Building the Plan

I attended a "Pub Talk" last Wednesday put on by the Florence Chamber of Commerce, the Small Business Development Council of Oregon, Lane Community College, and something called RAIN (entrepreneur network of some sort with a convoluted name). This Pub Talk was the first in a series after the pilot last Fall and I found it most useful.

The RAIN dude, David, a young man with a lot of know-how on business models, walked through the Business Model Canvas with us using various examples and then challenged us to complete one for ourselves. I found a good template at https://strategyzer.com/ that matches the one that David used.
https://assets.strategyzer.com/assets/resources/the-business-model-canvas.pdf  is the template and https://assets.strategyzer.com/assets/resources/designing-crystal-clear-business-model-canvases.pdf is a guide for completing it. 

When asked if anyone would like to share their roughed out Canvas, I shared mine. While it seems like a fairly simple business--a vendor cart that sells custom ice cream sandwiches--all the elements are there as there would be for a larger business.

The Value Propositions or "what you do for each customer segment" would be:

• Provide a small range of custom ice cream sandwiches that are made with local ice cream and cookies to the crowds at the local Florence farmer's market and street fairs, and for local delivery to neighborhoods.

The Customer Relationships or "how the customer interacts with you" varies with each customer segment:

• At the farmers' market or street fairs, customers would approach my bicycle/tricycle ice cream cart and make a choice from the 3-4 options laid out on a chalkboard and purchase that choice with cash. (credit/debit?)
• Though a website and/or Facebook schedule, allow delivery orders for specific ice cream sandwich types for specific neighborhoods on specific days of the week. Based on a production schedule, certain types of ice cream sandwiches would be created. 
• For local scheduled events, such as meetings, parties, weddings, etc., a pre-arranged selection and amount of custom ice cream sandwiches would be provided for a set price. 

Channels are specific means to market to my customer segments and how I'm going to get the product to them:

• Street fairs and farmer's markets would be advertised on the Facebook page and local Facebook pages to announce where I planned to be and when. The sandwiches would be sold from the freezer on my tricycle. 
• Deliveries to the various neighborhoods would be on a schedule. For example, Coast Village and Florentine Estates on Monday, Greentrees on Tuesday, etc. Individual orders would be packaged up and there would be some extras for those who stop me along the way.  I would deliver on my tricycle. 
• The tricycle would be used for local weddings and events, where it was possible to ride the tricycle there. If business improved, maybe a trailer to haul the tricycle around might be an idea to pursue.

https://lanesbdc.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/SBDC-SPRING-SCHEDULE-2018-FOR-WEB-1.pdf

https://strategyzer.com/


I'd like to say that it was the realization that I was selling something to people that was not good for them that gave me a change of heart, but what it probably really was was the look on Keith's face when I tried to explain that I wasn't really interested in making money or working that hard. I guess it was an insult to the struggles of the small business person who is putting in the long hours to make her business a success that I really didn't want to put in those hours anymore. Like it would be easy for me. Either way, I'm going to put this dream away for right now and see if I get serious about working hard again.