Bizzy Q's!

Heyas ^_^

SO I have a small business building for people.. which I'll be expanding into prefabs, furniture, house kits and such when my RL isn't being so damn constant (Seriously... isn't there a way to set 'away'?)

Anyway, I finished a build last night, got paid, I'm happy and all that... but for the.. I believe third time now I let them choose the price (Which likely makes me lose money except in one case). I've been satisfied with my pay, not insulted at all.. probably helps that I love what I do, but I could be wrong.

SO I was wondering a few things:

1. How can I base my pricing to have a semi-flat rate and still be fair? How can I find out what the norm is in my market essentially.

2. For prefabs, I see some super nice builds that are 100% custom, textures included, selling for a lot of L$. Since I'm not making my own textures (I'm no good at it lol) should I charge less even if it looks as good in the end?

3. What kind of shop do people like? I mean style... I can have it be anything lol, but I want it to be something people like. Above it will be a multi-build temp rezzer to see some of the builds before buying, but other than that... just about anything is good for me.

4. Is it considered bad form to have a shop directly over your home? I mean a couple hundred metres, but still directly above. I don't want people snooping so would enclose the shop, but is it considered distasteful?

Thats all for now.. probably think of more though

Thankies ^_^
-Oki

I have never seen shop or stall that looks like a mushroom. That might be interesting,
But that might not be your style
Personally I think there are enough of those boring box shaped buildings that incredibly tall that are shops,etc.
I think you should do something that has never been done before.

ooh that could be fun ^_^

Maybe multiple mushrooms though.. more space =P

I don't want a boring box either lol... I'll do something unique! Something only I will have done!! YES!! I CAN SEE IT NOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I will build a house and in this house willl be a chair.. but this chair will not be a chair, it will be the house. And the house housing this house-chair will be the true chair. ANd the house-chair inside this chair-house will be my SHOP!!!

Since you want in sky is there a way to make whatever you build floating on cloud?
I was wondering about this for my own lab. I never seen that.
As far as charging and business. I often do textures for upload fees and only take whatever the person is willing to pay for my work when I do work.
The whole business thing has been intimidating to me and I got a whole lot more to learn about prims, 3d shapes and drawing proper alligned texture maps.
Is your shop bdsm related? or other?
I also haven't seen any buildings "boot" or latex corsette shaped either.

Look for pre-fabs! Many pre-fab builders or similar (for example avatar builders) give a rough idea of their pricing by prim, or by time or size and so-on. It's a very difficult thing to price, as if you charge by prim you might overcharge because you forgot about a particular optimisation or something. If you charge by time then it's difficult to measure.
Best is to take some of the things you've build already, and use them as examples, doesn't have to be specific but if you built a mansion house with complex lobby then you can use that as an example. At the very least it lets your customers try and work out how complex their build will be and decide how much they might be willing to pay for that.
When someone comes to with a request try to quantify the amount of work it will be for, not necessarily in time but complexity as well. It's very much dependent on you though.


Again it depends on you, but if using a suite of library textures saves you time then I would probably reduce the price a bit. Plus using more widely available textures reduces load by a small amount if people are flitting between similar places.


This one's difficult, but if someone is shopping for a pre-fab then chances are they'll be expecting a reasonably fancy looking store. It depends how much space you have to work with, for example if you have a large area then you can create an open-space with different buildings showing off different styles. If you're stuck for space then keep it plain and informative, too much stuff in too small a space can be a bad thing.


I wouldn't think it matters to customers, especially if you don't give them easy access. I personally would avoid it, I had to move my business onto my land due to rental problems and am looking to get land elsewhere to put it. It's up to you though, but bear in mind the added lag of using the same plot of land for two things at once. I just find it helps me personally to separate business and home.


Sorry that my answers are fairly vague and not definite in any way, but that's how it is I think =)

search for pillow talk

They even have a kit to do it there (The on-a-cloud thing.. not that hard really

And thank you ^_^

Very helpful even if you think a bit vague =P

THank you ^_^

ANd space is no problem, I own 10km of land in my sim, all joined I found out while linking them together last night lol.. just odd shaped. I may use megas to make a 'reproduction' of my plot in the air.. the shape and whatnot.

When I was new one of the problem I have with houses and prefabs I like changing my textures.
Too bad there isn't away to do this without losing the original custom texture especially when they house texture doesn't come with.
I always wished there was way to change textures without losing the original.

I can do this.

Can set up the house with a few texture options and a changing script, as well as the ability to add in your own style.. would take me a little while as I'm a crap scripter but I could do it ^_^ maybe I'll try lol

WOuld just be a simple matter of adding in your textures, then altering a notecard probably...just need to follow some rules like what you name the textures, and what youa dd to the notecard...

I think i can do it! YES! I'll try with a cube when I get home lol

Oki, I liked the "showroom" (three sky platforms, actually) for Ace's Spaces. It's very clearly laid out. Another nice display was a "tabletop" size display that would display a model of a home that you could then cam thru. That one was in Villas Agora, if I recall.

For prefabs, buyers need to know
- what's the footprint?
- what's the prim count?
- what size plot is required?
- Is it intended for flat land, over water, or hillside?
- Are there any options? (add on porch, stairs/no stairs, extra wing, etc.)
- what are the permissions? (I prefer mod/copy for buildings)
- what's the price?

ALL of that should be on the vendor ad, or in a short info notecard. I know, because I just spent several days shopping for and buying prefabs, and these were the questions I always wanted a fast answer for.

I can't advise you on how to price your services. SL, even more than RL, seems a hard place to get an "honest wage for an honest hour".

Ooh the tabletop I like.. and uses less prims in some situations too..thanks for that ^_^

And thanks a ton for the ad info ^_^ I'll be sure to have it all, and 3 pics on each poster as well. I want the prefab to be totally seen ^_^

And I'll definitely check that place out when I get hoMe ^_^

I am really into tiny model houses but they are bit hard to walk around in if you're showing houses for display purposes.
But they fit on table tops or whatever well and and it helps show the house without that claustrophobic feel if you got lot of buildings displayed.

*ouch*

~Mark sneaks up behind you and quietly takes your caffeinated beverage away~

Beautiful ye- HEY! where's my soda >.>

I needs it... i..i...i...housechair..chairhouse..chaoueoau......


*falls off her chair*