Idea 377 of 500. Cluster 18: Sri Lankans abroad, both directions
Translation and interpreting businesses serving Sri Lankans abroad in their dealings with the state at home
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
Offer a fixed-price service for one document Sri Lankan families abroad need often, such as a birth certificate or a deed translated and prepared for an office at home, and post the price in two groups for Sri Lankans abroad. Check which offices accept which translations before you take a single order. The orders that arrive tell you which dealings with the state to specialise in.
- Who pays first
- A Sri Lankan family abroad dealing with a land transfer or a certificate at home who cannot read the forms and cannot take weeks off to sort them.
- What leaves today
- Sri Lankan families abroad pay intermediaries at home who overcharge and delay; a trusted translation service keeps the fee honest and the business local.
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 377 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.