Business Model Development

If you don’t pick your business model, one picks you. And spoiler: It might not be the one you actually want. I see too many coaches build offers, but not a model. They chase income, but forget about long-term freedom. Your business model is how you make money consistently. And how you structure it determines your time, income, and peace. If you’re unclear on yours — start here: 5 Business Model Options for Coaches + Creators: → 1:1 Coaching High-ticket, intimate, results-driven, but time-for-money trade. → Group Programs Scalable, community-based, recurring enrollment opportunity. → Courses / Digital Products Evergreen, passive(ish), great for niche skills and frameworks. → Masterminds / Retreats High-value, relationship-based, premium offer for seasoned clients. → Done-For-You / Consulting Expertise-driven, great for coaches with operational know-how. Questions to ask when choosing your model: → How much time do I want to work each week? → Do I prefer 1:1, group, or hands-off delivery? → What pricing model supports the lifestyle I desire? → How does this align with my long-term business vision? → What type of clients energize me vs. drain me? Pro tip: Start with one core offer and nail it first. Then stack or expand your offers once you gain traction. Your model isn’t just about income — it shapes your life. Pick the one that lets you thrive, not just survive. PS: Save this post so you can revisit when mapping offers. Which model feels most aligned for you right now? Drop it below 👇🏼

What are the essential pieces of a sustainable business model? When business models are discussed in sustainability, the focus tends to land on environmental efficiency or social protection. Important, but incomplete. The real shift happens when sustainability starts shaping how the business is designed end to end. How value is created, how revenue is generated, how costs behave, and how decisions are made. A few elements that tend to define that shift: Value proposition that connects growth to measurable environmental and social outcomes. Not positioning. Actual linkage to impact. Revenue model aligned with sustainability drivers. Demand signals, pricing logic, incentives. If these are disconnected, the model does not hold. Cost structure that reflects resource exposure. Energy, carbon, water, materials. These move from externalities to core financial variables. Operations built around efficiency and emissions management, supported by data and targets. This is where performance becomes visible. Supply chain with traceability and risk management across critical suppliers. Most impacts sit here, and so do most blind spots. Products and services designed for durability, circularity, and lower life cycle impact. This defines long term competitiveness. Governance that aligns incentives, capital allocation, and oversight with sustainability priorities. Without this, progress stalls. Stakeholder integration that reflects expectations from markets, workforce, and regulators directly into strategy. Most companies are advancing on individual elements. Fewer are connecting them into a coherent system. That is usually where the gap sits between ambition and business impact.

Building impact businesses isn’t about products—it’s about models. I spent 5 years nearly broke figuring this out. Here’s the exact hybrid model that saved us. In 2013 I launched solar-kiosks in rural Rwanda—phone charging + connectivity. We were first to market but nearly broke in 18 months. What pulled us back: low-margin customers at the base-of-the-pyramid who couldn’t cover full cost of tech + distribution. Research shows BoP ventures often take 10–15 years to break even. Our turnaround strategy: 1️⃣ Tiered revenue: corporate/enterprise users subsidize community rates (hybrid financing). 2️⃣ B2B2C partnerships: NGOs buy & deploy; communities benefit—minimizes upfront capital for us. 3️⃣ Cap-light scale: franchise and licensing models instead of building all own infrastructure. Today, the same product is self-sustaining, scaling across multiple regions. 🔑 Core lesson: If your impact business targets low-income segments, your business model is your product. 👉 Your turn: What one business-model adjustment saved your venture or could save it? (One sentence answers welcome!) #ImpactBusiness #BoP #SocialEnterprise #HybridModel #Sustainability #BusinessModel

𝐄𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐲𝐨𝐧𝐞 𝐢𝐬 𝐛𝐮𝐢𝐥𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐆𝐞𝐧𝐀𝐈 𝐮𝐬𝐞 𝐜𝐚𝐬𝐞𝐬. 𝐁𝐮𝐭 𝐚𝐥𝐦𝐨𝐬𝐭 𝐧𝐨 𝐨𝐧𝐞 𝐢𝐬 𝐭𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐢𝐭 𝐥𝐢𝐤𝐞 𝐚 𝐛𝐮𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐬 𝐦𝐨𝐝𝐞𝐥. Some of the most successful companies didn’t just solve problems - they built platforms others could use. With GenAI, this model becomes realistic for more businesses than ever before. 🔹 You have data that others don’t 🔹 You can offer tools - like copilots or APIs - that others want to use 🔹 You don’t have to build everything yourself - you can grow with partners Here’s what happens if you get it right: 🔹 More users = more activity 🔹 More activity = better outcomes 🔹 Better outcomes = more users It becomes a self-reinforcing loop. But most companies are stuck building isolated pilots. What if you designed GenAI as something others could plug into? Not just for internal use - but to create value across your ecosystem? 𝐄𝐱𝐚𝐦𝐩𝐥𝐞: A logistics company creates a GenAI route optimizer based on its delivery data. They start using it internally, then expose it via an API to local retailers, warehouses, even competitors. Now it’s no longer a tool, it’s a product. Would love to hear who’s exploring this already - or who’s stuck trying. #GenerativeAI #AIPlatform #DigitalStrategy #BusinessModel #Innovation

