Idea 370 of 500. Cluster 18: Sri Lankans abroad, both directions
Wedding services for Sri Lankans abroad who want to marry at home: everything from the visa letter to the drummers
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
Write a single price list for a complete wedding at home for 100 guests: the visa letters, the venue, the ceremony, the photographer, the caterer and the drummers, each supplier agreed in advance. Circulate it through two Sri Lankan associations abroad and ask couples to register interest with a date. One couple who asks for a quote for their date is your first lead.
- Who pays first
- A Sri Lankan couple abroad who want to marry at home for the family's sake but cannot organise suppliers from abroad and fear being overcharged.
- What leaves today
- Wedding money spent at home now leaks through markups and middlemen; one honest organiser keeps it with local suppliers and builds a reputation that travels.
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
- 366Import agencies in each city with a Sri Lankan community, stocking Sri Lankan brands and nothing else
Idea 370 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.