What can LL do to help small business owners?

Be careful...sometimes I do think that is the idea she is aiming at.

So everyone can be a rock star?

No, because different times aren't even. Anshe was just a baby baron once - but she didn't have to complete with Anshe. Javier Puff was just a random guy making naughty bits, but he didn't have to compete with XCite. You can't lose track of that!



The whole assumption that effort leads to success is a platitude, not a fact. If you're really claiming that it's a fact - how many hours of effort guarantees success? What, you say there are no guarantees? Well, then there must be some external factor that stops people - otherwise there would be a guarantee.

Furthermore, again, you're seeing things too simply. For example. A large business owner who makes their income from SL can by definition make more effort than a small business owner who has to have a day job. That's not laziness, nor even choice, by the small business owner. But without the large business, the barrier of effort would never have been raised to that impossible point.



Well, I don't too much like being used as an example, but I'll answer this because it shows the danger of oversiimplification.

You're right that I chose not to continue competing in the gadget business. That is because it became apparant that any user-side gadget would be inevitably subsumed into Mystitool or one of the other multigadgets. I could technically have tried to compete with them, but that would mean spending a lot of time reinventing the wheel by scripting all the legacy function that the multigadgets have, including the weapons, which are something I hate making. (There's one line against your point: it was nothing to do with the amount of effort required, but the nature of that effort. I would happily have spend the same amount of effort playing with new things and trying to innovate.) It would also mean competing with the Mystitool word-of-mouth machine. Furthermore, it was apparant that multigadgets are a natural monopoly (ie, it's actually _good_ for consumers for there to be only one).

The second reason is because I didn't particularly want to be a gadget-maker - it was only a sideline to try to raise some L$ while I was starting - and it became apparent that I would have to be one full time in order to compete, while the things I actually wanted to do or communities I wanted to join either rejected me or weren't what I hoped they would be. That's nothing to do with business competition, it's to do with the nature of the rest of the SL experience, and why I talk about SL needing more potential endeavours.

Large businesses are taking the carrot away, just the same.



It's not about "fairness", it's about "progress". Progress is critical to human happiness and satisfaction.

Yumi. You chose a couple of examples - one good and one bad. Anshe is your bad example. Land barony can be cracked successfully by anyone who has the will to do it. On the other hand, I had Xcite in mind when I used the word "almost" in,"There is nothing to prevent people competing in almost any field, and succeeding in making a large, successful business - even in female clothing." Different times make no difference. It can be done by anyone who has the will to do it and who has the wherewithal upstairs to do it. It was done is the past by those with the will and the head and, for the main part, nothing has changed.

I didn't say that "effort leads to success", or anything like it. I did imply that lack of effort leads to lack of success though and that's generally true.

I haven't seen any good reasons given in this thread why LL should penalise the larger businesses to help the small ones. I thought that the reason you gave was a non-starter.

The part you wrote about your own dealings with gadgets is fine, but it still comes down to the same thing - for whatever reason, you chose *not* to compete. I can't conceive of any reason why LL should level the playing for you, and make it possible for you to sell on equal terms with those who put the time and effort in, and I can think of a number of reasons why they shouldn't.

The examples related to your claim that "big businesses, when they were small, got small rewards in the same way that small businesses do now".



Utter nonsense given any consideration of economics. Your income must always consider the economy as a factor, otherwise you are saying that having a particular mental state makes money appear.

And "lack of effort results in failure".. well, ok, maybe that's true.. but that could still mean that a person who made lots of effort could fail. That's what LL should address.



The reason is because it is not clear that the experience offered in a world with large businesses (ie, a large amount of content to buy) is actually better than the experience offered in a world without them (ie, a world that you can more easily participate in building). A lot of virtual words hit a wall when the creative impulse was gone, and SL's competitors have especially. (Metaplace apparantly hit a wall of solid titanium.)



I chose not to compete because of the effects of circumstances that were beyond my control. If somebody with a gun says they'll shoot you unless you leave, and you do leave, that was technically your choice, but the guy with the gun is still the one who should be blamed.



Because whether I put the time and effort in or not is a factor of the world they create. If that time and effort was enjoyable, I would put it in without even noticing. As I mentioned, I had no objection to the _quantity_ of time and effort, only to the nature that I was being asked to do. Honestly, prim and texture alignment and particle design are pretty much the "grinding" of SL, and that's entirely LL's choice not to fix them.

If you don't mind that 90% of wannabe's on SL don't get to be rock stars, then that's fine. But don't complain when they leave SL for Rockstar Online, and don't sell them prim guitars without warning them about the failure rate first.

