I need serious help with advice before I open my first business in SL - pls help

Dear forum friends!

I am in the first part of starting my own small business in SL... fun but also scary! And as I think this might be of interest to others too, I just thought: Why not ask in the forums?

Warning: I am a designer - but not the most experienced business girl. A "bit" non technical. LOL

So now I want to ask you at forum for serious help with advice what to think about. I know that is no "rules for one perfect shop" but at least i like your opinions on

* what kind of vendors are best?
* simple ones that you "pay for"?
* those where you can "buy"?
* or simply make the objects "sellable"?
* whats the advantage of a networked vendor system?

* how to get back the best sales data for analizing later?

* does paid advertising make sense?
* whats the best way to show? Vendors? Or always best the product? (its interiours not fashion that I am planning to sell)
* second floor, does it makes sense?

* whats are the preferred best permissione for items like that?
* copy mod no transfer?
* nocopy transfer?
* mod or no mod?

What to think of when it comes to rent.. and where...?
* what are the usual rent prices for stalls in an open mall?
* what are rents for a more spacious shop in shop in a closed mall?


* SLExchange?
* SLBoutique?

I knows its lot But any help greatly appriciated!

Tina

Understand that any reply you get is wholly opinion, mine included. With that said, I'll spend the time to help you make a dime. (grin)



The best vendor is the one that makes the process of selling as simple and hassle free as possible. For 'brand spanking new', you may consider just making the objects sellable, but keep in mind that people want to see what they are buying and the easier you make the shop and buy process for them, the more likely they are to make that purchase from you.

Personally, I would recommend you start with the freebie vendor made by Hiro Pendragon. Then, if your business brings you the revenue to make an expenditure like a networked vendor solution a good investment, upgrade.

The upside here would be low cost of entry to market (free!). The downside is that you will have to set aside time to manually update every location you have in the metaverse. Again, the real decision is 'how much time are you willing to spend before deciding it will save you time to go with a networked solution?'



Most of the networked vendor systems offer some form of logging. If you are going to try and do it yourself, you'll need to script it. I can assure you that you aren't going to catch/see every transaction (though I think they will show up in your account detail... but only as amounts, no names).

Again, this is likely something you will find expensive to try and do now, but more reasonable if/when your business is selling well and you have the liquidity to invest in things to hone things.



Let me put it this way -- contemplate your location and how well you are known in the metaverse. Then think about how many other businesses sell what you do, and are either actively advertising or well enough known not to have need of active advertising (word of mouth exceeds advertisement for new sales generation).

Simply put, if you're new, you need to get your name out, you need to let people know where you are and what you're offering, and you need to take your competition seriously.

So yes, you should be advertising. Regularly.



If by 'interiors' you mean furnishings, you can show these in several ways, some of which are more conducive to encouraging sales than others:

- Photo/screenshot image on a vendor
- Physical presence (arrows rezz copies to view, scripted to rotate through inventory at pre-defined rate)
- Physical presence in displays (showroom)

If you're small and space is an issue, go with the vendor. Make sure your images are symmetrical, color coordinated, and sharp.

If you're into scripting and prefer not to have a showroom, make a vendor that rezzes a physcial copy of each item upon click/touch of the vendor or auto-increments through an inventory, rezzing samples every X seconds.

If you have space to spare, set up your product in an attractive display.





This is a hotly debated topic and I'm sure you will hear all manner of rationale... but in the end, the important ones are the ones that make sense to you and that your potential customers desire.

If you're selling furnishings or home/business items, I would recommend any of the following:

- copy/no-mod/no-transfer (if you don't mind someone buying one chair but having four in their house, but you don't want them to be able to change the item or to give it away or sell it to others).

- no-copy/mod/no-transfer (if you want people to buy four chairs if they want four chairs, but once they have them, they can change the color or even the design or the scripting, but they can't sell it to someone else or give it away).

