16 products to start a business in Sri Lanka

Starting a business is a tempting endeavor for many people. However, when it comes to establishing a business, most people are stumped for ideas. Questions such as “What industry should I pick?”, “Can I handle the workload?” and “How do I actually start it?” will most likely be running through your mind. However, before starting any business, the key is to do some research, pick on some potentially attractive ideas that can actually bring revenue and generate interest and then focus on ways in which you can build your business.

Have the capital to get you started, but running short on business ideas? Here are 16 business ideas for you to implement in Sri Lanka.

Number One- LED Backlit car stickers

Sri Lankans love their vehicles. A great way to generate interest and therefore embark on a business is by encouraging people to use innovative LED backlit logos instead of car stickers for their vehicle windows. These backlit logos will turn on automatically when people drive at night and shut down after parking. When it’s installed, it can really shine through factory tinted windows and don’t require any touching. Because people love to support a cause or an organization with a bumper sticker, they usually display it through a car sticker. However, to take that interest to a whole new level, these innovative LED backlit logos offer a wonderful business incentive. This is presently not availabile in Sri Lanka but it’s a promising possibility with a total market size of 6,302,141. Advertising agencies, NGOs, communities, companies and individuals are ideally the target segment for this venture.


Number Two- Handsfree Umbrella

Carrying an umbrella in a stormy climate could be a nightmare sometimes. This is an interesting innovation in which you can use an umbrella without having to hold it up. It’s simply designed to be strapped to the shoulders and you could talk on your mobile phone, take you dog on a walk, carry your shopping bags and so on with perfect ease while protecting yourself from the rain and stormy winds. You can watch about its efficiency here:


Number Three- Sunbath the comfortable way

Sri Lanka is a beach-lover’s paradise and lying by the pool or the beach is extremely relaxing and most tourists love sunbathing in Sri Lankan beaches as they work on their tan. When they need to sleep face down to get some sun on the back, the position could sometimes be uncomfortable because a towel doesn’t ideally make for a good pillow.

The ideas is a pillow that is creatively designed for the beach or pool. The design of it allows you to be comfortable, regardless of whether you are lying on your back or on your side. It can go a long way in making your tanning session by the beach a perfect one. This is presently not available in Sri Lanka but it certainly has the potential to grab the attention of tourists, travelers and hotels.

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Number Four- Heavy duty cleaning wipes

If you have kids around your house, then you know that they love creating a mess. Wiping the mess left behind by kids is a daunting task and something like these Wipes could come in handy. As individually packages cleaning wipes that uses non-toxic and citrus-based cleaning agents, it can handle even heavy duty cleaning. It’s a level higher than you standard antibacterial wipes and is eco friendly as well. Its portable nature makes allows you to take it with you to garages, compartments, drawers or anywhere you may encounter a mess.

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Number Five- Creative Bobbleheads

While bobbleheads are usually figurines that are generally made as a caricature of a famous person, making custom-made bobbleheads will be a great idea. Custom-made bobbleheads can be sculpted by hand from photos given by the client and this will be a much-loved gift. There are no doubts that this idea will be incredibly popular and high in demand. Fir further details visit http://www.webobble.com


Number Six- A folding Guitar

While guitars are perfect for a road trip or to have around a campire, it’s not something that actually built for travel. Even though there are travel cases for guitars, it’s usually very inconvenient to carry it around and having it with you on public transportation could be a horrid experience. And then, there is the fear of it being stolen or damaged. However, with a foldable guitar, all these issues would be solved effortlessly. Guitarists would certainly opt for this when it comes to ease of use and its portability.

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Number Seven- Branding Grills

These are ideal for BBQ parties because you can now keep track of your steak. Additionally, using equipment like this Grills Charms is helpful when it comes to distinguishing spices, flavors, allergy issues and even temperature preferences.

