Idea 170 of 500. Cluster 7: The infrastructure that makes the rest possible
Bookkeeping and tax services for micro-exporters, at a monthly subscription
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
Offer three small exporters you know a free month of bookkeeping: record every sale, cost and export document, and give them a one-page monthly summary showing what tax they owe. At the end of the month, ask whether they would pay a fixed monthly subscription to continue. Two paying clients cover your time to find the next 10.
- Who pays first
- A micro-exporter who spends evenings on paperwork and fears a tax mistake that could stop their exports.
- What leaves today
- Small exporters stay informal or give up exporting because the bookkeeping is too hard, so their goods go through middlemen instead.
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 170 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.