Idea 152 of 500. Cluster 7: The infrastructure that makes the rest possible
Packaging design studios
The mechanism, from the book
The tiny business pathway. A rural woman with an exceptional product should not need photography, English copy, packaging design and a distributor before the world can find her.
Every idea in cluster 7 uses this mechanism.
A first step
Choose one producer whose product is excellent but whose pack is a plain plastic bag, and design a new label and box for them on your own time. Print 10 mock-ups and take the old and new packs to a hotel gift shop together. Ask the manager which one they would stock and at what price. The price difference is what you can charge the producer.
- Who pays first
- A small producer who has been turned down by a gift shop or exporter because the packaging looked homemade.
- What leaves today
- Goods leave in plain bulk packs and are repacked abroad, where the pack adds much of the price the shopper finally pays.
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. SeventeenOne Building
The dozen small things that turn a product into money that stays
More from cluster 7
- 151Product photography services for small producers
- 153English copywriting and product storytelling
- 154QR-linked product pages and simple ecommerce setup
- 155Packing, dispatch and international shipping services
- 156Export paperwork and rules advice for small producers
- 157Quality certification and food safety advisory
Idea 152 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.