PANDSCORP . . . START TO FINISH
There are several ways that this social enterprise could start, but here is what I see as the most likely . . . and how it will grow from there.
The first step along the journey will be to sell at least one product, and distribute it through the local church. It will have to be a product that can be ordered in truckload quantities to ensure obtaining the lowest pricing possible. The product will have to have broad appeal so that it will distribute as efficiently as possible. There are many large churches that have enough members to purchase an entire truckload of most products. The product will be sold at a locally competitive price (or slightly below), and ALL of the proceeds will go toward one or two social issues that benefits the entire group. I believe that property beautification is the best "cause" to sell, because of it's multiple benefits to the community, not the least of which is increasing property values.
The point of emphasis of this first phase is that the product will be something that most people would buy anyway, at a price equal to or slightly below what they would have paid elsewhere, and at the same time, much good will be done as a result!
This first phase will grow as more products are sold, more revenue is generated, and more and more benefits are visibly seen as a result.
The second phase of growth of this social enterprise would be to open a "bulk purchase store", where a select but limited number of products would now be sold. As the number of products sold gradually increases, eventually a full fledged store will open where people could essentually do all of their grocery shopping. Over time, this store would look more and more like a WalMart or Meijer or Kroger Super Store. As this happens, a system will begin to develop where customers will have a growing selection of "causes" that the proceeds of their sale will support. Many of these "causes" the customers can choose from will result in creating new jobs. This could be a system where they select what percentage of their "proceed" would go toward each "cause" that they select from the list available.
The third phase of this organization will be to open other types of businesses that provide valuable services to the community. These could include, but not be limited to such things as gas stations, oil change facilities, recreation activity centers, or much more.
The fourth phase will be to open or takeover other businesses that will best benefit the customers who purchase from the organization. Ultimately, this could possibly include the largest oil companies, pharmacutical companies, or financial institutions.
At this level you would see a significant redistribution of wealth, as the customer is always the investor rather than a wealthy individual who may not even purchase products from the stores they had been profitting from.
More new jobs would be created as services that were once only affordable to the more affluent middle class and up, are now available to even the poorest members of society, thus increasing the demand for these services.
You may ask "is this fair", or "is this safe" . . . I say YES! Any corporation could do what I am suggesting, it is only the self serving interests of their investors that prevents it from happening. Any corporation can choose to give back all of their profits to the customers that support them . . . to be used for things that benefit society as a whole . . . I simply intend to be the first and only to do it.
How do I know this will succeed?
Here is why:
1. The idea cannot be "stolen" except by someone willing to do the same thing . . .and I would say to them "How may I help you?"
2. The "root" determination of why all purchases are made is . . . .
MOTIVATION ! All sales transactions that are made (for both products and services) are essentially based on motivation.
People are motivated by PRICE, by QUALITY, by CONVENIENCE, by AVAILABILITY, and by several other things . . . but at the root of any decision is MOTIVATION ! Whoever can provide the greatest motivation to the customer, will make the sale EVERY time. As long as you provide the others (price, quality, convenience, availablity). . . you cannot motivate customers to purchase from you more than by giving all of the proceeds back to the customer.
3. Adding even further motivation will be that the salaries of all upper level executives will be paid through revenues generated only through the sale of products to the affluent. No revenues from essential products that are purchased by both poor and rich alike will go toward these salaries. This increases the amount of proceed that will go back to the customers, or reduces the prices they will pay.
This may sound a bit like socialism, however it is all by free choice. In effect, it is capitalism in its purest form, simply not motivated by greed.
