Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to enhance the knowledge of business modeling in the early phases byexploring its core components and the management of those components. This will be achieved by answeringthe following exploratory questions: What aspects of business model components do entrepreneurs processin the early stages? How do entrepreneurs process those aspects?

Design/Methodology/Approach: In this qualitative study, data was collected during semi-structured interviewswith six entrepreneurs.

Findings: The findings support the argument that when studying the early stages of business model management, to gain a richer understanding of the entrepreneurial process, acknowledging the resource activities isimportant. Our findings highlight that cash and competence appear to be essential focus in managing businessmodel components in early stage. We also found that entrepreneurs may create resource slack that allowsbusinesses to carve out a competitive position in the marketplace by focusing on business model designand management.

Originality/Value: Although business model research is developing rapidly, one prominent gap in the field ishow entrepreneurs manage their business models in the early start-up stages. In particular, there is a lack of knowledge about what entrepreneurs focus on in their business model management in early start-up stagesand how they manage these aspects, an area to which this research contributes.