Starter Kit. Idea 364 of 500. Cluster 18
Money-transfer products that buy a specific thing at home, a course, a machine, a roof, rather than cash
The mechanism, from the book
1.5 million people abroad who know how rich countries work, and who send home money and little else.
The first step
Agree with one local supplier, a roofing merchant, a sewing-machine dealer or a training college, that you will send them paid orders from abroad for a small commission. Then offer 10 families abroad the chance to buy a named thing for a relative at home, paid direct to the supplier, with a photograph sent on delivery. One completed order with its photograph proves the loop.
- Who pays first
- A worker abroad who sends cash home every month and wants to know that this month's money bought the roof and not something else.
- What leaves today
- Remittances now arrive as cash and are spent on consumption; tying them to a course, a machine or a roof turns them into capital at home.
Ask first
- Department of the Registrar of Companies. Ask which business registration suits taking orders paid direct to suppliers.
Check before you spend
That money goes straight to the supplier and never through you unless you hold the right licence, and how refunds work if delivery fails.
Find out these three numbers
- What commission will a local supplier pay per order?
- How many families abroad will buy a named item?
- How long do delivery and the photograph take?
A comparison from the book
The money that comes home. Chapter Eight
"The largest single source of foreign exchange for Sri Lanka is Sri Lankans."
The money already flows; turning cash into a named purchase sends it straight into a local business.
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.