Pathways to Business Growth Series: Researching Growth Opportunities

Growth can take many forms, from entering new markets to diversifying what your business offers. Making the right choices depends on understanding your customers, competitors, and the wider market.

This workshop introduces practical primary and secondary research techniques that help business owners move beyond assumptions and build a clearer picture of demand, competition, and opportunity.

Participants learn how to gather and use relevant information that fits their business and stage of growth.

The session also focuses on applying research findings, helping you turn insight into realistic growth or diversification options that can be tested and refined.

Agenda

10:00 – 10:30: Arrival, registration and coffee

10:30 – 11:20 Session 1: Researching customers and market demand. This session focuses on researching customers to understand needs, behaviour, and demand, and how these may differ when considering new markets or diversification.

11:20 – 11:30: Break

11:30 – 12:20 Session 2: Researching competitors and market supply. This session explores competitor activity, alternatives, and market supply to understand how the market is currently served and where opportunities may exist.

12:20 – 13:00: Networking lunch

13:00 – 13:50 Session 3: Turning research into growth opportunities. This session focuses on bringing customer and competitor research together to identify, shape, and prioritise realistic growth or diversification options.

13:50 – 14:00: Break

14:00 – 14:50 Session 4: Testing your growth or diversification option. This session explores how research-backed growth ideas can be tested and validated before further time or resource is committed.

14:50 - 15:00: Summary, key takeaways and close

15:00 – 17:00: Optional networking and 1:1s. An informal opportunity to stay on, connect with other participants, and have short one-to-one discussions with the workshop tutors and advisory / coaching staff.

Delivered by Karen Riddick (Pathways Growth Coach)

Know what’s Happening Next — before everyone else does.

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Host or Publisher South of Scotland Enterprise (SOSE)