- no-copy/no-mod/transfer (if you don't want them to make copies, don't want them to change the item, but if they want to give it away or sell it to someone else, they can).

Personally, when I buy furnishings, I look for either copy/no-mod/no-transfer or no-copy/mod/no-transfer.



I can't help you with pricing on rentals, as it varies depending on a lot of factors. What I will share with you are some insights on where you want to rent:

- No more than one sim away from a telehub
- If in a mall, on ground floor when possible.
- If on an upper floor, only if sides are open for people to enter directly to the floor you're on
- Preferably in an area that is not dwarfed by other builds (can you see the place?)



Both. And add in Metadverse (www.metadverse.com). Again, it's a lot to maintain, but you can't have enough exposure starting out.

Finally, don't forget these forums. There is a place to post your new items and believe me, there are those who comb that forum every day looking for new things to enjoy.


Best wishes for success, and if you decided to look into advertising and marketing, feel free to give me a shout. (smiles and points down to her signature)

Cienna has lots of good advice, but I would quibble with this part:

From reading your posts on the forum it seems like you are a person that cares about *who* you do business with, and what kind of people those are. For that reason I would recommend you go with SLBoutique only. SLExchange has a bad reputation (or maybe this is different now?), and personally I find MetaAdverse to be a very offensive kind of business.

This is of course only my opinion, but there are lots of folks like me, who will on purpose *not* go to SLExchange, or *not* go to a store that uses MetaAdverse's "in your face" spam-like advertising. What kind of image you project is a big part of the people you attract I find.

Also, consider starting out slower and smaller. You mention about getting sales details out of the vendor and so on, but if that is not so important to you, products can just be put out as they are, and you can sell things "right off your back" or out of your house, you dont *need* space in a mall necessarily. On the other hand you can build your own store as well.

Just some food for thought.

Dianne is right, there are many opinions about the people who operate the various businesses, as well as differing opinions about what is 'appropriate' and what is not... with this said, some of the biggest names in the metaverse use Metadverse and I wouldn't write them off as they have some of the best exposure going. As for the spatting between SLExchange and SLBoutique, let's just say there are people who will only use one or the other and if you want to reach both, you need to use both and leave it at that.

what, you mean spamming in that it gives you further details of the thing you're currently looking at if you interact with the board?

Funny, so many things in SL seem to be scripted to respond to your interaction. Darned scripters and their stoopid ideas.

Yeah. I hate that. And I hate how if I click to open my email it shows me the contents, too

Personally I'll save my contempt for things that actually are spam.. which to my mind isnt something you actively requested by clicking... but for example notecards that are forced upon you by just entering an area.

Personally I think Metadverse is excellent. Its innovative, unobtrusive, efficient and user friendly. But then opinions are like assholes, as they say!

I like it too. One doesn't *have* to click on billboards. And the ads look neat, for the most part.

Also, I HATE HATE HATE vendors. I think they are a big hassle, unless they are used for something like animations, where it's smarter to have one. For clothes or almost anything else, I would just use the "sell object contents" way, where you put something in a box and people buy the contents of it. Some people like selling an object, which they fashion as a pretty box or bag, which is a cute touch, although personally I prefer just buying the stuff.

If you are renting in a mall, you might have to use a vendor to save on prim space. However, I don't think renting in a mall is a very smart idea (that is, if you want to actually *sell* things). I'd recommend buying your own small plot of land and going from there. At least you'll be able to stick yourself in "Find".

Who cares who buys your stuff? As long as they buy it. I like my customers, and I am simply grateful for the fact that they like what I make.

You can't run around choosing who buys your things or no one's going to buy them. What a silly piece of advice.

I'm so glad you asked these questions! I'm interested in the answers, too.

And this is one case where I think the thread has been incorrectly posted in Off-Topic - it should be in General.

BUT - I get pissed off real fast when I see people using the questions as an opportunity to suggest that "many of us" boycott certain businesses and that you should, too.

To hell with that!

