The Business Concept Map

10 minutes to read

The Business Concept Map1 (BCM) helps to structure the business idea and create an easy to read a summary of your business. With the Business Concept, you can answer most of the questions of potential investors, business-, product-, and market- developers.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Business Concept Map is 

• A procedure to generate a systematic thought process of the entrepreneur to identify the business he/she wants to start 
• A tool to capture into a framework the viability elements of the business opportunity and the business creation conditions in a startup one-pager 
•  A set of assumptions about a future business 
• A roadmap for validating assumptions and shows the direction and the journey 

In the Business Concept Map, the entrepreneurs define six significant aspects of a new venture that is critical in starting a new business.  

The Business Concept Map (BCM) is a condensed version of a startup Business Concept in one page. You can download the Business Concept Map template from the Learning Center, and fill out the Map with your data, then validate your assumptions and modify accordingly. You can share this Map and can use it as an input to your elevator pitch to investors, supporters or your team members.  

Why do you need to define your business concept? 

There are several reasons behind defining a Business Concept when you are considering starting a new business: 

• Help yourself to formulate your cloudy thoughts about your new venture with an easy-to-use framework 

• Define the major elements of the business you want to start 
• Match the business opportunity with the value creation  
• Clarify the viability of the business opportunity and the feasibility of the value creation capabilities 
• Generate assumptions for validation before further investing your time, energy and money in developing products, services and go to market activities 
• Provide a framework for collecting arguments to convince potential supporters and investors 

• Collect your answers to questions of potential partners, supporters, investors 
• Create an easy to read Business Concept document and a one-page summary of the significant aspects of your business (Business Concept Map)  

Business Model Canvas and Business Concept Map 

People in the startup ecosystem more often use the Business Model Canvas by Osterwalde and Pigneur (2010).  Although managers, consultants, students of most business schools widely know the Business Model Canvas and new venture creators quite often use as well, the Business Concept Map is more focused to the most important issues of starting a new venture.  

Both methods can cover 

• Any venture 
• Target market 
• Value proposition 
• Distribution channel 
• Revenue stream 

• Cost 
• Resources, competencies 

What is unique in the Business Concept Map: 

• New venture focus 
• Market segments, special needs, growth potential 

• Unique selling points, competitive position 
• Distinctive competencies 
• Mission, vision, goals of starting the venture 
• Founders, team, partners 
• Financing needs, sources 

• Risk analysis 

Nevertheless, you can use any of the tools.