How to develop and expand a business in SL?

Does anyone have any advice on growing your SL business? I have a bit of a vested interest in this as I have to decide whether it is possible, or even desireable, to try and move my "hobby" business into one that can make a RL income - but I am sure there are many others who would like advice about this from more experienced residents.

I think what I am aiming for is something like peoples' "golden rules" or "10 Top Tips" - but all comments and discussion is welcome. So come on you entreprenurial types - how do you go about building your business, given all the ups and downs of SL?

What do you sell?

I have always been surprised that vendors don't offer free "personal services" with their goods. It is a truism that "sex sells" in rl and it's a helluva lot easier to package it with the product in sl . . .

Pep (Never paid for it, not even a BOGOF)

Avatar Animations. I should not want to restrict discussion to this though.

Oh law! I don't do porn - I can't sort out the arms and legs!

I suppose I could offer a free skate session with me as a partner - lol. This might put off some customers though.

Put me down for two . . .

Pep (Can't sort the arms and legs out for skating!)

I don't think you can plan to make a RL living off SL, it will all depend how popular your product is with the masses. I don't think a high number manage it, though there are those that do but they have very popular products.

You say you do animations, I bet Craig Altman of Bits and Bobs does very well as has great animations just about all of us own some of, but there are loads more out there that are not as well known and so wouldn't sell as much.

I wouldn't give up the day job for SL, the market is too unstable.

Most of us are very small fish in a huge pond. Either your products need to have that something special about them or you need to be selling them in hundreds of outlets!

I used to sell lots more than I do now. I do have a freebie bundle I give away. As an experiment I recenly bought 5 separate 16m lots and but the freebie bundle on each one - so far none have been grabbed! And they're free!!

I suggest you do some research on popular items--especially in the realm of animations as you mentioned. Check both in-world and SLX for animations ideas...see what they offer, buy a few to get an idea of quality and functionality.

Ask yourself what you can do better then your competition. Will you best the other products in quality, quantity, or affordability?

Start by making a few really good animations—don’t hold back on quality. Set a good price, one that is competitive to the market. Create a brand for your company. Rent a reasonable shop or vendor to display your brand and new products. Also, place these products on SLX. Make sure there is something about your brand or logo that pops out to the reader/viewer instantly. Be sure to use proper keywords for consumer searches.

Then wait…

Are any of the products selling? If so, why? If not, why not? What are your competitors doing differently than you?

If what you plan to sell is already saturating the market, you can be sure you’ll sell a few, but unless you have something the ‘others’ do not, you probably won’t want to quit your day job. One sure way to sell more, is to make more—a larger catalog will usually wield more sales.

Try out your product for a few months, and don’t skimp on quality. If you don’t sell enough to make you happy, either move on to another idea, or change your approach.

Good luck.

Wow. That's a good question. Lots of thoughts and I have to run off at the mo, but I may come back and try to put some thoughts to print.

If there was any golden rule off the top of my head - do stuff for the love of it, because otherwise it's just plain easier to work at something you hate and make ten times more, in the real world. No point doing something you hate in here!

Measuring in raw dollars one could say I make a 'real life living' off the grid... but it was an accident, I assure you! I have other income, so it's not like I'll starve if M Linden suddenly went crazy and gave us all $L 1 quadrillion.

No problem Pep - I can teach people to skate - IM me in world and we can arrange a skate date.

I'm not sure there are any hard and fast rules for growing an SL business. Mine has grown slowly to the point I now have eight times the amount of land I used to own; I started my business on the same 1024 square as my home, I now have 4096m for my home, and 4096m for my store (more actually due to the group bonus and premium allowance). My increase to the 8196m land tier has seen my revenue grow, but only enough that my business is currently profiting a small amount. Enough for a few beers a year maybe =)

I do however have only one major product line. I'm hoping to introduce another one soon that I expect to be around half as popular (less demand for it), but it can carry a higher price-tag. I'm estimating my increase in earnings conservatively at around a 40% increase, meaning my business should start to turn a better profit.
After that I have another product line already planned, which I hope will have roughly the same increase, giving me around double my current revenue. At this time I've yet to decide if I'll use that to invest in more land or not.

