Trading with people in need
I’m writing about an Indian man whom I’ve known since October 2019. He is married. He has bought a plot of land and left his job in order to start a business meant to make clothes more affordable to some Indians. He also indicated this motivation: “in my town there are no good garment stores”.
He wrote to me late on 9 May 2020: “I have no money and I am locked down 3,000 km away from my home. I am not able to help my child, wife, and parents. I am from a very small village, one of the poorest villages in India.” I am tempted to write: How would you like a human to spend their Saturday nights instead?
He still wants to pay for labour and raw materials for his first clothes store, which he sees as the next step in his life.
He states that illiteracy makes it difficult for some of his customers and providers to use computers and financial services.
It would cost INR 0.5m, i.e. USD 6,600, to build his first store.
While any help matters, I find it recommendable to provide to him (help that is worth) more than USD 8,000.
I help people. I help business people. I want this man to survive and to serve Indians.
I like it that he hasn’t changed his plan even during a very hard time and that he wants to do what I’d recommend first during most times: provide services.
I invite you to join me in trading with him in order to help him recover. Which of these methods do you want to use?
1. The most helpful method is to buy from him.
Let’s make together with him a plan to support his business!
You can order with us clothes from his inventory or agree on a way to help him sell clothes.
2. You can order some of the many other things that we sell and have us donate to him a percentage of our net revenue.
You can also find outside this conversation good reasons to use our services.
This is no guilt offering. I know that some companies have caused damages and provided compensations amounting to 0.01% of their profit; some of these people call themselves “socially responsible”.
3. You can lend money to him and have us manage the loan.
We keep communicating with him in order to know how he progresses and to advise him on some steps to take in order to increase his revenue.
What percentage of the loan would you like us to keep for providing this service?
If we keep 9%, he receives 91% and must pay back 100%.
What annual interest would you like him to pay to you? We start our negotiation at 1%.
You can insure your loan. To the extent that he defaults, Sol Financial Services pay his debt.
I don’t plan on asking for donations, but we are open to any support offered for this man. If you want to donate him money, I’ll agree with you on how you’d transfer that amount to us. We’ll add it to the other funds.