I live in Sri Lanka
Five hundred businesses you can start at home
You do not need to think about the whole country. Start with the nearest place that visitors already come to, a temple, a beach, a waterfall, a tea estate, and make something to sell there or something to do there. When it works, build on it, and then take it to the next place.
From the book
If you are in Colombo with a skill and no capital
Clusters 7, 15 and 24 are yours: the photography, the storytelling, the booking platforms, the software, the verified review. Every one of them is a service to the other clusters, and every one can be started with a laptop and a customer. The whole appendix depends on somebody doing these first.
- 151. Product photography services for small producers
- 152. Packaging design studios
- 153. Product storytelling: someone who goes to the maker, learns the story and checks that every word on the label...
- 154. QR-linked product pages and simple ecommerce setup
- 155. Packing, dispatch and international shipping services
From the book
If you are in the districts with land, a craft, or a kitchen
Clusters 1, 2, 5, 6, 8, 10, 11, 13, 14 and 27, and Cluster 9's Sil programmes. The homestay, the workshop, the retreat, the 15 things from the nut, the estate's own tea, the lagoon's own crab. The mechanism you are using is one of two: the visitor is already coming, and you are giving them a reason to stay a second week; or you own the next step yourself.
From the book
If you are a woman who has been told there is no work
Cluster 23 was written for you, and half of the rest of the list can be run from a kitchen table with a phone.
- 436. Childcare co-operatives run by mothers for mothers, licensed and inspected, in every town
- 437. After-school clubs at the schools, paid by the parents, run by teachers who want the income
- 438. Women-only transport services for the night shifts and the early trains
- 439. Home-based work platforms that pay properly: sewing, embroidery, bookkeeping, design
- 440. Shared workspaces for women with childcare attached, in Colombo and the district towns
Start where the visitors already are
World Heritage
Sigiriya, the rock
The resource is the story and the dry-zone reservoirs. The hub is a making-house at the gate where the mask carvers...
100 ideas
World Heritage
Dambulla, the caves
The resource is the painted temples and the vegetable economy of the dry zone around them. The hub is the clay and the...
81 ideas
World Heritage
Anuradhapura and Mihintale, the sacred city
The resource is 2,300 years of Buddhism, still practised. The hub is the pilgrim centre, the Sil programme and the...
55 ideas
World Heritage
Polonnaruwa, the medieval capital
The resource is rice and the great reservoirs that grew it. The hub is the heritage-rice brand, the floating cabanas on...
75 ideas
World Heritage
Kandy, the Temple of the Tooth
The resource is tea, brass, drums and the Perahera. The hub is the crafts and tea showcase on the lake, with the...
108 ideas
World Heritage
Galle, the Fort
The resource is the cinnamon of the south-west, the sea, and the gems of Ratnapura a few hours inland. The hub is the...
80 ideas
World Heritage
The Central Highlands: Horton Plains, Adam's Peak, the Knuckles
The resource is the tea estates and the cool climate. The hub is the tea and wellness town at Nuwara Eliya, the estate...
84 ideas
World Heritage
Sinharaja, the rainforest
The resource is the biodiversity, and the spice gardens at its edge. The hub is the research station that hosts the...
66 ideas
And two more
Jaffna and the north
Jaffna and the north, where the resource is the palmyrah, the lagoons, the mango and the savings of families abroad...
91 ideas
And two more
Trincomalee and the east
Trincomalee and the east, where the resource is the finest natural harbour in the Bay of Bengal, and the hub is the...
72 ideasFind the ideas that fit me All 28 clusters
What other countries did
Switzerland
In parts of rural Switzerland, a farm will put a small refrigerator at the edge of the property, by the road. There is nobody there. There is no camera.
Ch. Six
Zermatt
You cannot drive into Zermatt. And the taxis themselves are worth a paragraph, because they were not a policy. They were a family.
Ch. Five
Mauritius
An economist who went on to win the Nobel Prize studied it, and wrote that it would probably fail. It reached high income in 2020.
Ch. Ten
Norway
A cold northern country that worked out the rules for its oil before the oil money arrived, which turns out to be the entire trick.
Ch. Eleven
Denmark
A nation of dairy farmers who became wealthy because somebody in the 1880s thought carefully about who ought to own the creamery.
Ch. Eleven
New Zealand
New Zealand grows kiwifruit. So do Italy, Chile, Greece and a dozen other countries. New Zealand earns something else, and the reason is a law.
Ch. Eleven
Ireland
Within a decade the country that had exported its young for a century was gaining people again.
Ch. Fourteen
Japan
In 1950 "Made in Japan" meant cheap and shoddy. Within a generation Japanese goods had a new name abroad, built with tools that cost almost nothing.
Ch. Eleven
The book behind the list
Each idea comes from the argument of the book: what Sri Lanka already has, why it leaves, and what other countries did about the same problem.