Idea 167 of 500. Cluster 7: The infrastructure that makes the rest possible
Label-printing and barcode services in every district town
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
Find out from the small producers in your district town where they get labels printed now, how long it takes, what it costs, and whether they have barcodes. With a good colour printer and label stock, print one run for a producer at a stated price, delivered in 2 days. Their next order, and the names they pass on, show the demand.
- Who pays first
- A small producer who wants to sell in supermarkets and needs proper labels and barcodes, fast and close to home.
- What leaves today
- Without a barcode and a proper label, a product cannot enter a supermarket at home or abroad, so it stays at the market stall.
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 167 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.