Idea 33 of 500. Cluster 2: Sell the making, not the object
Spice blending, with a labelled jar of your own mix
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
Set up a table at a weekly market or a guesthouse with whole spices, a grinder and small jars, and let visitors blend a curry powder to their own taste. Label each jar with the blend and the maker's name. Ask everyone who buys whether they would reorder from home, and keep their email addresses. Reorders are the proof.
- Who pays first
- Visitors who loved the food and want to cook it at home, using a blend they made themselves and can name.
- What leaves today
- Spices leave as a bulk commodity; a named, hand-blended jar sells the same spice with the skill and the memory attached.
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 33 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.