Idea 366 of 500. Cluster 18: Sri Lankans abroad, both directions
Import agencies in each city with a Sri Lankan community, stocking Sri Lankan brands and nothing else
The mechanism, from the book
1.5 million people abroad who know how rich countries work, and who send home money and little else.
Every idea in cluster 18 uses this mechanism.
A first step
Collect samples of five Sri Lankan-branded goods, packed and priced for export, and take them to the owners of three grocers in one city abroad who stock goods from home. Ask what they pay now, who supplies them and whether they would place a trial order of one case each. A trial order is your proof; the prices they quote show your margin.
- Who pays first
- A Sri Lankan grocer abroad who already stocks goods from home through a middleman and would buy direct from an agent carrying only Sri Lankan brands.
- What leaves today
- Sri Lankan goods abroad often sell under other traders' names; an agency that stocks only Sri Lankan brands keeps the brand and the margin with the island.
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. EightWhat It Costs to Go First
What bonds sold to Sri Lankans abroad have and have not done - Ch. SixteenThe Bridge
The institutions that could carry value back
More from cluster 18
- 361A directory of Sri Lankans abroad: who does what, where, and what they will help with, verified
- 362Return-relocation services: the school, the house, the car, the tax, in one package
- 363Sri Lanka House in London, Melbourne and Toronto: a shop, a café and a desk, the Colombo model abroad
- 364Money-transfer products that buy a specific thing at home, a course, a machine, a roof, rather than cash
- 365Investment clubs of Sri Lankans abroad that own one business each at home, with a manager on the ground
- 367A returning-professional registry that hospitals, universities and firms at home can search
Idea 366 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.