Idea 21 of 500. Cluster 2: Sell the making, not the object
Half-day cooking courses: two curries and rice
The mechanism, from the book
The craft cannot be copied and the object can. In Europe people queue to watch glass being blown and then buy the glass.
Every idea in cluster 2 uses this mechanism.
A first step
Cook two curries and rice for four visitors staying at a nearby guesthouse, at a trial price you agree with the owner in advance. At the end, ask each guest what they would pay next time and whether they would have booked it before arriving. Four paid places, and one guest asking for the recipe in writing, are your proof that the afternoon sells.
- Who pays first
- Guests at the nearest guesthouse or hotel looking for something to do on their second afternoon that they cannot do at home.
- What leaves today
- Visitors eat Sri Lankan food for a week and go home unable to cook it; a class sells the method, not only the meal.
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. FiveThe Most Photographed Rock in the World
Courses instead of meals, the one the book would build first
Idea 21 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.