Yumi. Big businesses, when they were small, got small rewards. It's not what I actually said, but it'll do.

I can see that you're going to continue in your normal way with this discussion (i.e. ad infinitum) so I'll bow out now. We are both perfectly free to think what we will. I see no good reason for LL to intervene on behalf of small businesses, and I see a number of reason why they should not. I also see that large, successful businesses can be achieved by anyone who has the will and the wherewithal up top.

And it's not true. The person who made the first X was a pioneer. The person who made the second X wasn't. I'm sure that's completely obvious.



Fine. Let us start an OpenSim grid with all those people and nobody else, and let us see them all make a profit.

Of course it's obvious, but what difference does it make? The second one stood just as much chance of being the one who succeeded the best as the first one did. In fact, there was nothing to prevent them both from succeeding very well indeed.

I'm off to bed

That depends how competitive the first person was, and how much they leveraged pioneer status.

That's OK.....we would still have our wit and charming personalities to get by on.

I'm not sure how asking for help, is "bitching and moaning?" Ever hear of mentorship?

So basically, the 20 percent is all that LL should care about and the other 80 percent (wherever those figures come from?) should suck it?

How is that attitude helpful, rather than simply posting an inflammatory statement.

So then should that 80 percent, if that number's accurate, simply exit SL and let the 20 percent sell to each other? Lol.

No one's asking for anyone to do things FOR them, but why leave obstacles in the way, to trip over, when everyone's experience can be improved? That attitude makes no sense to me either.

Nor does small business hurt large business. I don't agree with that "Let me through the door, everyone else can bite it" attitude.

Those who have posted actual helpful suggestions for improving the SL experience for those who are trying to run a business, thank you sincerely.

____

P.S. Those who are so sure the 'big names' don't "bitch and moan publicly" haven't read Post Secret and have never heard of alts.

There are no effective means to share information through Second Life, and that's a crippler for any free market competitive economy.

There needs to be flow of information so new products can be noticed. And there needs to be flow of information so consumers can find out about good products and bad.

There are no effective means of advertising in Second Life. The one on which most reliance is made is Search, because it is the one tool that everyone has by virtue of sharing the same viewer. Search does not produce meaningful results, and is dominated by Traffic. Traffic rarely has anything to do with the relevance of the Search, says nothing about the product, and cuts heavily against new merchants.

The lack of information flow not only hurts newcomers, but also hurts established merchants with good products. Established merchants should be able to trade on their reputations, but it is very hard to forge a reputation.

There are no real forms of mass-communication. Since people are only in SL very part-time, there aren't lots of opportunties for word-of-mouth communication about products. Third-party attempts at providing some mass-communication are limited in effectiveness because they occur out-of-world (such as blogs, or what used to be SL Exchange).

One thing LL can do is kill Traffic as a Search function, or at least make it an option the searcher can uncheck, and improve results in Search. But LL shouldn't be the sole control of information flow. There needs to be a way for third parties to establish some sort of credible ways of sharing information on a large scale, but I don't know what they would be. (Linden Lab's buying then poisoning one of the few successful third-party sources - SL Exchange- doesn't help.)

Part of the problem is that SL is clunky. Another part of the problem though are expectations that are too high. There is an expectation that anyone should be able to start a successful business without any initial investment. I like that as an ideal; but it doesn't work in the real world, and I don't see any reason why it would work in SL. But I don't think there are any good incentives for anyone to invest a lot of money in SL- it's too flaky, fickle, Linden Lab can't be trusted with the investment, and it's hard to visualize the end payoff if it is so hard to trade on a good reputation.

It's an academic discussion anyway, because Linden Lab doesn't care about small, new businesses. It cares about the few successful ones everyone knows about, so it can tout them in it's promises that you can make "real money" in SL. But mainly they care about the established real life businesses, and unversities, coming in.

Edit: There are example of people coming in lately like the past year or so and making it big. How many of those success stories did not include a heavy, heavy does of gaming Traffic?

Let me put it this way.

If SL wants to succeed long term, it has to address the needs of all its users, not only those with existing large customer bases.

And not for nothing, the issues that plague small businesses also do not help large business or any businesses at all.

How about the other side of my question - is it possible for someone to still, today, (not three years ago) make a successful business in SL?

The land market is pretty dead - empty malls and rentals and land everywhere. Again, the products out there - has it all been done?

