Starter Kit. Idea 497 of 500. Cluster 28
Returnee co-working houses in Colombo and Kandy, so that the first year is not spent alone
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
Find 3 returnees in Colombo or Kandy who work remotely, and ask where they work now and whether they would pay for a desk among others like them. Then rent a room with good internet in a house for one month, invite them and 5 more, and charge a monthly desk fee. How many stay on for the second month is your answer.
- Who pays first
- A returnee working remotely for an employer abroad, who pays for a desk because working alone at home makes the first year lonely.
- What leaves today
- Isolated returnees go back abroad with their foreign salaries and skills, and a full shared house is the proof that return can work.
Ask first
- the local council (Municipal Council, Urban Council or Pradeshiya Sabha). Ask whether a house may be used as shared offices.
- Department of the Registrar of Companies. Ask how to register a co-working business that takes monthly members.
Check before you spend
Confirm the house may be used for business, the lease allows it, the internet is reliable, and insurance covers members and their equipment.
Find out these three numbers
- How many returnees work remotely in the city?
- What monthly fee would each pay for a desk?
- What does a house with good internet cost to rent?
A comparison from the book
Going first. Chapter Seven
"Nobody had done it. There was no cousin in London to call."
The house gives every returnee people who have done it already, to call on.
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.