Developing a Business Idea Using the Business Model Canvas
Senior 3 · Entrepreneurship
Developing a Business Idea Using the Business Model Canvas
Lesson 1 of 4
23 min
Ishimwe, a Senior 3 student, helps her aunt at a tomato stall in a market like the one in the photograph. Every Saturday evening the stall is left with soft, unsold tomatoes, and every week part of them is thrown away. The other sellers lose tomatoes too. Ishimwe wonders whether this waste could become a business.
She has noticed a problem. To turn it into a business she must also find a solution that people want, and then a business model: a way to deliver that solution and earn more money than it costs. This unit follows her idea from problem to plan. Ishimwe and her figures are illustrative.
Definition
Business idea: a possible way to meet a need or solve a problem by offering a product or service to customers.
Problem (customer problem): a need, difficulty or loss that a group of people experience and would value having solved.
Solution: the product or service that removes or reduces the problem.
Business model: a description of how a business creates value for its customers, delivers it to them and captures value (earns money) in return.
A strong business starts with a real problem, not with a product someone likes. Describe the problem precisely, then check it with the people who have it.
| Question | Ishimwe’s answers |
|---|---|
| Who has the problem? | tomato sellers at the market, and the farmers who supply them |
| How often, and how badly? | every market day; part of each basket is lost, so sellers lose money |
| What do they do now? | sell soft tomatoes cheaply at the end of the day, or throw them away |
| Is it worth solving? | yes, if the lost tomatoes can be turned into something people will buy |
A problem statement puts this in one sentence: “[Who] struggles to [do what] because [cause], which costs them [effect].”
Worked example 1: writing and checking a problem statement
Weak: “People need dried tomatoes.” This names a product, not a problem, and nobody has said they need it.
Strong: “Tomato sellers at our market struggle to sell all their ripe tomatoes before they spoil, because they have no cool storage, which costs them part of their stock every week.”
Checking it: Ishimwe interviews 12 sellers. She asks what they do with unsold tomatoes and how much they lose in a typical week, but she does not mention her own idea, so that their answers are not influenced. Ten of the twelve say they lose tomatoes every week. The problem is real and common.
One problem can have several solutions. Ishimwe lists three: (A) dry the tomatoes in a solar dryer and sell dried tomato slices in packets; (B) cook them into tomato sauce in jars; (C) rent cool boxes to sellers. She compares them with simple scores from 1 (poor) to 5 (good).
Worked example 2: comparing solutions with scores
| Criterion | A. Dried slices | B. Sauce in jars | C. Cool-box rental |
|---|---|---|---|
| Customers want it | 4 | 4 | 5 |
| Customers can pay for it | 4 | 3 | 2 |
| We have the skills and equipment | 4 | 2 | 2 |
| Low start-up cost | 4 | 2 | 1 |
| Easy to meet food-safety and other rules | 3 | 2 | 4 |
| Total (out of 25) | 19 | 13 | 14 |
Check: ; ; .
Decision: solution A scores highest. Sellers want cool boxes most, but they cannot pay enough to cover the cost of buying them, so C fails as a business even though it solves the problem well.
A solution becomes a business only when four questions have good answers:
Notice that the people with the problem (sellers who lose tomatoes) are not the same as the customers of solution A (people who buy dried tomatoes). The sellers become suppliers: Ishimwe buys their soft tomatoes cheaply, which reduces their loss. A good business model can solve one group’s problem while selling to another. Lesson 2 introduces a one-page tool for answering all these questions together: the Business Model Canvas.
Tip
Memory hook: “Fall in love with the problem, not the product.” If customers do not have the problem, no product will sell. In an exam, a business idea answer should state the problem first, then the solution, then who pays.
Warning
Common mistakes. (1) Starting with a product (“I want to sell juice”) without checking who needs it. (2) Asking leading questions in interviews (“Wouldn’t you love dried tomatoes?”), which get polite but useless answers. (3) Choosing the solution that solves the problem best but that customers cannot pay for, like option C.
Practice
Sources and credits
Written by Ganzaa: the Ishimwe case, the diagram, the tables, the worked examples and the practice items. The case and its figures are illustrative (2026).
This lesson adapts CC BY-SA material and is shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.