Of course there will be geniuses who come along and can make a rocket out of a boxful of hatpins. But, most people are not geniuses. I'm not talking about "FAIR" Mickey, I'm talking about SL succeeding by allowing its users to succeed/at least pay for their SL expenses. Or at the least, maybe more to the point here, stepping out of the way. No one needs a lecture on life here - honest.

Five years from now, people will be having the same discussion, and new names will be inserted as the ones who had No Competition back in the old days of 2009. People who are on the verge of going full time into SL business mode, as we speak.....will be the new names that people are giving as examples of people who had all the breaks in the early days. That cycle will repeat over and over.



The large businesses ARE the carrot. Their examples are the ones that most people follow as a goal or guideline for success.



I've had many business owners tell me that they started small in their spare time while working a day job, then made it to the level in SL, so that they could quit the day job.

I run 2 other businesses during the day, and recently added a care taking responsibility to the plate....and can still run the SL business. It's not impossible at all. It depends on your attitude and what your goals are.

I'll have this argument with you, as long as it takes, Yumi....because I do not want anyone who has worked hard in SL to get to the point that they are about to cross the threshold of making a profit....which will lead them toward making an actual income....to give up, based on reading your arguments, or anyone else's.... about the improbability of it all. SL offers a venue that allows for major convenience to someone who needs an additional income to add to other jobs....you can run it at any hour....any day you choose. It also offers a convenience for people who are not able to take on traditional jobs for one reason or another. It's the perfect solution for a number of people. And it's much more enjoyable than most jobs.

You are way off base about what is possible here, and what is possible for someone who can get in on the early stages. This is an early stage.

LL can help 75-80 estate owners by giving them sweet deals all they like, smaller estates will go under with this sort of crap. That's not good, never will be good and is not good for any other business owners who sell their wares to those smaller estate owners.

The purpose of this thread was never to run down large businesses or those who operate them.

I thought I was verging on too detailed in the OP - but it seems I haven't communicated effectively.

Those who are providing specific or positive/helpful suggestions, relating to the original questions, thank you.

I was not directing that comment toward you personally, Melita. I had just come from the new forum, and had read one too many bitching and moaning posts.....even in the "Success Stories" thread.

If you think that some of us did not add some helpful insight....you might want to read again.

At this point, the most valuable information that I can offer a business owner is to stay out of forums - get back into your workshop, and learn and design - and find a business person that has a positive attitude to share with you what IS possible - not what is not possible.

I never felt it was aimed at me personally.

I haven't read that thread.

I never said some/all of you did not offer helpful insight. But does the arguing need to go on?

Why does asking for tips here, vs. spending time in content creation, conflict? Isn't part of management delegating and isn't part of running a business avoiding unnecessary quicksand? What is to be gained by being a 'cowboy' instead of asking others for input?

People here have a unique perspective plus experience and intelligence. It's the nitpicking and arguing that can weigh things down and get in the way of constructive progress.

That's not what I meant, and I explained that in another post. The 80/20 rule is a general rule of thumb often used to explain things, and does not come from any data here.

I know; I was being a bit facetious there. But the basic sentiment is what I meant.

(I don't see success as us vs. them or either/or. So I was addressing that part of it.)

If LL think I'm going to subsidise Dreamland's expansion at the expense of my business they need to think again.

I must've missed something - what is this about Dreamland?

Just to clarify I never was asking for LL to subsidize anyone, although some sort of boost might not be a bad idea, for new businesses. I don't know. That is a separate issue.

Was mainly asking, what exists now that is a detriment or could be improved, for those who are trying to make a go of it?

And then the 2nd question was, what could give things a boost, and/or has the market flattened a bit, with existing resources?

Talent is the wild card; that is not a resource LL can provide or inhibit though, really. There will always be a daVinci and an Einstein that can work around anything. But that's not impacting things either way for most people, so it isn't part of the equation in my OP. (Those people will be okay in most situations barring major personal impediments, or natural disasters & such. )

Also this isn't real life, it's a business model, and so, not all of real life situations apply here.

OK...skipping your comments about how a little guy on the Internet can no longer make it, will try to be more specific in answering this question:



You don't have to rely on LL changing up the whole plan, or resolving a number of issues overnight. You can get the edge on your own, and you should always have the skills and tools in your head to do this, because there will always be a change-up in the climate.

I've dropped off those tools in a number of threads. They require hard work on your own end, not LL's....so they are seldom read or acknowledged. Seems like a waste anymore to drop them off, because the climate in these forums is to blame LL for a lack of personal success.