Problem/Opportunity
Approximately 1 Million California residents in rural areas live on well water.   Some wells serve a single home via a single connection while others serve multiple properties or connections.  Those serving multiple properties are refereed to as "shared water systems" or "micro utility companies" although they may not be incorporated. Billing on a monthly, quarterly or annual basis is typical.  Some companies bill flat rate, others do meter readings other do a combination. There are also annual licensing fees due to typically.  

The shared water systems in California are broken into 3 Categories:   2 to 4 Connections, 5 to 14 Connections and  15 to 199 connections. Most are billing by hand or with modest spreadsheets that "work", but don't provide digital database system benefits including efficiency, invoice emailing, payment journals, accounts receivable reports, and other functions found in billing software. The process without software is time consuming and difficult to share tasks with others.  It's believed there may be as many as 6,000 possible software solution candidates in California and 10,000's of others across the country.  

Solution
BRICs Practice Management has developed cloud spreadsheet invoicing software templates based on ZAP Accounting Software examples. These are PERFECT for micro utility company owners. The software template developer is a micro utility company owner himself, thus the knowledge about a perfect fit. The Software templates themselves are private, free-for-life, open source, and customizable.  

Logically, fee based seminars for education and software start up are appropriate, although we may have to do them for free initially.   Ideally, water system owners and managers who adopt the software will donate an amount annually to support the distribution of this type of education and opportunity to others nationally and globally.  

NOTE: BRICs does NOT offer technical support, because they are a publisher of curriculum and software templates not a software company. Helping them figure out how to organize to support each other as a related commercial community will be important for success. 

Community Experiment with various Potential Benefits
This market is an ideal market to attempt to "build community" around a software solution.  

They all have special needs that may not be the same as each other. That requires individual customizations and the market is too small and dispersed for a larger Saas Solution. The larger Saas solution also is not ideal for individual and community privacy reasons anyway.  

Micro Company Owners who adopt the software for use will grow in General Business, Accounting , and Technology Literacy, and each of them then becomes a potential gateway to their communities for the introduction of other Commercial Literacy Education and Software programs for adults and children. 

In addition to individual needs, connecting this group of people across the state could have a lot of value for various other commercial reasons.  There have been concerted efforts by corporate interests to interfere with the sovereignty of these systems. Having a larger network of connected owners may help combat commercial schemes that are not sincere or beneficial. 

Funding Request
Figuring out how to market to this group,  how to share the software with them,  and assisting with the development of a self sustaining support system is going to take time and energy. 

Funding is desired to support this effort. While the project may end up being financially profitable or self-supporting via seminar fees and/or donations, that is an unknown at this time. 

We are seeking $30,000 to $100,000 to fund this startup. 

That money will provide payroll to BRICs Practice Management Project Coordinator(s) , it will fund travel expenses , and minor marketing costs. 

We feel funders of this will review the Community Experiment and Potential Benefits section and see reasons why this is a worthy investment. 

Disclosures: 
BRICS Practice Management is an "Affiliated Program".  Owners of that business have a financial and vested interest in the Institute for Commercial Literacy. 

Refs:
https://scceh.com/NewHome/Programs/WaterResources/SmallWaterSystemRegulatory.aspx
https://www.waterboards.ca.gov/safer/ssws_dw.html

Problem/Opportunity
Since the 1980's public schools have been without proper General Business, Accounting, and Financial Literacy curriculum and since the 1990s they have been without proper Technology Literacy Programs.   The majority of people who are under 50 years old are accounting and financially illterate and many struggle with computer technology.  Those older may have gotten accounting literacy when it was done by hand, but most of them are struggling with technology literacy too. 

Solution
BRICs Practice Management has developed cloud spreadsheet invoicing software templates based on ZAP Accounting Software examples. This solution was developed for Commercial Use, but they way it was developed was designed to serve as an immersive curriculum that can touch on all the Commercial Literacy topics the ICL seeks to support.  Programs as short as an hour or two, with pre-reading might provide more Commercial Education than most of these individuals have obtained in a lifetime.  The goal is to stimulate interest in a new way to learn and self study and to build community around education and software that increases their efficiency and empowers them in various ways. 

Community Experiment with various Potential Benefits
No one has attempted Commercial Literacy using a combination of written curriculum and cloud spreadsheet technology before. Learning how they learn best and developing the in person engagement curriculum is needed to understand how these programs could be rolled out at national and international levels. 

Funding Request
Figuring out how to market this opportunity,   how to share the software with them,  and assisting with the development of a self sustaining support system is going to take time and energy. Funding is desired to support this effort. While the project may end up being financially profitable or self-supporting via donations that is an unknown at this time. 

We are seeking $xxxx  to fund this beta-program.  The amount will be dependent on what a funder sees as an ideal starting point. 

That money will provide payroll to BRICs Practice Management Project Coordinator(s) , it will fund travel expenses , and minor marketing costs.  

We feel funders of this will review the Community Experiment and Potential Benefits section and see reasons why this is a worthy investment. 

Problem/Opportunity
In person costs for instruction  and education in the United States is high. While many of the systems we are seeking to offer can be self study the all should be combined with Lab Time and Technical Oversight until their technology literacy is higher  or a community support network is established. 

Learning Commercial Literacy at a deeper level, as a substitute for an Associated, Bachelors or Masters Degree in Business takes a larger time commitment. 

We feel offering United States Citizens the opportunity to take a "Travel-cation" or a "study abroad",  where they can enjoy another culture  at a far lower cost, while consuming Commercial Literacy Education is something that may be of interest to others.  

This travel may be US based or International. Expanding US Citizen understanding of other cultures inside of and outside of the united states would have many benefits. 

Solution
We are seeking funding to do market research to see what currently exits for independent travel cation programs today.   The immersive foreign language institutes around the globe represent one such network that already exists, and the developer of the BRICs Software has minor experience using that network in Costa Rica for Spanish Language studies for  few weeks. 

Funding Request
We are seeking a minor amount of funding to do market research . 

That money will provide payroll to BRICs Practice Management Project Coordinator(s) . No travel or marketing costs expected at this time.