Growth & Strategy Conversations
A new market always looks bigger from a distance.
An enquiry from another city, a competitor opening nearby, a cousin who says “people here would buy this”. Each can start a plan to expand. This conversation helps owners separate what they actually know about a new market from what they are hoping, and design a small, cheap test before any large commitment is made.
Explore this page6 sections
Most expansion plans are built on a few enquiries and a lot of hope.
A business that works in one place has learnt a great deal about that place: who buys, what they pay, who they trust, how they like to be served. Almost none of that carries over automatically. A different city can mean different prices, different habits, different competitors and a different language of selling.
The risk is rarely that the owner chooses a bad market. It is that the commitment, whether stock, rent, hiring or the owner’s own time, is made before the owner knows what would count as success. A small test costs little and teaches a lot. This conversation is about designing that test and about being honest on what the owner does not yet know.
What the conversation covers
35 topics across 7 areas. Seven questions, in the order they are usually worth asking.
Why This Market, and Why NowThe honest reason, not the flattering one.5
- What actually started the idea: demand, a competitor, boredom at home, a relative
- What is limiting growth in the current market
- Whether the same effort at home could grow more
- What would happen if you did nothing for a year
- What you would stop doing at home to make room
An expansion that begins as a reaction is harder to stop than one that begins as a decision.
What You Know and What You AssumeTwo columns on one sheet.5
Participants build this sheet for their own business during the session. Anything in the second column becomes something to find out, cheaply, before spending money.
- Who the buyers are and how they buy
- What they currently pay and from whom
- Whether they would switch, and why
- Language, habits and festivals that change demand
- Which of your answers come from evidence and which from a feeling
Testing Before CommittingThe smallest version that teaches something.5
- Selling into the new place from where you are today
- A visit of a few days to meet buyers, not to look at shops
- A pilot with one or two customers or one local agent
- A temporary stall, stock-lot or short campaign
- Deciding in advance what result means go, wait or stop
A test with no stated result can be read as success whatever happens.
The Full Cost of DistanceMore than the extra rent.6
A hypothetical example, with made-up round numbers: if serving the new city costs the business Rs 50,000 a month in extra costs and each order leaves Rs 500 after all direct costs, it needs 100 orders a month before it adds anything. The session uses participants’ own figures, not these.
- Transport, packing and breakages
- Returns and replacements
- Delays in collecting payment
- Stock held in two places
- The owner’s travel time and attention
- How many orders a month the new market needs just to cover its own costs
Rules and Paperwork to CheckDifferent place, possibly different requirements.5
- Whether supplying from or setting up in another state changes GST registration
- Local licences and shop or establishment rules in that place
- Labelling, language and product rules for what you sell
- Rules for your profession or trade, if it is regulated
- Whom to ask: a chartered accountant, a local authority, a lawyer
This is awareness, not advice. Rules change, so check the current position for your own case.
Who Will Run ItThe owner cannot be in two places.5
- A local person or agent, and what you know about them
- How you will see the numbers each week
- How much authority they get, and over what
- What happens to the home market while you are away
- Who steps in if it does not work out
Deciding: Go, Test, Wait or DropFour honest outcomes.4
- What would have to be true for a full entry
- A review date and the number you will look at
- A stop rule you write down before you start
- What you will tell your team and your family
What participants leave with
- Their own know-and-assume sheet for one market
- A one-page test plan with a stop rule
- A rough cost-of-distance calculation using their own numbers
- A short list of questions to take to an accountant or lawyer
- Peer feedback on their plan, given plainly
What this session is not
- A market research report on any particular city
- Legal, tax or investment advice
- A promise that a new market will grow the business
- A way to be told where to expand
How the session runs
A small group, usually two to three hours. A facilitator opens with a short example and asks each participant to name the market they are considering. Everyone works on their own sheet, then the group questions each plan, especially the assumptions column. Participants end with a test they could begin that week, or a reason to wait. Sessions are conversations and exercises, not lectures, and every case used as an example is clearly marked as hypothetical.
What your students leave with
- A written list of what they know about the new market and what they are only assuming
- A plain reason for entering, and a plain reason for not yet
- A small, cheap test with a result decided in advance
- A rough view of the full cost of serving customers far from home
- A list of rules and registrations to check with a professional
- A clear decision: go, test, wait or drop it
Scheduled sessions
Nothing scheduled yet
Sessions are arranged with a college once a date is agreed. Ask us and we will find the right person for it.
A student rather than a college? See what is coming up, or ask your placement team to host this.
Find out cheaply before you commit expensively.
Tell us who your students are and what stage they are at. Sessions are free for participants.