—————————————————————————-<\/p>\n
A good first step in discussing a complex business\u00a0is articulating a simple business model, not a\u00a0complex one.<\/p>\n
Despite the fact that conventional wisdom, the KISS principle (keep it simple, stupid) and host of other heuristics would lead one to this not-so-earth-shattering conclusion, it amazes me how difficult it can be to actually<\/em>\u00a0keep it simple and avoid the trap of piling on complexity. \u00a0Building a stripped down business model is a great exercise in sticking to the basics and describing the business idea at its economic core. \u00a0It also creates a powerful, accesible visual communication tool for promoting an idea.<\/p>\n In an informative post<\/a> on how consumer internet startups make money,\u00a0Steven Carpenter<\/a>\u00a0uses a downloadable set of financial models<\/a> to focus the reader on the key drivers of various startup business types. \u00a0These are not <\/strong>complex discounted cash flow models; they are simply 5-10 lines of text that describes the various drivers and associated values that plug into a very basic algebraic equation. \u00a0 That’s all.<\/p>\n Very rarely does one have the opportunity to interact with people (in business and in life) who know exactly<\/em>\u00a0what one is talking about. \u00a0Starting from the most accessible set of relationships, concepts and figures is a solid approach. \u00a0But its not nearly as easy as it sounds. \u00a0Taking the time to write out (in a spreadsheet, on scratch paper, in the dirt with a stick, etc.) a stripped down business model is a good habit. It encourages good communication and a simple, elegant organization of thoughts.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" —————————————————————————- A good first step in discussing a complex business\u00a0is articulating a simple business model, not a\u00a0complex one. Despite the fact that conventional wisdom, the KISS principle (keep it simple, stupid) and host of other heuristics would lead one to this not-so-earth-shattering conclusion, it amazes me how difficult it can be to actually\u00a0keep it simple […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[23,25,26,24,20],"class_list":["post-66","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-tools","tag-business-model","tag-complexity","tag-financial-model","tag-kiss","tag-process"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brianalward.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brianalward.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brianalward.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brianalward.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brianalward.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=66"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/brianalward.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":68,"href":"https:\/\/brianalward.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66\/revisions\/68"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brianalward.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=66"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brianalward.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=66"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brianalward.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=66"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}