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Home > About Us > Our Model
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We began Kingdom Ventures because we wanted to "make a difference" in the world. There are many legitimate ways to do this. The way we have chosen is the path of business.
Why business? Because we subscribe to the proverb "Give a man a fish and you'll feed him for today. Teach him to fish and you'll feed him for a lifetime". By encouraging the genesis of small businesses, we are attempting to teach people to "fish" for themselves.
What does it mean to be "in business"? We believe it means to produce a product that can be sold at a profit at each step along the supply chain. In some cases that might be a product that is sold in the local market (a very short supply chain). For us and our products, the chain is significantly longer. That means working to find products that:
- Local people are able to produce with skills that they either have or can develop;
- Can be sold to us at prices that provide a fair and reasonable income for them (a basic tenet of Fair Trade);
- Can be imported into the US at a reasonable cost (weight, bulk, and duties are all factors here);
- Can be marketed in the US through retail and/or wholesale channels at prices which cover OUR costs and provide for OUR needs as well
We've chosen this model because we believe in the principles of Fair Trade. Fair Trade has been around for some time, but mostly in niche markets - particularly here in the US. We believe it's time for Fair Trade to go "mainstream", but for that to happen, it must "work" for everyone from the producer to the ultimate retailer. There are a lot of great Fair Trade retail shops around the country and we applaud them for the work that they have done in raising the awareness of Fair Trade. However in many cases the shops are staffed largely by volunteers who are committed to the goal of helping the producers. However this volunteerism results in an "artificial" reduction in costs because it does not reflect a "true" cost of getting the product to the customer. So long as this is the predominant model, Fair Trade will not go mainstream.
But in some areas Fair Trade HAS and IS going mainstream. Starbucks has become the largest purchaser of Fair Trade coffee worldwide, with a goal of being 100% "responsibly grown and ethically traded" by 2015. (See this link for why they aren't saying "100% Fair Trade") WalMart and other larger retailers have introduced SOME Fair Trade merchandise. They've done this because consumers have demanded it AND because they have discovered that they can sell Fair Trade AND mad a profit also. After all, if the retailers selling Fair Trade can't pay their employees a fair and living wage, is it really Fair Trade?
At Kingdom Ventures we have chosen to be a business that does both retail and wholesale. Why both? Because our objective is to "move" as much product as possible so that our suppliers receive the maximum benefit. We could do that by direct sales (retail store, home parties, and "events"), but then we'd need a sales force that would need to be paid and a management structure to oversee it. Alternatively, we could do it over the Internet, but our experience says that it takes a significant amount of time to build momentum online. We could do it in person, but we can only be so many places over the course of a year. So the best approach we have found is to do BOTH retail in whatever manner we can (internet, our shop, and "events") AND to develop wholesale customers across the US and Canada.
That's OUR model. It's not the only one, but it's the one we've chosen and we hope you'll choose to be a part of it.
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