Idea 105 of 500. Cluster 5: Wellness, which we are famous for and barely sell
Herbal bath and body product lines
The mechanism, from the book
Ayurveda is a system of medicine the world already recognises and seeks out. The demand is there; what Sri Lanka needs is more of its own names, known and asked for abroad.
Every idea in cluster 5 uses this mechanism.
A first step
Make a small batch of one product, a herbal bath soak or a body scrub, using plants you can name and trace, and pack 30 in labelled jars. Give them to a guesthouse owner to place in the rooms with a card saying where to buy more. Count how many guests ask or buy within a month. Repeat orders from the guesthouse matter more than praise.
- Who pays first
- A boutique guesthouse or hotel that wants something local in its bathrooms instead of anonymous imported miniatures.
- What leaves today
- The herbs grow here and are sold as dried raw material; the jar, the label and the retail price are added somewhere else.
The idea and the mechanism are from the book. The first step was written for this site as a suggestion; if you know a better one, say so.
The test
Does it keep value that now leaves the island, or build the proof that lets somebody else do so?
The only test any idea on this site has to pass. The four rules that go with it are here.
In the book
- Ch. TwoAn Island Nobody Has Counted
The island's resources, counted - Ch. SeventeenOne Building
The showcase that lists ayurveda among 100 to 300 Sri Lankan brands
More from cluster 5
- 101Ayurvedic treatment centres to international standard
- 102Forest-bathing days in the hill and rainforest reserves, with a guide who knows the plants and their uses in Ayurveda
- 103Yoga and Pilates retreats
- 104Hot stone therapy using local granite
- 106Traditional hair oil production, branded and exported
- 107Aromatherapy product ranges for the spas abroad, from oils distilled here
Idea 105 of the 500 in the appendix of Why Not Sri Lanka? Every one can be started by one person, one family or one small firm.