I use both SLExchange and SLBoutique, and I find SLExchange totally wonderful in every way. Try them both!

coco

If you want help with advice, sure, I can help you with advice:
The most important thing to keep in mind about advice, is that it is given freely, so you cant expect it to be worth that much

Well you are entitled to your opinion, but then so are the folks (like me) that said the former thing too.

Personally, ....

I get pissed off real fast when I see people using the forum as an opportunity to suggest that "many of us" don't believe in boycotting bad business practices and that you shouldn't, either.

Well honor is free, is is worthless?

Enlightenment is free.

Love and compassion are given freely are they not worth that much?

Well I did say "spam-like" not spam, and IMO it is. What is spam except advertising you dont wan't that is "in your face"?
It depends on how the individuals do the settings on the ads themselves of course, but I find Metadverse to be *highly* intrusive, ugly, in your face and definitely "Spam-like" advertising.

- I dont like ugly billboards placed everywhere three is one sq metre of free land (including in wilderness areas for some stupid reason).

- I dont like builboards that when inadvertently touched spew notecards, whispers, landmarks and simultaneous IM's, all unasked for.

Since you brought up the "A" word, I would say that to me, .... advertising in that way is like putting up a giant sign saying "I'm an asshole, shop at my store!" Needless to say I dont shop at those stores.

I was merely suggesting to PetGirl that people view your buisness based on these kinds of choices that you make about advertising and partnerships. I tihnk that's true.

It's not silly. It's called marketing. It happens every day whether you believe in it or not.

Cienna is so right of course

But I would add that the people who will "use only one" of those services are generally the sellers, not the buyers. IMO the average consumer will look at both, but someone listing their product might only use one or the other.

So by listing your product on only one or the other you are not necessarily losing any customers.

The important thing about SL business is

If you have worked hard to put together somethign you enjoy , and think you did a good job. >>

Dont be detracted by nay sayers who claim people wont need your product.

I remember many times when I started mine , even though I was much cheaper than the competition and I think offered a bit more versitility -- Many people were basicaly negative on the whole idea.

Im happy to say that im happy with how ive done, and my customers feel they have gotten good value.


So Petgirl - good luck to you and I hope you do very well.

Sometimes one must sacrifice to keep their Honor, making it that much more valuable.

If you can find free Enlightenment, thats great. However, most find it by experienceing the results of its abence.

Free Love has been on the decline since the early 1970s, although "cheap and (SL?)easy" Love is on the rise.

Freedom's just another word for "nothing left to lose".

And as my brother the accountant likes to point out: "When people say *free* what the usually mean is *at no cost to the user*, because someone has to pay for it"

Tks all for the serious answers!



Please cont to give me clues how to survive in SL with a small business - pls!

You dont need to answer all of my questions.. any answer about any of my questions are fine that to!!!

PLS!

I use 1 prim vendos. They only take up one prim, but only scroll forward. I have to make sure I do not overload them so people do not get bored scrolling through again if they miss the item they wanted.
I also sell items that you can just click on and ‘buy’
I do not have a networked system – I think they are cool, but I have not yet invested in one.

SL Exchange has a wonderful feature that tracks statistics of what you are selling.
I myself am going to create a lil php sql database thingy to track my sales, one day…
My vendos email me when an item is sold. SL Account history tells me who paid L$ so matching up the 2, I can track things.


I do not Pay for advertising – other than the 30L to have my shoppes show up in Find. I do my own sort of promoting - I often drop gifts to people I see have bought a lot. I give them something that I feel would go with what they purchased or something they may not have seen that I think is in the trend of what they bought. One day while I was in someone was trying to buy everything in my shoppe it seemed like – I checked their profile and saw they were only days new. I ported right over to the shoppe they were in to thank them and ask if they realized there were lots of other places to shop Most of my items are priced to be ‘new resident’ friendly. He did realize there were other places, but liked my things. I made him a one of a kind Tshirt on the spot and gave it to him as I thanked him.
I do post in the forums whenever I make something new.


