Your Export Strategy development programme has been developed out of our experience of working with many thousands of small and medium-sized businesses (businesses like yours!) and offers you the opportunity to take some ‘management time’ to focus specifically on your export development.

The programme consists of two one-day workshops which are designed to challenge you to think through your export development and to develop your understanding of some of the key issues which you will need to take on board as a proactive exporter. Day One is common to all delegates. You are able to select from two versions of Day Two, each having a slightly different emphasis, depending on whether you represent a service business or a ‘product’ business.

The workshops are aimed at decision-makers (usually the business owner) and the same person will need to attend both days. You may wish to consider the value of involving a second person from the business in the workshop if appropriate. If so, please discuss this with your adviser.

You can expect to enjoy working in a lively, highly interactive atmosphere with a small group of other businesses facing similar challenges to the ones you face.

By the end of the workshop you can expect to have reviewed and documented key elements of your export strategy:

• the rationale for your decision to export
• your approach to market selection
• your options for market entry
• your approach to partner search/customer identification
• your approach to product adaptation, pricing and promotion
• the implications for your resource base

You can also expect to have:

• considered and evaluated some of the pitfalls you may encounter
• gained a greater understanding of export business mechanisms, including market research, protection of intellectual property, getting paid and logistics (as appropriate)
• gained a greater understanding of UKTI, both the Passport to Export programme and more generally
• clarified your action plan