The Lean Canvas was developed by Ash Maurya who modified Alexander Osterwalder's business model canvas, which was intended for larger, more complex businesses seeking venture capital. We have added several "drill down" concepts to the Lean Canvas.

We like to describe the Lean Canvas as the "Swiss Army Knife (or MAGIC) Tool for Planning, Promoting and Growing your Business."

Whether you are struggling with a business plan, trying to improve your marketing and promotional efforts or diversifying your revenue streams, the Lean Canvas can magically make your efforts more successful.

The reason Lean Canvas is so useful is because it helps businesses avoid the typical business plan problem of too many Starts and re-starts as the plan encounters difficulties.

That's because Business Plan Templates tend to be LINEAR, but in reality Business Ideas tend to be ITERATIVE.

Doug Hall has done research to show that we need to provide the customer with:

Overt Benefits - from your Customers perspective; otherwise its just a feature

Real reasons for your customer to believe that you can provide the benefits you promise

Dramatic Difference - otherwise customer has no motivation to change to you

On the Lean Canvas these 3 go into the Unique Value Proposition and Unfair Advantage::

Unique Value Proposition:

   OVERT Benefits for your Customer [solving their BIG problem]

   Real Reasons for them to Believe [that you can provide the promised Benefit

Unfair Advantage:

   Dramatic Difference [between you and the competition]

If you can do ALL three at the same time for your customer, you can compete on Value 

OTHERWISE, you will be stuck competing on PRICE!!

Price is only ever an issue in the absence of value.

S - Specific; be as specific as you can about what it is you want to accomplish. It isn't "make a living" - it should be "make $10,000 per month' or "make $500,000 per year" or "make enough extra to pay for the BMW M-3 or Audi A8".

M - Measurable; you should be able to describe what you want to accomplish in terms of something you can measure. It isn't "use Social Media to get more exposure" - it should "use Social Media to get 50 Likes per day on Facebook".

A - Achievable; yes, many people will tell you to make your objectives challenging or a "stretch", but that doesn't mean set yourself up for failure. Make sure that with a reasonable amount of time, energy, effort, help or what ever you have available, you could actually accomplish the objective.

R - Relevant; as you tidy up your objective to comply with the first three items above, it is very easy to loose sight of what you are actually trying to accomplish and write down something that meets those criteria but doesn't express what you set out to accomplish. Double check to ensure that your objective is still relevant to what you want to accomplish.

T - Time constrained or limited; you need to make sure you express your objective with a Deadline. No, it doesn't have to be THE RIGHT deadline, but it should have a deadline so you can begin planning on accomplishing your objective by that time or recognize that you either need more time or more resources. Without a Deadline to motivate your actions you may not figure out you need that extra time or resources until it is too late.

The Lean Canvas approach to your business planning has helped hundreds of businesses otherwise struggling with their business plan, to finally understand what they are trying to accomplish. In reality the Lean Canvas helps people talk about their business model in terms  of:

How will you create value for you customers from their perspective?

How will you capture that value in the perception of your customers?

How can you convert the captured value into desirable value (like money!!)?

Once you can thoroughly explain, and only after you can thoroughly explain, your business model are you really ready to tackle developing and writing down your plan to implement your business mode.

There are additional articles and resources throughout this site to help you finally get control of you business plan.

SBA loans are a real option for your business and many business do use the loans to start or to grow, but some of the SBA loans can also apply to Exporting.

The SBA definitely wants to help you export, and even have an Export Express program to simplify and expedite the process, export development and working capital loans, Patriot Express and others, so you definitely need to add them to your list of options to consider for financing your export business.

 Here's the synopsis from SBA for business loans:

• Basic 7(a) Loan Program

  Gives 7(a) loans to eligible borrowers for starting, acquiring and expanding a small business. This type of loan is the most basic and the most used within SBA's business loan programs. Borrowers must apply through a participating lender institution.

• Certified Development Company (CDC) 504 Loan Program

  Provides growing businesses with long-term, fixed-rate financing for major fixed assets, such as land and buildings.

• Microloan Program

  Offers very small loans to start-up, newly established or growing small business concerns. SBA makes funds available to nonprofit community based lenders which, in turn, make loans to eligible borrowers in amounts up to a maximum of $50,000. Applications are submitted to the local intermediary and all credit decisions are made on the local level.

 Contact us for more details or help.