A few thoughts on SL business

The servers are down. I'm caught up on my chores in Corel. I have a fresh pot of hot coffee. Time to toss out a few ideas that I've been mulling over in the wee hours.

Second Life is Real Life

Yes we are operating through a digital U/I instead of a biochemical U/I, however, the brains driving the flesh and the avatar are the same. I'm not sure why people are surprised that SL has most of the same virtues and vices as RL. The interface changes some interactions in positive and negative ways, but human nature still rules. You still have great people and assholes.

That said. SL businesses are affected by most of the same types of market pressures that exist in RL. Do you have a good product? Do people want it? Do you have enough funds to see you through the start-up phase? Do you have a marketing plan? How about customer service? How about a clear brand identity? If you don't have time/talent to do everything yourself, do you have partners/employees that do? And can you afford to ride out currency fluctuations, lower growth periods, etc. Most of all, do you enjoy doing what you're doing... is it rewarding? I forget the exact numbers, but in excess of 70% of all RL business fail in the first 3 years. Hmmmm.... I wonder what that translates to in SL time... first 3 months? I think a lot of people came to SL thinking they could make an easy buck. For a few people that was true... but like the logging barons.. .once they ran out of land to clearcut, the boom was over. It was like the stock market... know when to jump in... know when to bail out.

IMO SL growth and success will go hand-in-hand with creative, talanted, and hardworking people continuing to be rewarded for creating good content. If there is cool stuff to see, do, buy, and participate in.. then people will join and stay. Otherwise they will wander off to the next great game.

Surreal

and it's funny that you brought this up. I owned a club in SL for like 2 months. It started with one partner, grew to 4. To make a very long story short, I will NEVER own a club again. You hit the nail on the head.... Unless you have the ambition and time to do somethign the right way, it's not going to work. Not even to mention the Lindens. It's costly to have a club. In fact, I was accused yesterday quite harshly by someone who I thought was a friend of me taking advantage of a club owner. Very unfortunate, but at least the club owner understood that I TRIED to warn him ahead of time about the costs of owning a club. Anyway, you kinda gave me a forum in which to vent my frustrations about club owning. While I LOVE to host parties and get people going in a party atmosphere, it's just hard to find the right business partners in which to start your own club. Again, it is unfortunate, because I had some great times owning my club Extreme Fantasy. But, like any other RL business, if you don't have the right partners, you are doomed. Okay, that's the end of my bullshit for now. LOL Thanks for listening to me vent, whoever is listening anyway.

Very well said Surreal. A lot of people see dollar signs and assume its easy. Those who will be successful are those who truly enjoy what they're doing.

Regards,

-Flip

In a nutshell, I could not agree with you more Flip! Excellent post Surreal!

PS: it is still a dream of mine to offer Business 101 classes in SL for those starting out. I seriously need to get off my duff and just do it!

Tier to zero extra land fees, build/script in the sandboxes, treat your dwell like precious gold coins that you only give to worthwhile things. Keep a few objects on sale just for the hell of it.

Works for me.

*designs a leash for Maxx*

Hey Maxx! Com'ere... *wink*

hehe.. *hugs* you cynical bastage you!

Just some advice. In the real world, when you make a business, you can't expect it to make money for you if the idea has worked for others. When you start a business, you have to anticipate that you'll be spending a lot of time on it, or else it wont be successfull. A great deal of dot com company owners, spend more than the 8 hour average of work time, for an American. And in response to flipper's post, the people who do become the richest and most successful ARE the people who love their job. If you can't love your job then you won't be successful, it's as simple as that.

P.S.
Pendari Lorentz, I've been planning a business class for SL for a few weeks, let's talk about some business ideas and team teach .

Just as a 3 AM aside...

In the real world, 80% of new businesses fail within a year.

LF