Idea 37 of 500. Cluster 2: Sell the making, not the object
Wood carving classes
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
Offer a woodcarver a fixed fee to host three visitors for one afternoon, each carving a small motif in soft wood. Bring the visitors yourself, through a guesthouse or a travel forum post. Afterwards, ask the carver whether they would run it weekly and ask the guests what they would pay. Two yeses are the proof.
- Who pays first
- Visitors with an afternoon to spare who want to carve their own piece, and the tour drivers who bring them there.
- What leaves today
- Carvings sell to visitors at bargained prices; teaching sells the carver's hours and skill at a fixed and fair rate.
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 37 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.