Night Club Ownership Headache or Hobby?

What are your thoughts?


Let me add
that this is not a new place, it is an exsisting club, with so so traffic. It is fully operable and staffed. What woudl you say to someone who said, "do you want to own this club?" and there would be no initial cost to you nor a tier payment?


I realize that clubs are catty, I work in a few and go to many.

But would be nice to have a place like cheers, where everone knows your name.

Both. Headache and hobby. It can be really fun, but can also be a major pain in the ass.

You need to be committed to it. Starting a new club is a royal PITA. It takes money - for land, for a stream, for salaries, for contests (if you have any), for advertising. It's also a huge time suck, especially if you are a sole owner. Promoting it, developing regulars, finding ways to be different are all huge stresses if you want it to be successful.

But it can be gratifying if you do it for something other than the money.

Theres also a couple of pitfalls you have to avoid that the typical club owner never sees coming


1) Drama - people who are regulars and the employees often date each other, its incestuous like a Soap opera. All this dating, he said/she said stuff tears a lot of clubs apart.

2) Unfair Competition - Hey I want my own place! Potentially even worse than the drama, Your regulars or emplyees decide they love the liveliness of your club. SO much so they want your clientelle, and your employees to come to THEIR new club they just started.

Number 2 oftern leads to number 1 , number 1 often leads to number 2.

So while you can make a lot of friends owning a club, you can also lose friends quickly.

I think everyone that knows me knows I DETEST my club. I hate it alot..it's a huge headache and would take me away from doing what I love: creating.

My club though, is linked to my store. They are of the same name, club created after the store because my customers then really wanted to see Rave Nation have a club. Back then, I had nothing but spare time, and yeah running a club was awesome. I got to meet and network with people...and ended up building many lasting SL relationships out of it.
Now though..I'm extremely busy. I didn't expect for my store to really ever make anything at all, but once it did, I wasn't expecting for the workload. I have tried MANY times to shut the doors on my club, but my customers pitch a fit. At that point, I started hiring people and now have a wonderful manager to run the place.
I can't speak for him exactly, but I know the club is a huge headache for him. He's been trying to go on vacation for weeks, but between hiring hosts that don't show up and DJs that think they can come and go as the please, he hasn't had a moment to breathe.
My club has been around quite a while now. It's not a new club by anymeans..and even though it's not one of those monster clubs that has 50,000 events everyday, it's a HUGE amount of work. If you're getting into the club side of business here in SL (as in running one), just be sure you know it's going to be work. Also, if you plan to try for other business ventures in SL (like making clothes and selling them), eventually you might end up in the same boat as me, so be prepared to make a choice between working your ass off in the club and not having much time for creating, or to hire some peoples

Many times since I opened, number 2 pops up. As I watch those club thrive for a whole 3 weeks and collapse back on themselves, I always get the last laugh in. Once, I didn't just have a club pop up like mine, it was the same name as my store and club. I asked and begged the guy to change it, but he wouldn't. Luckily his club didn't last even a month. So if you have these problems like this, sometimes it's best just to sit back and watch. You'll probably be the one laughing in the end.

It hurts most when its a freind.

They decide they want their own club. And want you to support them getting it up and running. Ask you to post on your Group list, etc.

Now your being directly asked to help make your own venue less popular.

---------------

Ive also had employees start their own club in direct competition, and go right on still working for me. LOL.

Yeah, when my customers or employees start talking like that, I go into ultra AFK mode.

I once did have an employee do this to me...employees are even different than just a customer...this person was someone I totally trusted. Totally screwed me over in the end, but oh well. It happens around here...it's so easy to screw someone over and get away with it and I think many people tend to forget while they are out screwing friends over, that they may be hurting a real person's feelings on the other end.
Honestly, if I had to do it over again, I never would have started my club. As I kinda said in my long post earlier, it's really a headache from the begining, even if you don't notice it yet. As soon as I opened my doors, it pissed off another club on the other side of the sim I was in...and we were bashed and griefed at by that (fairly well known) club until the day I finally got my island.

And o-m-gee...didn't you guyses know clubs are t3h laggy?

Yes, I agree - #2 does happen, and is a headache at times - but as you say, it's normally only a short term problem

It does make you wonder why though, If the #2's are keen enough to spend most evenings in a club and say what a great place it is, then why bother opening their own and try to pinch visitors and staff?

