The book, and the five hundred
WHY NOTSRI LANKA?
An island with everything, and the one thing that would make it rich.
Since you opened this page
Sri Lanka has sold
of raw cinnamon and raw graphite, out of the ground and off the trees, to be finished somewhere else.
Every yearly figure is the book's, divided by the seconds in a year and counted from the moment this page opened. Raw cinnamon: "In 2025 Sri Lanka earned $247 million from it." [7]. Raw graphite: "In 2024 the entire Sri Lankan graphite industry exported about $5 million." [15]. Tourism income not earned: "If Sri Lanka simply matched that rate, with exactly the arrivals it already has and not one additional tourist, it would earn an extra $2.4 billion a year." [19, 22, 21].
What the island already has, and already built
Proof, not adjectives
Every number below is from the book, with the document behind it one click away.
Qualified for university in 2024; around 45,000 got a place.
"In 2024, 177,588 of those young people qualified for university admission." [1, 2, 5, 32] Chapter OneExported by the purest graphite on earth in 2024.
"In 2024 the entire Sri Lankan graphite industry exported about $5 million." [15] IntroductionLondon Stock Exchange trades matched by software written in Malabe.
"From February 2011 the trades on the London Stock Exchange have been matched by software written in Malabe, and the exchanges of Johannesburg and..." [67, 68, 69] Chapter ThreeLives saved by Sri Lanka's pesticide bans, now cited worldwide.
"The best estimate is that the bans saved about 93,000 lives over 20 years, at a cost of less than $50 per life." [84, 85, 86] Chapter ThreeThe Sri Lankan Star of India, in New York.
"The Star of India, at 563 carats one of the largest gem-quality blue star sapphires known, sits in New York." [101] Chapter Three
The test
One question for all five hundred
Does it keep value that now leaves the island, or build the proof that lets somebody else do so?
Most of this book is about machinery that only governments can build. This appendix is the opposite. Everything below can be started by one person, one family or one small company, without waiting for anybody.
I have organised it by trade, in 28 groups I call clusters, and at the head of each cluster I have put the mechanism it uses, because an idea without a mechanism is a wish, and the whole argument of this book is that the mechanism is the thing we keep leaving out.
Package it properly
The single most common failure I have seen is an excellent product in poor packaging with no story attached. The product is usually the part that is...
Tell people it exists
If you are not findable online, nobody can help you, buy from you or recommend you. This is now the cheapest part of any business and the most...
Never beg
Provide a good service, charge properly for it, and let the money follow. It always does, eventually, if the thing is genuinely good and repeated...
Keep the customer
A sale is worth something once. A customer who can reorder from Melbourne for the next 10 years is worth something every year. The whole difference...
Ideas for you
Six questions. Ten ideas that fit your life.
Where you are, what you have, how much time and money, and what you care about. One minute. Nothing is sent anywhere unless you ask for your list by email.
The ranking is editorial: it uses judgements written for this site about what each cluster needs to start. The ideas themselves are the book's.
Who starts which
Start where you are sitting
The five hundred are organised by trade because the mechanism is the point. But readers are organised by where they are sitting, so here is the same list read the other way.
In Colombo with a skill and no capital
Clusters 7, 15 and 24 are yours: the photography, the copywriting, the booking platforms, the software, the verified review....
65 ideasIn the districts with land, a craft or a kitchen
Clusters 1, 2, 5, 6, 8, 10, 11, 13 and 14, and Cluster 9's Sil programmes. The homestay, the workshop, the retreat, the 15 things...
225 ideasAbroad with money
Clusters 1, 4, 6, 8, 12, 13 and 21 are the ones that need capital before they need anything else: the lodges, the balloon, the...
145 ideasAbroad with a network and no money
You are the customer, the quality inspector and the distributor for clusters 3, 5, 6, 10, 11 and 18, and for everything in Sri...
150 ideasA woman told there is no work
Cluster 23 was written for you, and half of the rest of the list can be run from a kitchen table with a phone.
15 ideasComing home
All of it, and cluster 28 first. The country has never lacked people who can do these things. It has lacked people who have seen...
500 ideasTwenty-eight clusters
Each cluster comes with its mechanism
I have organised it by trade, in 28 groups I call clusters, and at the head of each cluster I have put the mechanism it uses, because an idea without a mechanism is a wish, and the whole argument of this book is that the mechanism is the thing we keep leaving out.
