The road to entrepreneurship begins with the first step

By Surya Vishwa 

On the edge of a road laced with potholes, with a shining large glass supermarket glistening in the background like a pendent, passing the vehicle dotted car-park, there is a mother and a daughter. Next to them on the ground is a weighing machine. On a small makeshift table doing a brave balancing act is a cluster of karapinca, kankun, mukkunuwenna and several other varieties of leaves. Cohabiting the cramped space are also two bunches of plantains that do not appear to be poisonously succulent. The mother looks as if she is in her mid-thirties and the daughter around six years.

Between the mother and daughter is a spread out book, and they are deeply engrossed in reading it aloud. The mother looks as if she is playing the role of teacher and seems to be diligent in this task. The child seems to think the high road is a school. Both are in oblivion to the rest of the setting; the blaring of horns, the loud Christmas music and a Santa somewhere close-by who is paid by the hour to act happy. 

The child swipes a hand across a tendril of hair that gets swept away by the polluted wind. Her attention is firmly fixed on the story book with large letters and illustrations. 

They do not seem to be looking for customers. Time is said to be the best teacher in life and it would have taught them that most people live trapped in cocoons and are blinded by being so hemmed in.

I start rummaging in my bag for my mobile phone, which archaic as it is, and far from being ‘smart’ can still make some feeble attempt at mimicking a camera. 

Both mother and daughter lift their eyes from their book and look attentively. The perfect photograph that captures the earlier frame of what true education should be, is now lost. The book is folded and the mother gets up to arrange the wares on sale. I ask her if I could take a photograph of the way they earlier were and she declines.

She explains that the child is a keen student in grade one and that she is regarded as the brightest in the class. The other students and teachers do not know her father is an out of work labourer who daily keeps looking for work, and that the mother stands on the road selling leaves and fruit. 

“They don’t look that nice – but that’s because it is grown without chemicals,” she explains pointing to the plantains. There are small bags of jackfruit seeds as well and I take that too having learnt sometime back that jackfruit seeds have more nutritional and anti cancerous power than the imported almonds so much craved by those who think nutrition is imported in ships, packaged in fancy cartons and stored in air-conditioned stores. (Just for the record the Sri Lankan almond is Kottan *the nut of the kottamba tree) which is not seen being sold anywhere. 

Does she come to this Colombo suburb location often?

Yes, she answers. For the past seven months. By now she is established as a respected entrepreneur who has bought her own measuring scale and manages to fund the family’s meals for her small daughter, younger son, husband and herself. 

Does the large supermarket object? No. The security personnel are understanding and empathetic. 

To many in large cars that are sealed off from the real world she may seem non existent but there are those who stop to buy.

It is proposed that the ministries and departments which use the monies of taxpayers for salaries of those supposed to look into the development of entrepreneurship, sustainable development, food security, social upliftment, vocational training, Samurdhi, economic development, etc., etc., engage in using their facilities such as transport to actually seek out those that dot the cities trying to eke a living

“There was a time recently when there were no pala warga (leaves) in the big supermarket. I sold many then. I have regular customers who ask me to source different stuff such as kos (jackfruit). They come looking for me,” she says.

Sometimes her earnings total to nearly Rs. 1,000 as there are customers who generously ask her to keep the change. 

Her name is Niroshini and she lives each day as a new opportunity of hope in a country where this is increasingly absent. She cannot join the thousands who are fleeing to other nations. She can only stand by the side of the road and make a dignified attempt at survival.

We have respected her request not to take photographs.

She is one. Of thousands. People who we find outside overpriced restaurants. Outside banks. In street corners. In buses. They are not beggars. They are fellow human beings. Desperately trying to patch together the frayed tightrope of existence. They are trying to sell something. But most of the time we are myopic. We do not see them. They see us. They know we are blind. 

Note: The above story is part of a new campaign by the Harmony page of Weekend FT to use the concept of ‘referral marketing’ for persons who have the asset of willpower, perseverance, talent and products to sell. 

The Harmony page hopes to develop this concept at a national level, working with technology and diverse State and non State stakeholders to identify, support and promote a range of persons island-wide who have made the choice to start the journey of entrepreneurship, invention, innovation. It can be someone selling Helapa near a bank, a person like Niroshini, a housewife cooking and selling rice packets at the gate of her house.

Companies do not fall from heaven. They begin with small people. With small efforts. They begin when people begin to hope. When other people begin to notice. And buy. Each seller needs a buyer.

It is true that we have politicians who seem uncaring but most of us are no better. It is when we become the change that we can change others.

Below is a list of recommendations that are proposed. These would be further conceptualised and followed up by our team in 2023 as national initiatives. It is proposed:

1.That universities which teach entrepreneurship/sociology/communication/business management and economics, commence a collaborative study tour in each district to identify different levels of entrepreneurship. The collaborative option is suggested to foster an integrated understanding between academic disciplines. This is lacking in modern polarised education that isolates disciplines to the extent of redundancy in practical use. 

2.That universities, especially those which teach entrepreneurship and business development as subjects initiate their own database of evaluation methods to ascertain different levels of assistance that it could formulate for different types of entrepreneurs. The formulation of a separate evaluation system is recommended for those such as Niroshini. Here the entrepreneur is starting from point zero and unable to save anything to accumulate capital to progress to a better functional level of the business. Hence the evaluation system should systemise at least three upgraded levels of business to evaluate and set about the reach of these levels by those who start under extreme underprivileged situations. 

3. That the ministries and departments which use the monies of taxpayers for salaries of those supposed to look into the development of entrepreneurship, sustainable development, food security, social upliftment, vocational training, Samurdhi, economic development, etc., etc., engage in using their facilities such as transport to actually seek out those that dot the cities trying to eke a living. It is proposed that these departments create a database of such persons to help with existing social schemes of support and create new ones.

4. That a national online platform be started to commence a macro referral sales boosting framework which will create a win-win situation for both the buyer and the seller. The Harmony page of the Weekend FT will detail out this system in a step by step guide and we will create discussions on actualising it in small scale in pockets of areas. We will first focus on diverse small, upcoming and medium scale businesses. 

5. The Harmony page of Weekend FT will every week feature a narrative of a basic, upcoming and medium level entrepreneurship initiative and set up a scale of measurement to evaluate and uplift the business concerned.