Idea 309 of 500. Cluster 15: Software, services and the remote desk
Payment and invoicing tools built for Sri Lankan exporters, in rupees and dollars
The mechanism, from the book
The proof exists in Malabe. What is missing is a thousand small versions of it.
Every idea in cluster 15 uses this mechanism.
A first step
Sit with three small exporters and watch how they invoice a foreign buyer and receive payment, noting every step, fee and delay. Build the invoice and follow-up process in a spreadsheet that fixes the worst step, and give it to them free for a month. If they ask to keep it and would pay monthly, you have the product to build.
- Who pays first
- A small exporter who invoices in dollars, loses days and fees on each payment, and will pay monthly to be paid faster in rupees.
- What leaves today
- Exporters lose part of every foreign payment to delays and fees, which is value earned on the island and lost before it arrives.
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. ThreeWhat We Have Already Built
The stock exchange in Malabe
More from cluster 15
- 296Remote-work hubs in Kandy, Galle and Jaffna with fibre, power and a lawyer who knows the tax
- 297A Sri Lankan software product, not a services firm: one tool, sold by subscription to the world
- 298Bookkeeping for small British and Australian firms, in their time zones: the software keeps the books, and a qualified accountant here checks them and answers the client's questions
- 299Lawyers here checking the contracts and filings that AI drafts for foreign law firms, since commercial law here follows English law, the higher courts work in English and the lawyers are here
- 300AI set up and looked after for small businesses at home and abroad: the booking replies, the invoices, the product descriptions in five languages, for a monthly fee
- 301Architecture and engineering design for firms in the Gulf and Europe: the drawings made with the new tools, and an engineer here who checks that it will stand up
Idea 309 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.