Business Plans Are Dead. 💀 I teach an entire workshop on why business plans are outdated and why the #pitchdeck is the single most valuable tool for your #business. Today in my SUNY Brockport class, we’re working through the Business Model Canvas—a powerful framework that helps entrepreneurs map out their entire business model in a simple, visual format. 📅 This is the halfway point for my students, where they start pulling together all the weekly assignments into a cohesive business strategy. From here, they’ll move on to building their pitch decks, which will become the foundation of their final presentations. 💫 Why Every Business Owner Needs a Business Model Canvas The Business Model Canvas (BMC) is an essential tool that replaces the long, traditional business plan with a dynamic, one-page snapshot of your business. It covers: ✅ Your value proposition (why customers choose you) ✅ Key revenue streams (how you make money) ✅ Customer segments & channels (who you serve & how you reach them) ✅ Key resources & partners (what you need to operate & grow) Unlike a static business plan that sits on a shelf, the BMC is a living document—it should evolve as your business grows and adapts to market changes. If you’re not revisiting and updating your BMC regularly, you’re already behind. 💫 Why Pitch Decks Are the Most Versatile Business Tool I’ve written thousands of pitch scripts and helped design countless pitch decks—and one thing is clear: 💥 If you can’t articulate what you do, how you do it, what makes you different, why you will win, and how you make money—clearly and precisely—others will be lost too. Your pitch deck isn’t just for investors—it’s a tool for sales, partnerships, hiring, and strategic planning. It forces clarity. Whether you’re a startup founder, a small business owner, or scaling a company, your ability to communicate your business effectively is everything. 💡 So—when was the last time you updated your Business Model Canvas or Pitch Deck? If it’s been a while, consider this your sign to revisit it. #entrepreneurship #businessmodelcanvas #pitchdeck #startups #businessgrowth #ActionIsTheAnswer

Starting a business can often feel like piecing together the most elaborate puzzle. During a recent session on an introduction to business models, an attendee asked me, "How will creating a Business Model Canvas help me launch my business?" Traditionally, crafting a business plan is the norm—it's a staple for securing grants, loans, and even navigating business accelerators. I'm not here to change that expectation. However, let's be honest: many business plans assume you've got everything figured out—your customer base, your market, operational details, costs, pricing, etc. The reality? These plans often verge on fiction. As the Spanish saying goes, "el papel aguanta todo"— "paper doesn't refuse ink"—it doesn't guarantee execution. This is where the Business Model Canvas truly shines. Beyond its elegant simplicity in mapping out how your business creates, delivers, and captures value, it prompts honesty and introspection. It encourages you to lay out your assumptions, acknowledge the unknowns, and embrace a mindset of exploration, discovery, testing, and learning. Before diving into a full-fledged business plan, dedicate a few hours to sketching your Business Model Canvas. Pinpoint your assumptions and seek ways to validate them. This process could save you countless headaches, months of work, and potentially a great deal of money. Embark on this journey of entrepreneurial clarity and resilience. It's time to transform paper dreams into actionable reality. #Entrepreneurship #Innovation Side Note: Thank you all for your support as I improve my public speaking skills in English. I'm a work in progress, with much to learn, but I grow with each step forward. 🙏

If I were to summarize the key insight from this week's executive education program at The Wharton School "Business Model Innovation in the Age of #AI" its this: AI is NOT a strategy. It is an enabler. And its value depends entirely on the business model wrapped around it. This week, the most important conversations were not about the details of LLM models. They were about harder questions: How do you validate the value proposition from AI with the right stakeholders? Who actually captures the value? How do you manage AI agents, quality, bias, hallucinations, and changing roles? How do you close the gap between senior leaders talking about AI and mid-level managers expected to implement it? The companies that get this right will not be the ones with the flashiest tools. They will be the ones who run better experiments, communicate early wins, build organizational confidence, and keep human expertise firmly in the loop. That is why business model innovation in the age of AI is, at its core, a leadership challenge. Many thanks to Nancy Rothbard, Xu Han, Prasanna Tambe, Rahul Kapoor, Scott Snyder for teaching in the program. Grateful to Alan Lee and Jeremy Korst for amazing guest lectures and to Renée Hartwell Damato, M.Ed. and Angela Gary for making the program come together! #AI #Wharton #innovation

