From idea to reality
Here’s how to take an idea and, using the COIN Canvas, create a one-page business plan. Based on a Lean Canvas, and rejigged to have a focus on investment as an end goal, the COIN Canvas:
Makes sure you have a problem worth solving
Lets you see the whole idea quickly
Highlights risky assumptions
Focuses on the customer and their needs
Forces you to answer the most important questions across your business
Becomes a living dashboard for your business you can go back to.
Download your COIN Canvas here and use the notes below to fill in each box. The boxes are purposely small so you keep your answers short, sharp and to the point.
How to fill in each box on the canvas
Customer
Even though it’d be great for the bank balance to have everyone buy your product, you need to focus on a targeted customer to ensure your messaging converts to sales. Many businesses can have a range of customers, but each will be targeted with very different messaging.
Think about who will PAY for your product/service.
Is it the end-user? Or are you creating a B2B startup?
The easiest way to figure out who your customers are is to go where your audience is. Become your audience. Try buying your own product.
To understand your customers better, create a list of all their barriers or pain points. The more you know what irks them, the better you can help service your customers and stand out in the market.
Think about your early adopters. They’re the people who will buy your product/service first. Who are they?
What problem are you solving for your customers?
Think about the problems of a delivery pizza customer. They are hungry, but they don’t want to cook, they don’t want to leave the house, or generally put any effort into dinner. Also, they want it now. Pizza delivery stores make dinner as easy as they possibly can to take away these pain points. It’s not about the pizza, but the ease. Dominos selling point is based on these problems: Homedelivery in 30 minutes, or else it’s free.
Think about what annoys your customers most, most often
Ask why.
Is there an issue in the service of the industry you’re in that’s irritating? Is the market confusing for customers? Is it currently too difficult to buy/use/find? Is time, money, or effort the biggest cost to your customer?
List all their problems. And then highlight the biggest one your idea is solving. You can have many problems your idea is solving for your customers, but ensure it truly is a problem. You’ll need to get out and talk to people. Don’t assume you know.
Existing Alternatives
What does the competitive landscape look like? Is there someone else doing this? Is there a giant in the market? What about in another country? Another industry?
Sometimes competition can simply be apathy, or someone not purchasing anything.
If people don’t use your product/service what happens?
Unique Benefits
Unique benefits are how your product solves the pain points or problems you’ve listed for your customer. Think about the pizza again. Sometimes it’s not about the product, but how it’s delivered. Think about the service you provide.
What sets you apart from other alternatives? Why would a customer choose you over other competitors?
How do you compete against companies that have been in the market for years or have huge marketing spends? You don’t. You become the best at something no one else is attempting.
What are you offering, that no one else is offering?
In product?
In service?
In price?
Do your unique benefits tick off all the customer’s problems?
How you’ll get your product to market
Think about who you can partner with. If you have someone else selling your idea on your behalf, that’s half the work done. This could be an existing distributor, a company in another industry where your product could benefit them too, or someone who already has a large database of customers. Think about where your customers are already spending their money (in any industry) and see how you could partner with those products.
What channels can you use to talk to your customers?
Why those?
What do your customers need to know about your product/service, and what of that is most important?
How will you hook them?
Now that you know where to target your customers, think about HOW you will. What will the tone of your brand be? Is it cheap? Or exclusive? Corporate? Or curious? The way your customer perceives your business overall is your brand. It is everything from your storefront and environment to print collateral, website, social media posts and customer service.
Trends in the market
What insights do you have that you can use to your advantage?
Is there a trend happening in your part of the world that will help you get great PR?
Can you benefit from any news stories coming up?
Making Money
This box is notoriously hard. But it’s the one that matters.
List your sources of income from both customers and other sources
What kind of model; subscription, one-off purchase, lease…
Can you sell data? Advertising?
Are you looking for grants and funding?
Can you scale?
Work out the following:
How much does getting a new customer cost?
How much do you expect to get back from each customer over time?
Will they buy more than once? How can I get them to come back?
Does my product encourage customers to share it with others?
About You
Investors back the jockey, not the horse (team, not idea). List what makes you the right person/team to be running this business: your drive, experience, skillset, insight.
Barriers, risks, and assumptions
Money, time and people are always barriers for a startup. List all your barriers. Knowing this can help us, and others understand how they can help.
Create a list of all the assumptions you have currently. We often assume some things are true without researching them. Start crossing off these assumptions once tested and add more any time you start a thought about the business with “I think”.
Costs
Quite simply, list all the costs involved in getting this off the ground. Rent, power, distributing the product, staffing, legal fees, registering a company, etc. An accountant is useful right from the beginning of a business to understand your costs and finances. Most accountants offer an hour free of charge.
Asks
Tell us what you need so we can help. Money? Connections? Training in finance or marketing? Help with staffing issues? A phone number for a distributor? Photos of a product? Help to design a prototype?
Always ask. You never know.
And that’s it.
Go back and figure out which box is the weakest. There are plenty of resources to help strengthen each, just ask the team at COIN South. As your ideas morph and change, so too should your Canvas evolve. The most important thing to do right now is to check that your solution/idea fits the customer’s problem. It’s easy to have solution bias, and if you do, you’ll end up making something no one will buy. Life’s too short for that.
