Starter Kit. Idea 187 of 500. Cluster 8
Coconut-based cosmetics and hair products, which is where the margin is
The mechanism, from the book
The whole-nut principle. Sri Lanka's coconut exports are growing, which makes this the one chain already moving. Almost every part of the nut has a market and most of them leave the island unprocessed.
The first step
Make a small batch of one product, a coconut hair oil or a body butter, with every ingredient listed and nothing you cannot trace. Pack 40 in simple jars and sell them to guesthouse guests and a hotel spa. Ask the spa manager what they would pay to use it in treatments and sell it in their shop. Their order, and the price, show where your margin is.
- Who pays first
- A hotel spa that wants a coconut product made on the island to use in treatments and sell to guests.
- What leaves today
- Coconut oil leaves as an ingredient; the jar of cream or hair oil, which sells for far more, is filled and branded abroad.
Ask first
- National Medicines Regulatory Authority. Ask whether a coconut hair oil or cream needs registering before it is sold.
- Sri Lanka Standards Institution. Ask which standard applies to cosmetics sold in jars with an ingredient list.
Check before you spend
Whether your cosmetic needs registering before sale, what the label must list, and which claims you may not make on the jar.
Find out these three numbers
- What does a jar of coconut hair oil sell for in a pharmacy?
- How long does your cream keep before it changes smell or colour?
- Which shop would stock a small trial order of jars?
A comparison from the book
Zermatt. Chapter Five
"This is what people mean when they say a brand. It is not a logo."
The margin comes from finishing and naming the product here, not from the logo.
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.