previous - reality - further

        REA-5           Open for business.            December 12th, 1985





        Open for business.



        Commercial significance.


        A LETSystem will only develop its full benefits when a full 
        range of commercial services is available.

        Most of our regular expenditures are in the supermarket, the gas 
        station, the hardware store or the restaurant.

        The people who operate these businesses are members of the local 
        community and this is their way of serving it.

        They can be acknowledged for these services in green money just 
        like anyone else.

        Just like anyone else, it makes sense for any business in the 
        community to use money that recirculates, generating return 
        customers, each with more money to spend.

        Business is just people at work, and green money makes every bit 
        as much sense for business as it does for people.




        Accounting procedures.

        Each mainstream business that joins the local LETSystem saves 
        cash for the membership and increases their spending power.

        For the business it means more customers, and provided they 
        follow the intelligent course of collecting enough cash with each 
        sale to handle actual direct costs - wholesale costs, delivery, 
        taxes, etc. - they simply cannot lose.

        Any business that can stay afloat in the conventional market can 
        flourish in a green economy.

        It is very simple to use green money in almost all business 
        situations.

        The task of accounting is only a fraction of the effort 
        currently required for keeping records and balancing the books.

        Anyone who declines to make profits on the grounds that it takes 
        too much trouble to count them is not likely to be in business 
        much longer anyway, so let them be.






        Landsman Community Services Ltd.              REA-5     Page    1


        REA-5           Open for business.            December 12th, 1985




        Pegging value.


        A green dollar shall be considered to represent a dollar.

        A dollar is simply worth what you can get for it.

        Specific green dollar allowances in general retail markets 
        establish the local green dollar as equivalent value.

        This is an important step as the labour market will be responding 
        to the comparative availablility of the green money with 
        differential rates, as indeed it should.

        The green economy will always remain liquid and booming and 
        support higher wage scales than a cash economy in recession.

        This can lead to concern and suspicion about inflated rates, with 
        a consequent detriment to the process.

        When green money buys food at the store, dollar for dollar, the 
        issue is essentially resolved.




        Short and long term.


        Most business is concerned about its slice of the cake.

        How big is the total market ?  How big is my sector ?  What is 
        the share that I get ?

        In the initial stages, any business that is willing to think and 
        act on the figures can see a bottom line cash flow justification 
        for joining a LETSystem.

        Even if the LETSystem has only a few members, the extra cash flow 
        from their patronage will more than offset any costs incurred.

        Typical payback periods for a life membership will be often as 
        little as a few days, and virtually never more than a few months.

        And this is taking no account of the value of the green dollars 
        themselves.

        So in the beginning, business can be led by the carrot.

        It is by nature competitive and profit-seeking and will respond 
        to anything that promises short term gains.

        In the long term the LETSystem provides another layer to the 
        cake, and it makes sense for a business to be in it for that 
        reason alone.



        Landsman Community Services Ltd.              REA-5     Page    2


        REA-5           Open for business.            December 12th, 1985




        Not to gain advantage over the competition but just to be in the 
        game at all.

        The market shares of competitors may not move much, but the 
        market itself will be bigger.

        In the end, the green money market will represent a large enough 
        proportion of the total that almost every business in your 
        community will take part.

        It would be very bad business to do otherwise.

        This isn't the stick that often follows the carrot, and beats the 
        reluctant into line.

        It will always be perfectly possible to do business without 
        green, just as it is now, and evidently has been since the game 
        began.

        It will just be bad business to exclude oneself from that sector 
        of the market, something like declining to serve people with blue 
        eyes. 




































        Landsman Community Services Ltd.              REA-5     Page    3