Idea 30 of 500. Cluster 2: Sell the making, not the object
Tea blending workshops, and your own blend packed to take away
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
Buy small quantities of three teas from different elevations, with some cinnamon and dried flowers, and run a blending session at a guesthouse table for its guests. Pack each blend in a bag labelled with the guest's name. Count how many pay, and how many ask to order more once they are home. Repeat orders from abroad are the proof.
- Who pays first
- Visitors to the hills, and their hosts, who want something to do with tea besides drinking it, and a gift to carry home.
- What leaves today
- Tea leaves in bulk at commodity prices; a blend with the guest's name on it sells the same leaf at a gift price.
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 30 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.