Starter Kit. Idea 107 of 500. Cluster 5
Aromatherapy workshops and product ranges
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.
The first step
Offer a 2 hour workshop at a guesthouse or hotel where guests blend their own oil from cinnamon, lemongrass and other island plants, and take the bottle home. Agree a price per head with the owner and run it twice this week. Note how many guests buy extra bottles at the end. Those sales tell you which blends to turn into a range.
- Who pays first
- A hotel guest who wants a hands-on hour and a bottle to take home, and a hotel that wants an activity to sell.
- What leaves today
- Island plants that could scent a finished product are sold as raw leaf, bark or bulk oil, leaving the blending and the brand to somebody else.
Ask first
- National Medicines Regulatory Authority. Ask whether essential oil products need registration before sale.
- Sri Lanka Standards Institution. Ask what labelling and warnings essential oils should carry.
Check before you spend
That essential oils are pure and safely diluted, that labels carry proper warnings, and that workshop guests are asked about allergies.
Find out these three numbers
- What will visitors pay for an aromatherapy workshop?
- What does a bottle of pure oil cost to produce?
- Which spas and hotels would stock the range?
The test
Does it keep value that now leaves the island, or build the proof that lets somebody else do so?
From the appendix of Why Not Sri Lanka? by Dr Maheshika Halbeisen. The idea and the mechanism are the book's; this kit was written for the site.