A second floor that is easy to get too is fine I think. There is a free ‘teleport object’ available out in SL, that you could use to port them upstairs.


I own 2 shoppes, and rent space in the Vampire Empire. I really have not noticed one location selling more than the other. Rents do vary in price. A rough idea is about 100L$ a week for 20 prims. If you rent and you find your sales do not come out to be more than the rent you are paying – stop renting there
Watch in SL Events for Flea markets, or other events offering free space to set up items to sell for a limited time.
I have never been in a major mall – the rent is too high for me.

Tks a LOT for the advices... very helpfull to get ”personal” ones..

But where are you guys that run huge business in SL.. cant you to share your experiences???? Pls do.. PLS! Dont be shy..

where to rent when you're new? everywhere! but have your main location set from the get go. i say this because if you look at it right, every mall location you have really is a billboard in and of itself. the beauty of this billboard to a new merchant is that the people who view it can actually buy it right here and now without having to teleport.

if you have a good product you will most likely sell at least 1 at every location. with furniture one sale will pay the weeks rent. what you gained there is one person who will now advertise you without even knowing they're doing it. everyone that walks into their house will see it and if they like it, they'll ask where it came from. so they look under edit and say "gee petgirl made this, lets look at her profile." under your picks you'd have your main location listed, not your rentals. this would then slowly direct traffic to your headquarters.

when you name your vendors or sale objects at each rental - throw some sort of code at the end of the object title that is location specific. this way you can track where sales are coming from by code.

watching traffic. i firmly believe if a mall has only 500 in daily traffic but is not running any of the -ingo games, clubs or casinos thats good enough. if they are running events outside of shopping are they lag inducing? nobody wants to try to scroll through a vendor in lag. find the malls that are primarily mall only, or mall mixed with only one other type of event. the one stop all sims have never done me any good in renting. with few exceptions - south estates for one - i cannot praise south estates enough.

i don't personally think anyone needs to pay for advertising. the malls mixed with posting new items in forums is all the exposure you need. do use slexchange and slbotique.

on this same note, the single greatest advertisement you will ever receive word of mouth. don't forget who your customers are. its not all sales figures and product. the people who shop you, make you. and when they have a question for you, no matter how silly it might seem to you, no matter how busy you are at that moment, no matter how certain you are that they won't even make a purchase - you drop everything and you treat them exactly as you would want to be treated in the same situation. the relationships you cultivate with your customers (many of mine have even become good friends) are far more important in the long run than anything else. this is just as true in sl as it is in rl.

Tks for the advices - i print al out regular - More????

Musty be more that do business out in SL!!!

My My.. So many stores so much business so few that want to share....


Tks to you al that have answered and you that IMed me..

I do everything the opposite of the way they say one should run a business, so I think the most important thing is to be true to yourself and have fun with what you are doing. A few thoughts I have in my extremely limited capacity as a shopper (I did buy a chair once) are as follows:

If I were looking for furniture I wouldn't buy anything I couldn't sit on or otherwise try out.
You could put an example out, with same style, different colors in a vendor.
I personally think objects displayed for sale looks much better than vendors.
Slboutique.com is great. I only have experience with them.
For furniture you'd probably want it to be transfer/no copy.

Now to some stupid questions that i feel al knows about.. and I prob can find at another place.. *blush*


And how do I get that preffs - transfer no copy??

))

IF I put the object for sale in a box.. together with landmark, a note.. a gift.. I set the price to the box of course??? And nothing at the obejct(s)...

BUt in Slboutique.com - the price are only at the webpage and set to 0 (zero) at the box or???

My I feel....

When you right-click and go to edit the window has check-boxes at the bottom - mod/copy/transfer. You can experiment with them and have a friend try them out in their different combinations.

When I sell something on slboutique I don't think it matters if there's a price on it or not. I had to go inworld and look - mine were all kinds of old-new-or-no prices.