Idea 43 of 500. Cluster 2: Sell the making, not the object
Palm-leaf manuscript writing with a stylus, your name on an ola leaf to take home
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
Practise writing on an ola leaf with a stylus until you can write a name neatly, or find someone who already can. Set up at a heritage site entrance or a guesthouse for one weekend and write visitors' names on a leaf to take home, with a short card explaining the script. If most people who stop also buy, the idea has buyers.
- Who pays first
- Visitors at heritage sites and temples who want a light, personal souvenir with a story, their own name in an old script.
- What leaves today
- The island's manuscript tradition earns nothing from visitors; a name on an ola leaf sells the script and the skill, not a trinket.
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 43 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.