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 Starter Kit, printableOne click, no form, no name.

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
WITH500BUSINESS IDEASTO STARTTOMORROW

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.