Every startup can be distilled into a simple equation. And until you can express yours as one, you don’t fully understand your business. Having this equation gives you a map for understanding your biggest growth drivers, your key inputs and outputs, and once your teams are aligned, and the equations operationalized, you’ll experience a huge force multiplier—because every team will be focusing their energy on the same (high-leverage) levers. I teamed up with Dan Hockenmaier to flesh out the detailed equations for the eight most common tech business models: 1. Bottom-up B2B SaaS with seat-based pricing 2. Bottom-up B2B SaaS with usage-based pricing 3. Top-down B2B SaaS 4. B2C subscription 5. B2C free (ads) 6. B2C marketplaces 7. B2B marketplaces 8. DTC/e-commerce How to make the most of this post: 1. Create your own business’s math formula, with inspiration from a formula below 2. Have a discussion with your team about how your business grows through the lens of this formula 3. Identify the highest-leverage lever(s) within your formula, and put more resources behind it 4. Identify one new lever you haven’t invested in, and experiment with it 5. Turn the formula into a full-fledged growth model (something we’ll explore in a future post) 👇 https://lnkd.in/g3zdkAMa

AI is dramatically reshaping business models. This framework is the foundation of my new LinkedIn Learning course "AI-Driven Business Model Innovation". See below for a brief summary of the 6 domains of AI’s impact on value creation, together with the major driving forces and the capabilities required as business models rapidly evolve. Link to the course - free for LinkedIn subscribers - in comments. DRIVING FORCES 🧠 Driving Forces of AI Evolution We’re at a structural shift in business. AI capabilities are accelerating, costs are falling, and data is becoming a strategic asset. These forces are reshaping the foundations of value creation — demanding that leaders rethink not just what their business does, but how it evolves. SIX DOMAINS OF AI-DRIVEN BUSINESS MODEL INNOVATION ⚙️ Scalable Efficiency AI enables organizations to operate at a new scale — automating tasks, streamlining decisions, and amplifying productivity. This isn’t just about cost-cutting and efficiency — it’s augmenting talent for higher-value work and building systems that continuously learn and improve. 🎁 Enhanced Value Propositions AI enhances what you offer — and how it’s experienced. From smart, adaptive products to deeply personalized services, it allows you to deliver more relevance, utility, and meaning to every customer. The frontier of value lies in customer responsiveness and learning at scale. 💞 Shifting Customer Relationships AI transforms how we engage with customers — not just improving service, but enabling co-creation, building trust, and responding to individual needs in real time. The most successful companies will be those that become embedded in customers’ lives through intelligent, trusted relationships. 🏗️ Redesigning Organizations Organizations must evolve from static hierarchies to adaptive systems that blend human and AI capabilities. This means rethinking workflows, decision-making, and structures to be more fluid, responsive, and innovation-driven. AI is not a bolt-on — it enables dramatic reconfiguration of value creation. 🧑💻 The AI Agent Economy AI agents are becoming participants in the economy — acting on behalf of users, negotiating, coordinating, and executing tasks. This shift calls for new strategies, where businesses design for agents as well as humans, and where trust and interoperability become core to competitive advantage. 🌐 AI in Platforms and Ecosystems The most powerful business models today are built around data-rich ecosystems. AI turns data into action, unlocking new platform value and shared innovation. Success increasingly depends on how well you participate in — or build — dynamic, intelligent ecosystems. CAPABILITIES 🚀 Capabilities for AI Evolution Thriving in this landscape requires more than tools. It demands vision, adaptability, experimentation, and the ability to work across boundaries — human, organizational, and technical. These capabilities are the foundation of tomorrow's business models and success.

Still building your business without a Business Model Canvas? That’s like navigating without a map. I’ve watched teams spend months debating strategy, only to realize later they were making decisions on assumptions. One quick pass through this tool often changes that. It lays the whole model out in front of you (the customers, partners, costs, and revenue) and shows where the pieces don’t line up. When our team runs this exercise with clients, it sparks so many breakthroughs. The signal: digital leaders who map their business model are better able to spot where tech will drive the organization forward. Where are you still steering without a map?