Starter Kit. Idea 170 of 500. Cluster 7
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.
The 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.
Ask first
- Inland Revenue Department. Ask what records micro-exporters must keep and how returns are filed.
- Department of the Registrar of Companies. Ask how to register a small bookkeeping business.
Check before you spend
That you hold the qualifications clients expect, that client data is kept safe, and what professional insurance covers mistakes.
Find out these three numbers
- What will a micro-exporter pay each month for bookkeeping?
- How many hours does one client take a month?
- How many small exporters in the district need help?
The test
Does it keep value that now leaves the island, or build the proof that lets somebody else do so?
From the appendix of Why Not Sri Lanka? by Dr Maheshika Halbeisen. The idea and the mechanism are the book's; this kit was written for the site.