Idea 28 of 500. Cluster 2: Sell the making, not the object
Gem cutting demonstrations with certified purchase
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
Ask a gem cutter whose work you trust whether visitors could watch a rough stone become a cut one, then bring five visitors to watch and produce the laboratory certificate at the end. Note how many ask to buy, and at what price. Even one certified sale after a demonstration proves the order that works: watch first, buy after.
- Who pays first
- Visitors wary of being cheated on gems, who will buy once they have watched the stone cut and hold a certificate in their hand.
- What leaves today
- Fear of fakes makes buyers walk away; watching the cut and holding the certificate supply the trust that turns fear into a sale.
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
More from cluster 2
Idea 28 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.