The New Zealand furniture industry is having to cope, like many industries in small countries, with the opening up of world markets. The country as a whole - and the furniture industry in particular - is looking to design as an effective tool to help in meeting this challenge. However, there is little shared understanding between the design profession and small business owners, and even less by either group of the business models within which design is expected to contribute. This paper describes the use of visualisation techniques within the New Zealand furniture industry to help articulate the business model and do so in a way that makes much more explicit the roles that design could play. The purpose of these visualisations is to support dialogue between business owners and designers.