Idea 57 of 500. Cluster 3: Souvenirs that are actually from here
Children's toys in wood and cloth
The mechanism, from the book
The Zermatt water bottle. Sigiriya has not got a stone with its own name on it.
Every idea in cluster 3 uses this mechanism.
A first step
Ask a carpenter and a seamstress to make one wooden elephant and one cloth doll, then leave them in the children's corner of a family-friendly guesthouse for a week. Note which ones children play with and which parents ask about. Offer those parents the toy at a stated price. Sales from that one shelf are the proof.
- Who pays first
- Parents travelling with children who want a safe, local toy as a gift, and guesthouses with many families as guests.
- What leaves today
- Toys sold to visiting families are often plastic imports; wood and cloth made here keep the gift, and the money, local.
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
The Matterhorn water bottle and the souvenir that is from there
More from cluster 3
Idea 57 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.