1
Stay longer, spend more (the $2.4 billion gap)
If Sri Lanka earned what the Maldives earns per visitor, the visitors it already has would bring in $2.4 billion a year...
20 ideas, 1 to 20
2
Sell the making, not the object
The craft cannot be copied and the object can. In Europe people queue to watch glass being blown and then buy the glass.
25 ideas, 21 to 45
3
Souvenirs that are actually from here
The Zermatt water bottle. Sigiriya has not got a stone with its own name on it.
25 ideas, 46 to 70
4
The experience economy
An app that tells people what is happening tonight converts a day visit into a 2-night stay.
30 ideas, 71 to 100
5
Wellness, which we are famous for and barely sell
Ayurveda is a system of medicine the world already recognises and seeks out. The demand is there; what Sri Lanka needs...
20 ideas, 101 to 120
6
Food and drink as export, not just hospitality
Dilmah says it earns over 3 times the national average export price for tea, because it does its own blending, branding...
30 ideas, 121 to 150
7
The infrastructure that makes the rest possible
The tiny business pathway. A rural woman with an exceptional product should not need photography, English copy...
25 ideas, 151 to 175
8
The coconut, which deserves its own list
The whole-nut principle. Sri Lanka's coconut exports grew by more than 40% in 2025, faster than any other major export...
15 ideas, 176 to 190
9
The offering nobody else can make
What cannot be copied. Every competitor can build a beach hotel. No competitor can offer a Buddhist tradition more than...
10 ideas, 191 to 200
10
Tea, beyond the auction
The Colombo auction sells tea by the lot to a buyer who blends it under his own name. Every step after the auction is...
20 ideas, 201 to 220
11
Cinnamon and the spice garden
The imitation out-earns the original. Vietnam earns more from cassia than Sri Lanka does from true cinnamon by selling...
15 ideas, 221 to 235
12
The gem chain, from Ratnapura to the certificate
The sapphire is mined here and cut here, and its value is certified in Basel or Lucerne and turned into money in...
15 ideas, 236 to 250
13
The sea
An ocean 8 times the size of the land, and a fishing fleet that sells its catch on the beach. The Maldives built a...
20 ideas, 251 to 270
14
Farm to shelf
The smallholder sells raw to a collector at the gate and the collector sells to a packer who puts his own name on it....
25 ideas, 271 to 295
15
Software, services and the remote desk
The proof exists in Malabe. What is missing is a thousand small versions of it.
25 ideas, 296 to 320
16
Education and the exam funnel
177,000 qualify every year and 45,000 get a state university place. The other 130,000 are a market only partly served...
20 ideas, 321 to 340
17
Health, care and the parents of Sri Lankans abroad
Sri Lankans abroad have parents at home whom they cannot look after from Melbourne. They will pay, and the money stays.
20 ideas, 341 to 360
18
Sri Lankans abroad, both directions
1.5 million people abroad who know how rich countries work, and who send home money and little else.
20 ideas, 361 to 380
19
Heritage, archives and film
Eight World Heritage Sites and 2,300 years of records, and the country's story is told to the world by other people.
15 ideas, 381 to 395
20
Design, fashion and the apparel spillover
Sri Lankans make the world's underwear to the world's standard, and the country has no fashion brand of its own that...
15 ideas, 396 to 410
21
Energy, water and waste at small scale
The sun shines on every roof and the island imports its fuel.
15 ideas, 411 to 425
22
Transport and logistics at village scale
The village cannot get a box to the container port. The gap is small firms, not big ones.
10 ideas, 426 to 435
23
The women who are not working
The single largest unused asset in the country is sitting at home, and much of what keeps it there (childcare, safe...
15 ideas, 436 to 450
24
Proof and trust, as a business
The one thing. A country where people do not expect the rules to hold cannot build anything else, and proof can be...
15 ideas, 451 to 465
25
Sport and the cricket economy
The country's best-known export is cricket, and little of the business around it is built at home.
10 ideas, 466 to 475
26
The cities, one idea each
Every city has one thing it could be known for, and most are not yet known for it.
10 ideas, 476 to 485
27
The north and the east
The land, the lagoons and the savings of families abroad are waiting. What comes first is the small business.