When we opened, we started from scratch. We were notregulars at any other club, nor did we try to copy others ideas or steal staff & visitors. We wanted the place to have a "unique" feel to it, and used proper advertising channels. It seems to have worked... We have good traffic levels without resorting to camping, and have many regulars that come on our very first opening night

As for running it? It can be a headache at times, but it's also great fun

Gomez

LOL this is so true. One club I go to a few times a week is very much like this. I can look around the room and about half if not more of the customers on a typical weeknight are involved, to some degree, with one of the dancers. It's a very strange situation, and undoubtedly it must get hard to manage after a point.

God, yes! If you are a club owner, be prepared to spend a lot of time giving advice to the love lorn. "He said........." "She was..........." "I caught him with a goat and a Drow" That is when you send a notice to the employee's group saying you are taking the day off and the next person that IMs you will be fired.

headache and hobby! lol We had a club called Pure Passion, way back when... had it for about a year or so... It was a BDSM club with live DJ's , dancers, dungeon (=P) etc... it was fairly expensive to run, and a full time job to keep people entertained and staffed...
I don't have any regrets though, I met alot of nice people and had a blast... but be prepared... to have a nice, popular club... it's alot of work!

Add to the list finding honest and trustworthy people to work for you. Sheesh.

Sensual it's me! Kascha! Remember? The idiot who bought your stuff at that store and didn't get it until later when it all dropped onto my roof at home? Well I've been clicking on your banner where it says click here in your post for the last 30 minutes and I never make it to your blog! I don't think it works!

Hehe I'm not that dumb. I just saw you on here and wanted to say hi!

Contact Sarah Nerd inworld and ask her about owning a club. She had the most popular one in SL at one point.

lol hey hun, it use to work but LL has turned off the coding on the forums...
here's the url http://sensualdesigns.wordpress.com/

Agreed.


Very well put, and totally agreed. This is in addition to all the headache of staffing, handling the occasional griefers, realizing that money is pouring out and not coming in.... etc. Building it is the easy part. Running it.... (looks for appropriate gesture) ... Hooo!! Burnout is very common.

BUT yeah, it can still be really really fun.

You want a answer? Look at what happen to Studio 54.... Once a top notch club of SL now is nothing but dust in the wind...

Regardless of it being a hobby or a headache, most clubs are poorly managed. Hence, so many failed clubs and clubs with no traffic.

Hey I know you.

Major pain in the ass and migrane headache on top of that. Used to own one and spent 18+ hours a day working on it. Good help is horribly hard to find. Doesn't matter how good they are or how much you pay them, they get burned out too working 24/7. The only person you can trust to do the work right is *you*.

Big money drainer. Costs a fortune to maintain. If you just want to put it up with music or videos streaming, maybe a playground, and let people come in and play as they please, not worry about making money, I wouldnt touch it again. So if you don't want to have 2 or 3 costly events every day, spend a fortune on employees with major personality problems, not worried about traffic, go for it then if you just want to play for fun. Ohh almost forgot, it is more fun than you can think of when the place is blown to bits by LL and you have to put it back together again.

I did make a lot of wonderful friends though.

This of course is my opinion only.

my wife owns a club, she just loves it but, it does drain money, employees are also a problem. She has had it for 5 months now and just a few days ago had it remodeled by a great builder after the 3 time of rebuilding it. I do think that she is pleased now! She has many great regulars, that just adore her and her place

Naughty schoolgirl, huh?

You dont need size to get personal satisfaction in running a club. The 'everybody knows your name concept' works best in a social venue. If its not about the social, its just a bunch of couples running dance animations while IMing each other. Ive run a few clubs in my time, re-opening my lounge in a new locale in a week or so, and Ive always enjoyed hanging out and socialising with guests. Have I made any money at it? Pfffft, hell no. I subsidize the damn thing, I do it for the fun of it. Headaches? Thats what the eject button is for, or maybe a pulse cannon.

Good Points...You meet a ton of people and can have wonderful times.
Bad Points... A LOT of drama!! Since its a small area with a lot of people someone is always in a dispute with someone else, and they both expect you to take there sides and ban the other. It's hard to mediate and someone is always pissed.