The truth is there's nothing easy about running a business,
particularly if you want to do it well,
and I think the single hardest thing is
creating focus and that requires deciding on that focus yourself.
So, out of the 10 things you might want to do,
what are the one or two that you're actually going to do and do well,
and then discussing and communicating that focus with
the rest of your team in a way that's relevant and actionable to them.
My name is Alex Cowan.
I'll be your instructor in this course.
I have been an entrepreneur,
and an entrepreneur meaning I've started a new venture inside an existing company.
And as I went through
these ventures and I began to advise ventures and invest in ventures,
I learned about a few things that consistently worked and didn't work and out of that,
I've formulated this venture design process that I use across
various teaching and learning resources and I love
the Business Model Canvas as a focal tool
for operating a business and working with the team.
And I think what's great about it is that it's on this one single page.
All the key elements and the interrelationships between those key elements are
there and that helps you push yourself to decide what's really important,
where your focus really lies,
and then it's this nice simple thing that you can
use to discuss and communicate that focus with your stakeholders.
And I think if you get comfortable with the business model canvas,
you'll be relieved to hear that you'll probably never have to
write another business plan or operating plan again,
at least not a long one.
And I think you probably found that when you had to do those plans in the past,
maybe you started off excited,
but I doubt that you stayed that way and I doubt your readers did.
This is a great tool to use for your primary focus on running
a business and I'm so excited that you decided to join me for the course.
I think you're going to enjoy using the Business Model Canvas a lot.