Start with yourself before you start the canvas.
An 11-page founder's workbook with eight exercises: your why, your mission, your starting point, your assets and your first customer. Do it before you fill in a single box of the Business Model Canvas.
No hype. No spam. An 11-page PDF you can print this week.
What's inside
Eight exercises. One evening.
01
The person
Why us, your mission in one sentence, passion pointed at a real problem, and the values that hold under pressure.
02
The starting point
Knowledge, network, experience and ambition, plus an honest inventory of the assets you already have.
03
The market
Problem before solution, five conversations to have this week, and one customer drawn in detail.
Who it's for
Founders about to start, and owners of young companies who want a sharper model. If you have an idea and a blank Business Model Canvas in front of you, do this first.
August Kjerland
Written by August Kjerland, Norwegian entrepreneurship lecturer at BI Norwegian Business School and the University of Agder. Forty years of building, advising and negotiating across Europe, Japan and the United States.
Get the foundation on paper.
Most business models fail before the canvas. The founder never answered why, for whom, and with what. This workbook asks those questions first.
Name:
E-mail:
By subscribing, you agree to receive practical notes on building a business. Unsubscribe any time.
Get the full course
Want to go deeper?
The workbook gives you the questions. The Business Model Canvas course walks through every one of them on video: three lessons, real examples, lifetime access. €49.
August’s Brief
Practical notes on entrepreneurship, pitching, and cross-cultural business. A few times a month. No hype.
Entrepreneurship. Decoded.
Practical entrepreneurship from an operator with forty years of executive and board experience. He teaches at BI Norwegian Business School and University of Agder.
© 2026 August Kjerland · Privacy Policy
Powered by August Kjerland & GMERK.