10 ideas, 486 to 495
28
Coming home
The first one through pays the whole price, and everyone after walks through an open door. These are the doors.
5 ideas, 496 to 500The eight hubs, and two more
One making-house at every heritage gate
The country funnels its visitors through a handful of small heritage cores, most of them in the Cultural Triangle. That funnel is the problem when the cores are turnstiles. It is the answer when each core becomes a hub: the place where the region's own resource is grown, made, shown and sold, with a making-house at the gate...
World Heritage
Sigiriya, the rock
The resource is the story and the dry-zone reservoirs. The hub is a making-house at the gate where the mask carvers...
100 ideas
World Heritage
Dambulla, the caves
The resource is the painted temples and the vegetable economy of the dry zone around them. The hub is the clay and the...
81 ideas
World Heritage
Anuradhapura and Mihintale, the sacred city
The resource is 2,300 years of Buddhism, still practised. The hub is the pilgrim centre, the Sil programme and the...
55 ideas
World Heritage
Polonnaruwa, the medieval capital
The resource is rice and the great reservoirs that grew it. The hub is the heritage-rice brand, the floating cabanas on...
75 ideas
World Heritage
Kandy, the Temple of the Tooth
The resource is tea, brass, drums and the Perahera. The hub is the crafts and tea showcase on the lake, with the...
107 ideas
World Heritage
Galle, the Fort
The resource is the cinnamon of the south-west, the sea, and the gems of Ratnapura a few hours inland. The hub is the...
79 ideas
World Heritage
The Central Highlands: Horton Plains, Adam's Peak, the Knuckles
The resource is the tea estates and the cool climate. The hub is the tea and wellness town at Nuwara Eliya, the estate...
83 ideas
World Heritage
Sinharaja, the rainforest
The resource is the biodiversity, and the spice gardens at its edge. The hub is the research station that hosts the...
66 ideas
And two more
Jaffna and the north
Jaffna and the north, where the resource is the palmyrah, the lagoons and the savings of families abroad, and the hub...
72 ideas
And two more
Trincomalee and the east
Trincomalee and the east, where the resource is the finest natural harbour in the Bay of Bengal, and the hub is the...
46 ideasThree comparisons
The whole argument, in three charts
True cinnamon against its imitation
The imitation out-earned the original
The cheap substitute. The imitation out-earned the original. [8, 9]
"In 2025 Sri Lanka earned $247 million from it." [7] Introduction
"Vietnam earned $280 million selling cassia, which is the coarse red bark sold as cinnamon in most of the world." [7, 8] Introduction
"It grows along a strip of the south-western coast and almost nowhere else on earth, and Sri Lanka produces somewhere between 80 and 90% of the world's supply." [6] Introduction
The book gives these as 2025 figures.
Sri Lanka against the Maldives
Almost the same visitors, very different money
The Maldives has none. Not one. And it is paid about 1.75 times as much per person who steps off the plane. [21, 20, 22]
"In 2025, 2.36 million people came to Sri Lanka. 2.25 million went to the Maldives." [20, 21] Introduction
"The Maldives made $5.4 billion. We made $3.2 billion." [21, 22] Introduction
Note: The Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority revised its daily-expenditure methodology in August 2025 (from $171.74 to $148.26 on the new basis), so part of the apparent change in daily spend is a change in counting.
"None" means World Heritage Sites: Sri Lanka has 8.
The letter that says yes and means no
177,588 qualified. Around 45,000 got a place.
The rest are a market that nobody has built for. That is cluster 16.
"In 2024, 177,588 of those young people qualified for university admission." [1, 2, 5, 32] Chapter One
"Around 45,000 got a place." [3] Chapter One
The takeaway line was written for this site.
The book
An island that has everything, and sells all of it raw
"Don't worry. The Queen will take care of you."
My grandmother said that to me when I was 20 and asked her why Britain was the right place to go. She never once left the island. She was right. The book is about why she could not say the same about home.
The five hundred ideas on this site are its appendix, given a page each so that somebody can start one.
The evidence
Every number in the book, with its source
398 documents, from the Central Bank and the University Grants Commission to the Library of Congress, numbered once and listed with the chapters that use them.
Open the library
Five hundred and one
The next five hundred are not mine to write
The list is the country's. If you know a place to start that is not here, send it, with the mechanism, and it goes on the site with your name if you want it there.
Send an idea