I have however had to make the difficult transition of running what started as a hobby into a business. I currently don't earn enough that I have to pay tax or anything so it's still technically a hobby, but the hope is that that will eventually change. Anyway, I'm now doing things like putting everything into a spreadsheet so I can tally up my total revenue versus my costs and so-on, and get real figures for my business so I can analyse it's growth with new product lines and other endeavours, giving me lots of useful information for the future.

This haphazard approach might not work for everyone though; I think it all comes down to what you feel comfortable doing. SL is good because it's possible to start small and work your way up, unfortunately the tier system means it typically has be in ever larger steps, but you can at least grow a hobby into a business. Other people however may set aside some money and invest into ventures, buying more land/rental space/advertising they can afford to maintain in the hopes the business they build on it will cover the costs and turn a profit. High risk can mean higher immediate profit, but it can also mean higher losses than the slow and steady approach.

I've gone for the grow slowly route, as I made my first major product line for fun; it was at the prompting of my friends who were excited about the item that I decided to try selling it. Since then it's done well enough, and acquired enough support through word-of-mouth that I'm hoping future products will built on that foundation into a good business.

You obviously need a bit of marketing advice on how to use 16m parcels the way they were intended.

You only need 1 prim for the gift box, so:

Use the 2nd one for a platform way up in the sky. Stuff about 30 bots on your parcels so that people can find your places in Search. Script the bots to stand on each other heads so they don't fall down, landing on your neighbours parcels and robbing you unfairly of their traffic dwell. And add your parcels to all their Picks for an extra bump in Search.

Rename your parcels and descriptions to free sex bdsm nawti bits and anything else that shows up on the first page of Search. The more common the keywords the better and they don't all have to be nawti. For example "low prim furniture" is a hot ticket at the moment so take advantage of that =)

The last prim should contain a temp-rezzer that spits out a 4x4x100 (taller even if you can manage it) full-bright spinning advertising sign with kool particles flaming upto 3000m just in case an avatar might be wandering around a couple of sims away desperately searching for your place in the wrong area. Newbies ya, always getting lost, they need all the help we can give them.

And don't forget to not set your land for sale. For some reason people really complain about that. But then they're not a super-duper marketeer like me, so what do they know. And they probably just jealous anyways.

Or ... seriously

One of the things I've noticed about freebie boxes sitting in odd places all by themselves, is that people are just leery of them. Only newcomers will touch them, and only until they get nailed by a box they shouldnt have touched.

What I have seen work is. A simple box with a text message above it that says something personal like:

Hi =))) Conifer Dada here\nCome to my place at\n[slurl]\nand I will give you\nsome really neat\n[products]\nfor free =)))

Feel free to im me in world...i help new businesses get started and also do marketing consulting and teach some classes...Id be happy to chat with you.

Rules, there are a few I follow.

- patience, it takes time, some say about 1-2 years to develop a solid inworld business and clientele, I tend to agree

- customer service, resonnd to all your IM's and questions, politely, give the customer the benefit of the doubt

- location, location, location. Try many, even grab 10 random malls and throw up small booths to test market. Traffic is so key to sales

- signage and packaging, keep it easy to understand and pick a design idea and don't change it every time you make a new box. Keep some sort of theme, fonts, image that sort.

- notecards, assume your customers know nothing, some don't. Always give instructions, even if nobody reads them, they so don't

Location doesn't really mean much. MAKE your own location by advertising. Buy the most expensive ad you can afford, and auto renew it each week. The higher in the listings you can get the better. Offer a good product and good customer service, and utilize SL Exchange as well. Mention new products here in the forums might help (I don't do it, but I see alot who do), and try to keep your product line fresh.


http://www.secondscripter.com

I agree with part of this above statement. I never found mall/club vendors to support much traffic or sales. All you need is one solid store/studio to sport your merchandise. Create a slick ad that points to this location, and you are golden. I've been in SL since early '05, and I've basically only rented a single studio...this single studio carries 90% of my sales. I've never owned land, and never felt the need to expand. As long as you have the prim count to showcase your work, and a slick ad to point people there...that should do the trick.

