Starter Kit. Idea 496 of 500. Cluster 28
A "first year back" service: the accountant, the school, the doctor, the driver, in a monthly fee
The mechanism, from the book
The first one through pays the whole price, and everyone after walks through an open door. These are the doors.
The first step
Write down the 4 things a returning family needs in its first month: an accountant, a school place, a doctor and a driver. Find one of each in Colombo who will take referrals from you, and agree their fees. Then post the bundle at a monthly price in 2 online groups for Sri Lankans abroad and ask who plans to return this year. Families asking for details are your first list.
- Who pays first
- A professional family abroad planning its return, who would pay a monthly fee to avoid spending the first year learning whom to trust.
- What leaves today
- Returnees who have a hard first year go back abroad, and the country loses the skills and savings it had nearly won back.
Ask first
- Department of the Registrar of Companies. Ask how to register a service that refers families to professionals for a fee.
- Inland Revenue Department. Ask what returning families most often need to register for tax.
Check before you spend
Confirm written agreements with the accountant, school, doctor and driver, that every professional is qualified, and that families' details are kept private.
Find out these three numbers
- What would a returning family pay each month?
- How many families come home to Colombo each year?
- What referral fee would each professional pay you?
A comparison from the book
Going first. Epilogue
"The first one through pays the whole price, and everybody after walks through a door that is already open."
Sell the open door. The family pays a fee instead of the whole price of going first.
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.