Business Corps
The other day Rich and I were discussing the Peace Corps. Ultimately we both believe it isn’t a valid institution in that it’s run by the government and subsidized with government funds, but there’s no denying its usefulness to the participators. They are provided with experiences for two years that will skyrocket them above the knowledge of their peers, as well as push them to be more mature and worldly. And I quickly realized that there is a far more valid institution that could benefit from the same practice: capitalism. That is why I propose the creation of a “Business Corps.”
The Business Corps will accept applicants with both excellent academic credentials and real world business experience to participate in a 6 month to 2 year exercise in which each applicant will be sent to start a business, bring it to a profitable state, and assign his successors during the term of his participation.
Obviously no one should just be thrown out into the wild and told to make a living, or else the Business Corps would not be necessary. So here’s what I see as some of the prerequisites. Aside from proving his ability, the applicant must:
- Provide a complete business plan which he intends to carry out during his tenure with the Business Corps. This business plan should detail the shortest amount of time needed to be carried out, as well as the ideal locale.
- The locale of the business must fall within a predefined list provided by the Business Corps, and should of course be the places where commerce and industry are most needed (for the purposes of a clear, local example, let’s say a southern town built around a steel factory which has recently gone out of business, leaving hundreds jobless).
If chosen, an applicant would receive the funds necessary to carry out his business plan and the means to survive while he does so. Besides that, luxury and cash should be limited.
The Business Corps would be funded by business owners and chairmen, who would of course have a stake in the business plans they fun, as well as the future careers of the participants. These funders would also act as counselors to specific participants, a role which non-funders could take part in as well.
Like the Peace Corps, the Business Corps should keep very strict policies. If a participant loses all his money, he must continue on his own dime or not at all. He must operate within the law at all times, and his dealings must be entirely transparent to the Business Corps.
In most cases the businesses created will be small to medium, and as such it will be assumed that the participant will want to move on to newer, better opportunities after the term of his participation. However, if he wants to continue running his new business, that isn’t a problem. After a preset amount of time running said company (say 5 years after the initial end date), he will have the option to buy out the Business Corps stake and retain full ownership of his company.
Very basic, I know, but I’d like to add to this when I think of more. It seems like a very useful idea.