The part I disagree with (partially) is the amount you spend on classifieds. Something to keep in mind is the saturation of that particular market/product. If what you sell isn't already saturating the market, you can get away with much lower classified costs. If what you sell, however, is being sold by dozens of merchants already, then you should consider upping your classified costs. But even then, be honest with yourself about the quality and affordability of your product. If you feel that many other people have higher quality products, logos, brands, and classified listings...you may want to up your ante. However, if you honestly feel like your product, brand, and classifieds stand out, you can comfortably lower your classified postings.

People *will* scroll down the list if they are serious consumers. I often check out lower-priced classifieds. And many times, the lower-priced listings offer superior products. Just because you have money to throw at a classified, does not mean you know how to make quality products.

I remember talking to one girl who owns a whole sim for her store and seems to have an outlet in every mall say she also did over 90% of her sales through her main shop and really considered the Mall stores as just a form of Advertizing and a way to show up her newest items.

I agree 100%. Your Landmark giver is the number one most important thing in any mall space. What mall spot do you want to have?

Spot A: 0 LM given, 2 sales a day

Spot B: 25 LM given, 0 sales, but 10 of those people who got a LM bought something in your main store.

Personally I use malls as a 3d catalog. If i'm looking for say a latex catsuit (mmmmm latex) I go to one of the latex malls, and there I can see what is new all at one location. And maybe even see a new designer that I would not of found otherwise.

Back to the OP's question

I think the single best thing you can do is to start small, and only grow when you can afford it. (and afford means being able to cover a few months expenses if sales drop to nothing)

The next step is to get yourself some land to call your main store. This is where 90% of Your sales are going to come from.

Thirdly, set a series of goals like...

1. Business pays for itself
2. Business pays for itself and a bit of land to call home
3. Business pays for all SL related things
4. Business pays for SL, and gives you some extra money for Christmas gifts or maybe a new computer.
5. Rule the world!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Personally I'm between 4 and 5 right now

i'm stuck at #2. so i have campers that pay the rest of my way.

The key to it all is marketing. You could make the greatest thing out there but if no one knows about it, what good is it? Marketing is as equally challenging as it is to create quality items.

Im stuck at No.0 ... anyone want to buy some plywood cubes?

Do they squirt?

I agree with Johnnie, start small and grow, and have some goals.

I've tried a few different businesses in SL and for now have found a business that has put me at number 4. Yet, it didn't happen overnight. It took me over a year to actually start turning a profit and make up for the losses in the other business ventures. Which I have now done.

My main store accounts for 90% of my sales. And I too consider mall space to be advertising. Click through advertising. I try different places, and monitor how many people TP to my main store and if they eventually make a purchase. If a particular mall doesn't provide any TPs and eventual sales, I consider that mall to be not worth the money and move out.

No, I'm not huge, and never will be, but I am way in the black and pulling money out, and have a reserve for tier and premium fees for 1 year in case of zero sales. So, at this point SL is now paying me. However, I have not accounted for my time in that equation. But I do not regret the time I've spent and continue to spend, so it's all good.

Patience, plan, niche, customer service, cut your losses, don't be greedy, don't set your expectations higher than you're willing to commit the time and effort to... and have fun.

Well, works for me... so far.

I concur with the folks above who said "start small and grow slow" and words to that effect. Trying to conquer SL overnight and taking on, say, the expenses of your own sim to support it, is a risky move for a content creator IMHO. Animations particularly are a strange beast, marketing-wise, since the quality animation market isn't exactly saturated but the search terms associated with animations are HUGELY overused and abused - there are approximately 2398578935879 classified ads that use words like "poseballs" and the like, most of which have little or nothing to do with animations. So market yourself in the most innovative way you can come up with but remember that a lot will ultimately depend on word of mouth and a reputation of quality and good customer service. I dare say someone like Craig Altman isn't successful because of his classifieds, but rather because his products and service are top-notch and his reputation has grown to the point that if someone new to SL asks where to find good animations, there's a pretty good chance that anybody they ask who's knowledgeable in the field will happily send them off to Bits and Bobs first thing.

Of course there are exceptions. Sine Wave comes to mind, but they were in a unique position as a RL animation company to offer a slew of quality mo-cap dances right off the bat - certainly more than enough to justify purchasing their own sim to host them. And they keep cranking out more quality products at a tremendous rate. Something to aspire to, perhaps, but way more the exception than the rule I suspect.