Cohort begins January 13, 2027
Market Growth
Accelerator
Eight weeks. One plan you can take to a buyer, a lender or a funder.
Apply for the cohortPlaces are limited.
Most growth programs send you home with notes.
This one sends you home with a document.
The Market Growth Accelerator is an eight week applied program for established Canadian businesses ready to move a product into a new commercial channel. That might be Canadian retail distribution, an international export market, or both.
It is not a course about growth. Every session is spent working on your business, with your numbers, your product and your buyers. You leave each week with something finished, and by week eight those pieces assemble into one document.
The Domestic and International Expansion Plan
The central output of the eight weeks. Every weekly piece of work is a component of it, so by week eight you are not writing a plan from scratch. You are assembling and defending work you have already done.
It is written to be used outside the program. Exporters can present it as their export plan when applying for loans, grants or trade funding.
- Market and channel rationaleWhy this route, and what you ruled out
- Costing and pricing modelA price you can defend line by line
- Compliance positionRequirements identified, filings underway
- Cash flow and capital requirementWhat a first order costs you, and the ask
- Fulfilment processHow you service the order once you win it
- Twelve month scheduleSequenced milestones, not intentions
The eight weeks
One commercial discipline each week, applied to your own business. Retail and export participants learn together and apply the same disciplines to their own channel.
Growth thesis and audit
Test the plan you arrived with, and set a measurable eight week commercial objective.
Buyer and channel targeting
Choose a route to market on reasoned grounds, and build a qualified list of named buyers.
Landed cost and margin
Build the full cost stack, from cost of goods to shelf or to border, and derive a defensible price.
Compliance and market-ready pack
Determine what your product and market actually require, start the filings, and identify pack changes.
Capital, terms and cash flow
Model the cash cycle of a first order, set your payment terms, and calculate what you need to fund it.
Live buyer outreach
You do not practise outreach. You build the sell sheet and send it, to named buyers, during the session.
Operations and fulfilment
Design the process that services a first order, and find the point where it is most likely to break.
Expansion plan capstone
Assemble the plan and defend it in front of a panel.
What happens after week 8
Theory ends in week 8. Execution does not.
Peer mentorship growth circle
Graduates move into a growth circle with monthly mentoring, working through the real decisions alongside people who understand the position you are in.
This is where the plan meets what actually happens: the buyer who goes quiet, the certificate that takes longer than expected, the order that arrives bigger than you planned for.
Specialization tracks
At the end of week 8 you go deeper on the channel you have committed to.
- Retail: advanced retail math, category review preparation, omni-channel integration, buyer pitch
- Export: trade delegation preparation, advanced documentation and logistics, market entry strategy, international buyer pitch
Is this your stage?
This program is built for businesses that have proven they can sell and are now trying to sell somewhere new.
| This is for you if | This may not be your stage yet if | |
|---|---|---|
| Your product | It is finished, packaged and selling in your current market | You are still developing it or finalising packaging |
| Your revenue | You have consistent sales and can speak to your numbers | You have not yet made regular sales |
| Your capacity | You could produce more if a larger order arrived | You are at capacity with no path to increase it |
| Your direction | You know which channel or market you want next | You are still deciding what growth looks like |
| Your time | One session a week, plus about four hours of your own work | You cannot protect the time over eight weeks |
If you are earlier than this, that is not a closed door. It means the right starting point is one of our foundation programs, which are built to get you here.
What entry requires
Applicants show evidence that they are ready for this stage.
- A costed product
- A mapped compliance position
- An identified target channel or market
- Market-ready packaging
- A written growth plan
Graduates of the Export Readiness Incubator and Retail Readiness meet this requirement through their program work. If you have done equivalent work elsewhere, you can apply directly through an equivalency assessment.
What we ask of you
One session a week for eight weeks, plus roughly four hours of work on your own business between sessions. Real numbers, not estimates. Willingness to share your product, pricing and compliance position with your cohort. A capstone presentation to a panel in week 8.
Cohort begins January 13, 2027
Places are limited. Applications are reviewed as they arrive.
Apply for the cohortQuestions? services@blackbusinessbc.ca or +1 604-260-7358
This program is supported by Pacific Economic Development Canada.
