Idea 166 of 500. Cluster 7: The infrastructure that makes the rest possible
Shared commercial kitchens certified for export, rented by the hour
The mechanism, from the book
The tiny business pathway. A rural woman with an exceptional product should not need photography, English copy, packaging design and a distributor before the world can find her.
Every idea in cluster 7 uses this mechanism.
A first step
List every small food producer in your district who cooks at home and would sell abroad if they had a certified kitchen. Ask each how many hours a week they would rent one and at what hourly price. Then find an existing kitchen, a closed restaurant or a canteen, whose owner would rent it out. If the hours add up to cover the rent, you have a business.
- Who pays first
- A home cook with a good product and a foreign buyer, who cannot afford to build a certified kitchen alone.
- What leaves today
- Food made in home kitchens cannot be certified for export, so good products stay local or leave as raw ingredients.
The idea and the mechanism are from the book. The first step was written for this site as a suggestion; if you know a better one, say so.
The test
Does it keep value that now leaves the island, or build the proof that lets somebody else do so?
The only test any idea on this site has to pass. The four rules that go with it are here.
In the book
- Ch. SeventeenOne Building
The dozen small things that turn a product into money that stays
More from cluster 7
Idea 166 of the 500 in the appendix of Why Not Sri Lanka? Every one can be started by one person, one family or one small firm.