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Number Eight – No more embarrassing moments

Flatulence is an issue many people face and these digestive problems can range from intolerance to lactose to Crohn’s Disease that causes gas build-up in the intestine, making flatulence extremely hard to control. This creates plenty of embarrassing social situations and with a dress designed specifically for this issue, people with frequent flatulence can feel a little more at ease.

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Number Nine- Re-invented ice cream float

This incredibly clever attachment is loaded with flavors of ice cream that screws at the top of a plastic soda bottle. This allows the fizz to mix with the ice cream and takes flavor combinations to a whole new level.

You can watch this video to get a better idea:


Number Ten- Costume makeover for your old fridge

We get tired of our old refrigerators, particularly when it’s scratched or dirty on the outside. But still can’t seem to throw it away? This is a common housewife dilemma and if your fridge is in good working order but not polished on the outside, you can give your old fridge a cosmetic makeover instead of spending thousands in buying a new one. This will certainly be a very prosperous business venture considering how many people would dearly love to make their old fridge look brand new. To get a clearer idea, you can check here: http://www.fridgefronts.com


Number Eleven- Hygienic Play-pen

Every mother wants her child to have a clean and safe place to play. Something like a playpen or a play-yard is generally the solution but usually, toddlers drool or spill on their play-pens and because it gets dirty very fast, cleaning it is hard as well. So what’s the solution? A play-pen such as Coverplay, which, in addition to being easier to clean, also protects children from unhygienic conditions. This will certainly be a hit with mothers.

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Number Twelve- Educational Flash Cards

This is more of an educational tool that is a fun and fast way to learn and the flash cards can help boost better exam scores. Based on Sri Lanka this can be customized. This product is a hit in USA.

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Number Thirteen- Inspiring messages in the gift products 

There’s nothing people love more than personalized messages along with any product they buy. For example, if your business is selling accessories or gifts, it’s always a good idea to include a card / print with a positive and inspirational message. Or you can take creativity to a higher level, such as the product line, “Inspirella”, which is an umbrella with a positive message printed on it saying “You are my Sunshine”.

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Number Fourteen- Pushups the right way

Sri Lankans are now showing greater interest in fitness, meaning there is now greater potential in workout training tools and equipments. A device such as Lift Assist will allow people to do pushups the correct way and with far greater ease. The correct alignment also ensures that no injuries occur and it can especially be helpful for those who find it difficult to do even a single pushup.

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Number Fifteen- Chopstick Baskets

DIY projects are rising in popularity and research has proven that billions of chopsticks are used every year, requiring 25 million trees of bamboo plants for this demand. This means that a lot of energy and waste goes into producing something that people use for practically only fifteen minutes. To ensure that it’s recycled in a creative way, there are some great artworks that could be done using chopsticks. The basket below is made out of chopsticks collected from restaurants but you could use it to make an array of patterned artwork.

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Number Sixteen- Make your kids love medicine

Kids hate taking medicine and mothers spend an awful lot of time in trying to get their child to take the medicine. From the last-minute turn to a dive under the table, parents use so many techniques but, more often than not, the medicine ends up in all places except inside the child’s mouth. A creative way of making you child drink the medicine with minimum fuss is by the method outlined in the image below. Feeding medicines will no more be a nightmare for mums again!

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Top business trends that will drive success in 2016

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Business is arguably the most competitive field out there and one thing that is absolutely certain as we step into 2016 is that the business arena is only going to get more aggressive. New technologies, critical developments and innovative solutions have shaped an era of dominating business. In the year 2015, we already saw huge transformations and ground-breaking business trends and as we enter into the New Year, bright new business prospects lurk on the horizon. We are truly excited for what this year has to offer in terms of business, and here’s a look at the top emerging trends that will shape the business world in 2016.

