for a lower price point will still be profitable for your business. Here's a template you can use to explain this model to stakeholders.
The freemium business model is typically used by online service providers and software companies. For example, Visme utilizes the freemium business model. We offer our software completely free of charge for life, but it comes with limited access. To get access to more premium features, users will need to sign up for a paid plan.
This is a great way to build trust with your customers. By offering part of your product or service for free, users can try it out to see how they like it. If they find that they’re using it often, it only makes sense to sign up for the full version of the product for a one-time or monthly fee.
Other examples of businesses using the freemium model include Grammarly, Notion, Calendly, LinkedIn, Zoom, and even online games that are free to play but offer in-game purchases, like Fortnite or Roblox.
When you create your business model template, you may end up sharing it with potential investors, other co-founders and more. You can also present it in a PowerPoint format using the template below.
With Visme, you can generate a shareable link that also gives you access to analytics, so you’re able to see how many people have viewed your business model and for how long.
The product-as-a-service business model essentially rents out products again and again to customers. This can be a great business model as you only have to purchase a set of products once—then you get paid each time customers want to use them.
City bike or scooter rentals are examples of this. Another is Rent the Runway, a high-scale clothing company that rents out dresses and other formal wear for people needing a one-time outfit for a fancy event. Completing the Puzzle is another example of this (also mixed with a subscription model) that sends out one puzzle at a time to its customers, who do the puzzle and then send it back.
While this business model can have a lot of upfront costs, getting investor funding or early signups can help to alleviate some of that.
With Visme, you can easily collaborate with co-founders and other team members on your business model to ensure you include all pertinent information. Simply invite them as editors to your project and you can work together in real-time.
Crowdsourcing has become a popular business model due to the inception of sites like Kickstarter that host business ideas and allow the general public to fund them. As the name suggests, this business model is funded by a crowd of people.
Some very successful businesses and products have started this way, like card games Cards Against Humanity and Exploding Kittens, the now-defunct but once successful Pebble smartwatch, EcoFlow, the Wyrmwood Gaming modular table and video gaming console OUYA.
When editing this detailed business model template, make sure to take advantage of cool icons. Visme’s icon library boasts tens of thousands of different icon designs in several different styles. A business model canvas often uses icons to differentiate the sections anyways, so this is the perfect opportunity to get creative.
The franchise business model is one of the oldest in the book. Nearly every popular fast-food restaurant chain has dipped its toes into franchising.
A franchise model is when a company allows private individuals to purchase the licensing of their name to create their own branch of a big-name corporation. For example, McDonald’s is one of the most well-known franchises.
Other businesses using the franchise business model include The UPS Store, Dunkin’, Great Clips, Ace Hardware, Planet Fitness, and 7-Eleven.
The manufacturer business model starts with raw materials, like metal and plastic, and uses them to create a new product to sell to the end user. Popular examples of this would be car manufacturers like Ford, Toyota, and Chevrolet.
These businesses may then sell directly to the consumer or ship to a warehouse and sell through a retailer. Examples of manufacturers include Airstream, L.L. Bean, Burt’s Bees, Vitamix and Zippo.
Speaking of retailers, this is another popular, tried-and-true business model. In fact, one of the most successful businesses of all time, Walmart, uses the retailer business model.
With this model, the company doesn’t actually make any of its own products. Instead, it compiles products from various suppliers and manufacturers to sell in its own storefront. This is one of the most popular business models, and as the last step of the supply chain, it’s one that consumers are most used to.
Examples of the retailer business model include Walmart, Target, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kroger, Costco, The Home Depot, Best Buy, PetSmart and GameStop.
If you’ve already created your new business’s brand guide, make sure to utilize those brand fonts and colors within your business model template. It’s never too early to work on brand strength, and incorporating your branding into documentation that gets in front of the eyes of investors is a great idea.
The distribution business model falls right in between the manufacturer and retailer. This type of business often purchases the products in bulk from the manufacturer to then sell to the retailer for a profit.
Because these guys are the middleman, consumers likely aren’t well-versed with distribution businesses. Instead, they stay focused on the business side of things, building up solid relationships with manufacturers to ensure they get a good deal on bulk products. They then oversee the entire distribution process from the manufacturer until the products are on the shelves.
Use this stunning template to present your business model to partners, investor, suppliers and other key stakeholders.
The last business model example that we’re going to cover is ecommerce. This type of business creates and sells its products exclusively online. It’s an easy type of business to create, especially with platforms like Shopify making creating an ecommerce website easy.
Some examples of ecommerce businesses include Warby Parker, Edloe Finch, Rothys, Day Designer, The Sill, and Beekman 1802.
If you have a product you want to create and sell, an ecommerce business model can be a quick way to get your new business started. Creating a website and shipping your products can have a relatively low overhead, so the only costs you need to worry about are the raw materials for creating your product.
Here's a customizable template you can use to present your e-commerce business model.
Do you have pressing questions about business models? These FAQs are here to help.
The most common business model is retail, the sale of products or services to an end consumer. A brick-and-mortar store uses the traditional retail model while an e-commerce site uses the online version.
The four core business models are:
A business plan explains your overall business idea including your goals and the strategies you have set in place to achieve them. A business model determines what you’ll do to make your business profitable.
Set your new business up for success by getting started with a business model template from Visme. Take advantage of our professional document creator to create a business model, as well as all your other business needs, like a business plan, sales collateral, pitch decks and more.
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