Nice looking SIMs to start up a business..?

So I have a few products and want to open up a small store and try things out. I've been looking around, realizing the various things like placement, traffic, price etc.

Part of me also wants to throw the whole make the maximum $L out the window and flat out rent in a *nice* SIM... by that I mean one that is well put together with a nice theme.. its hard to describe, but something not so "mainland" looking with flying bees, spinning ads, horrible textures etc.

I have run into such places before, but they seem to rent only to larger in world stores. Its almost a common theme - I find a nice rental area, but its all the same shops and there is a waiting list where you have to prove yourself to get the priv to rent there. I won't name names of course, but the half dozen SIMs I really would love to rent in all seem to have the same places renting spaces. I like the SIMs that are set up with streets and outdoor shops, not the indoor malls with every inch rented out in a real laggy junky look and feel.

I know thats probably part of what makes these SIMs look so nice. They don't have the average start-up creating possibly messy shops with less than perfect logos etc.

Still.. there has to be somce nice places for the "little person" to rent. I'm at a loss actually.

I went to the 'Fashion Victim' mall yesterday, and there seemed to be some empty stores. It's an outdoor mall of small stores though I'm not sure what you're selling so I don't know if it would interest you. I know I liked a lot of the stores there...

Depending on how many items you have, some places also rent little kiosks or carts. I can't imagine they'd be terribly expensive, so that might be a way to sort of test the waters before you commit to anything.

LVS is a good example of what I'm talking about...I think it's the Cassiopeia sim?

Viki,

Shameless plug: We have some little open-air market stalls in our community. At present, two of them are vacant.

I can offer you a good deal on rent, if you pay for a month in advance.

Depending on what you are selling, you might want to investigate an appropriately themed region. I've seen quite a few that are "mixed use"--residential, roleplaying (or whatever), and commercial. For example, the majority of the few items I sell are Wales related, so I have a very small shop on a Welsh-themed sim that has a nice pub as an anchor. Also on the islands are rental properties, and a handful of Wales-related attractions. Not a big market, granted, but it is home.

Or, in a more profitable vein, if you make, say grunge/punk clothing, there are plenty of places with varying sized shops available (from carts and up) that have themes that might fit well (most common would be Neko, cyberpunk, wasteland, things like that). You might get more foot traffic from people looking at similar items, also.

Another thing you might try (depending on what you are selling) would be getting carts or small stalls at a handful of locations to see where you do well. And then, you will be known to the people that run those sims, and might find it easier to get a bigger shop when one becomes available. This has the advantage of not only being able to test the market, but also to get a feel for the people that run it. It would save you the trouble of renting a larger shop only to find that the people that run it are not good people (and there are limitless ways in which that might happen!)

my suggestion would to skip anything mallish right now. Look for a nice 512 in a sim you like.

Yes, odds are you will have to make a L$ 4-6000 investment up front but the monthly tier/rent will be about the same as a small stall in a mall, but you will have 117 prims to play with and not 25-50 prims.

Now after you have your mains store up and running, go ahead and look for some mall space... but think of the space as more as an advertisement for your main store, and any sales you get from it are a bonus. (I almost always teleport to the main store instead of buying something from a mall stall)

I got the land for my store on Jan 11th, and by the end of the month the sales from it paid for the initial investment in the land.(and by mid Feb the sales covered the cost of buying more land for a larger store)

When running a small store, try to keep 3 or 4 places up and running. When one starts to lag behind in sales, let it close and go search for another place.

It also does not hurt to try and negtiate a lower price or more prims. If you just walk up and click the rental box, you are paying the highest price for the fewest prims the owner would like to get. The worst that will hapen is they say no.

Creating is only a small of the whole business process. Packaging, photography and vendor maintanance is another big piece. Scouting for new locations is another. Still, it can be very rewarding to get random tells from people who like your stuff.

Send me an IM inworld. I have a brand new place nice theme looking for shop owners.

"CX"

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