Sound will take over as the new marketing word

Statistics in the audio industry have been mind-blowing; the headphone industry has surpassed a mammoth $8 million mark and this shift will continue to escalate with the evolving business trends. Businesses are striving to offer a better sound experience that is more streamlined and accessible and radios, in particular, will experience a truly renaissance era that will possibly emerge as the focus of any marketing strategy. It is estimated that around 46 million Americans listens to podcasts every month and marketers are trying to leverage this feature into their marketing campaigns. Audio text messages are already so popular, but it is expected to become a greater hit in 2016. New technologies and audio apps are already amplifying this business marketing trend and it’s highly possible that there may be prospects for binge radio looming in the horizon. All in all, ears will obviously go on to become a very key canvas for monetization and expression in the business field.

Emojis will become the new marketing language

Already an exceptionally powerful form of language, emojis have taken over the virtual world over the last few years and the stage is set for emojis to develop into an entirely new and successful marketing language. In 2015, we saw how popular customized emojis were becoming and it really helps a lot in relating your expression. For example, Facebook expanded from just a ‘thumbs-up’ sign to like a post to emjois that express just about anything, from shock and surprise to humour and amazement. This year, we will undoubtedly see more business brands embrace the concept of emojis to their brand experience. On this note, it can be speculated that ads, memes, GIFs, books and other sources of communication will be conveyed powerfully in emoji language. If you still remain skeptical of this business trend, this fact will put your doubts to rest: Moby Dick was recently translated into a complete emoji text and heralded itself as an emerging and exciting new trend.

 

Freelance economy will be boosted

Relationships between companies and talent have become effortlessly fluid and there’s no denying the fact that nearly half of the workforce is expected to be freelance by the year 2020. Freelance employment has already become an evident and obvious sign of the Uber economy and as more sharing business economy businesses enter the arena, more opportunities to go freelance would show up. So, now is the time for businesses to learn how to benefit from this freelance talent pool more efficiently and showing your team how to inspire and organize freelance agents will certainly drive your business to success in 2016.

Massive growth in small businesses and emerging markets

Every business was once a small business, but thanks to the rapid growth in business trends and developments, small businesses rise up to the challenges incredibly fast and builds up their own reputation in a very small space of time. Although we generally tend to marginalize the potential of small businesses, it is by no means to be underestimated. These very small businesses run by young and aspiring entrepreneurs, account for nearly 50% of private sector jobs. Stereotypes aside, small businesses are the true wealth creators and business engines of our economy. It’s time we give small business ventures the credit they deserve and 2016 will certainly see new and improvised business techniques that will help small businesses to reap massive benefits.

Video marketing will go even more viral

All of us spend at least one hour a day watching videos and the most watched videos are generally about half a minute or so. And on the internet, 30 seconds is more than enough to advertise your marketing message. Each time we scroll through our social media pages, we are bound to notice at least 5 videos and needless to say, we would end up watching at least 2 of it. Video marketing is a hot trend, and 2016 will see new video marketing trends.

Videos are visually engaging and help immensely in humanizing a faceless business, which in turn builds trust and loyalty. This is a key feature of business success and we can expect to see a video marketing explosion this year. If your business isn’t already producing videos, the time is now!

Businesses will start introducing fun and games to engage customers

According to a study, the average human attention span in eight seconds and according to that same study, mobile devices and smartphones contribute heavily to this phenomenon.

Due to this reason, companies should start thinking and working extremely hard in order to introduce campaigns and advertising modes to attract the attention of clients. One way of achieving this is through gamification. Whether in the form of traditional or electronic games and mobile phone apps, the whole idea of this concept is to make your business fun and engaging. Make your business fun- it really works as the magic wand in retaining and attracting new customers.

Final thoughts

We have passed so many years that have seen revolutionary business trends and as we move into the future, we can expect to see numerous exciting trends that can really set the benchmark in promoting your business. Every company needs to be aware that the business field is extremely competitive and you should never get lagged back in implementing the latest trends to excel in your business. So start embracing these new trends, implement it in your business strategies and watch as your business flourishes!