The challenge

The Entrepreneurs’ Forum plays a vital role in championing entrepreneurship and driving business growth across the North East. As an organisation made up of hundreds of business owners, the Forum’s strength lies in its deep connection to the needs and ambitions of its members.

The Forum set out to enhance this connection by gathering robust, regular insight directly from members. Their aim was to:

• Understand current and emerging challenges faced by local entrepreneurs
• Gauge sentiment around business confidence, growth, and innovation
• Tailor future events and initiatives to the real needs of their membership

To achieve this, the organisation partnered with Explain to design and deliver a research programme that could capture regular sentiment tracked throughout the year.

Our approach 

Working with the team at the Entrepreneur Forum, we developed a flexible research model that could adapt to shifting business priorities while maintaining a consistent, structured flow of insight.

A Quarterly Tracking Model

• The programme was built around a quarterly cadence, allowing for both trend tracking and timely reactions to new developments in the business landscape.
• Each pulse survey featured regular questions focused on tracking confidence together with focused research on emerging topics,  such as economic uncertainty, post-pandemic recovery, and key areas of opportunity such as AI adoption rates.

Insight-Driven Engagement

• Each survey was carefully timed and distributed to maintain high engagement across the Forum’s membership base.
• Results fed directly into strategic planning for the Entrepreneur Forum, including decisions around speaker sessions, event themes, and member communications.

Key insights 

The programme delivered a compelling picture of the North East’s entrepreneurial landscape:

• Forum Impact - Members consistently rated the Forum as a valuable asset to their business journey, highlighting the power of its network and peer-to-peer learning opportunities.
• Optimism Amidst Challenge - Despite ongoing pressures following the COVID-19 pandemic, respondents showed strong positivity about future prospects, underlining the region’s resilience.
• Clear Calls to Action - Members expressed a desire for continued support in navigating economic uncertainty, accessing new markets, and building sustainable business models.

The pulse survey format also allowed for a rapid understanding of shifting priorities, ensuring the Forum’s programming remained fresh, relevant, and responsive.

The results

By partnering with Explain, the Entrepreneurs’ Forum gained more than just feedback,  they unlocked a strategic insight engine that is now guiding decisions across the organisation.

• Enhanced strategic planning for events and member initiatives
• Real-time feedback on key business challenges and opportunities
• Stronger member relationships through active listening and engagement
• A model for continuous learning that reflects the changing needs of the region

Let’s talk about how Explain can help you unlock insight that sparks impact. You can speak to the team on info@explainresearch.co.uk or call 0191 261 5261