03 How To Master Business Models

Twenty-six business models, each taught end to end — with the worked models to put them to work.

Every company makes money in one of a limited number of ways. This handbook teaches all twenty-six models in the Business Models category — one chapter each — so you can design, deconstruct and pressure-test how value is created and captured, from Subscription and Marketplace to Platform, Aggregator and the Business Model Canvas.

What you get

The complete PDF handbook plus twenty-six worked Excel models — one for every model in the book. Blue input cells you change, formula cells that respond, and a Read-me tab on each, so you can test the economics on your own numbers.

How every chapter is built

Read one and you can read any. Each model follows the same thirteen-section rhythm: the question it answers, what it is, who uses it, its anatomy, inputs and outputs, how to apply it step by step, a worked example, strengths, limits and pitfalls, industry notes, how it connects to the other models, modern relevance, using AI on it, and a practitioner’s checklist.

The twenty-six models

Subscription, Freemium, Usage-Based, Advertising-Funded, Transaction Fee, Commission, Direct-to-Consumer, Wholesale, Marketplace, Franchise, Licensing, Razor-and-Blade, Product-as-a-Service, Platform, Aggregator, Open Source, Circular Economy, Data Monetisation, Bundling, Unbundling, Reverse Razor-and-Blade, Peer-to-Peer, Cross-Subsidy, Pay-What-You-Want, Vertical Integration and the Business Model Canvas.

The learning path

The chapters are ordered as a single connected build, not an alphabetical list — from mapping the model and its recurring engine, through monetisation and route to market, to pricing and the platform end-game.

Who it's for

Founders, investors, operators and strategists who must judge or design how a business makes money — and want to know why each model works and where it breaks.

How to use it

Work straight through to master the category, or jump to a single model when you need it for live work.

Book 03 of the Business Framework Library, part of The Investment Banking Practitioner’s Handbook Series. Master this category on its own, or reach for the Business Framework Compendium when you want the one-page reference to all 467 frameworks.

By John Colley — Cambridge University MA · MBA with Distinction, Bayes Business School · 30+ years in investment banking, M&A and private equity.