What can LL do to help small business owners?

I don't recall saying that no one can make it, just that the window is wider in the beginning. Being the first of anything is a huge advantage.

Don't extrapolate the opposite from what I say, please. I try to be specific. Seems if anyone points out something that can be improved you interpret it as 'moaning.' Without a degree of that type of 'moaning' we'd still all live in caves.



Mickey, again with the lectures - what could you possibly have against a thread that asks how a situation can be improved?



This isn't about you. (Or me.)

Every day is "the beginning."




As I said, I had just come from the other forum, and if you read through the list of topics there, you will clearly see bitching and moaning. Next time I use that phrase, I will add this disclaimer.



Not a lecture...just discussion....and an argument with Yumi....but we do that often....nothing to get in a twist about.



I'm sorry - I must not have understood this phrase:

I was referring to the part I quoted. Here it is again:



What I was saying is that you're not the only person I was asking for tips. It was open to anyone who had ideas on what can be changed for the better. A very constructive question, I think. Not 'bitching and moaning.'

No one reads every single thread, and even if they did, I was trying to look at things fresh and to get some input for changes/improvements. I was hoping LL might read the thread, see some great suggestions and SL might improve for everyone as a result.

Basically you said in reply, 'no one handed it to any of us' and 'life isn't fair' and 'I helped in the past, it didn't do any good, no one read it.' I'm not sure what good that does anyone else?

Besides. No one is BLAMING Linden Lab - this thread was about improving SL, and getting resident input for positive change. Why must there be a victim?

I swear, it seems like every freaking thread ends this way.

Blame it on Phil. He started it.



I simply said to myself, "Amen, Brother"....then wrote down a wordier version.



I've explained the bitching and moaning comment several times to you. If the question was open to anyone, then why are you harping on my comments? I gave my tip:

Get your ass out of forum, away from the bitching and moaning, and into your workshop to make new product and toss out new marketing. Rely on your own skills and efforts, and quit waiting around for LL to change policy or make improvements....use the tools offered now, and make them work for you, instead of wasting time waiting for tools that may or may not be your godsend, and may or may not arrive.



If you would like....I will go back to the threads where I offered up a ton of tools that helped me take away some profit and build the business, and copy and paste them again, in this thread. But you won't like them - because they do not rely on a fixation with LL building your business....but rely on YOU building your business.

I did not offer any suggestions as to how LL can help me build my business....because if I wait for that to happen....there will be NO business....which basically is a suggestion in itself. Sorry if this is the wrong thread for that observation....but if you truly want to be proactive in helping the small business owners....it certainly belongs somewhere in a discussion like that.



I'm not clear on "who" the victim is?

What's wrong with this "freaking thread?" I see a good discussion going on.

disclaimer: when using the phrase "bitching and moaning"...I am referring to the general climate of the forums....and not one person specifically

This could get interesting if LL goes ahead with that Content Creator Certification scheme they were proposing awhile back. Especially if they insisit on disallowing certification for anyone who has had any sort of disciplinary action against them.

Require verification and a US$10 one time fee to allow an account and legal alts the tools to sell items to other avatars for any amount of money over L$0.
This would weed out non-serious businesses and cheats forcing them to risk money to make money and provide identification for further legal action if they are found to have broken rules.
Those who want to sell stuff for $0 could still do so, so freebies could remain.
Maybe making the limit L$1 might work too but LL would have to put stomething in to enable people to avoid people cheating by preventing multiple transactions.

I agree with this and I also think that finding a way to bring back gambling would help - there are many pros and cons, but gambling did bring money into the in world economy and I don't think it has ever fully recovered since the ban.

I'm assuming the posters to this thread represent (to some degree) the business community of SL.

If that's the case then the one thing that LL could do to help you, is run some business 101 classes and make attendance compulsory.

You seem to demand what is effectively a laissez-faire economic environment right up to the point that your highly tuned business acumen fails and then you demand that LL steps in and helps you out.

You demand to be left alone by LL right up until someone sells copies of your work. I've got news for you, there's something called appropriability of innovation, which is something innovation and design led businesses deal with in RL every day.

Does LL have the mix between freedom and governance correct? The answer would be of course NO.

Your job as "business people", should you choose to accept it, is to perform two very straightforward analyses (as taught in the 1st week of practically any business course).

PEST.
Porter's 5 Forces.

I admit that they're oldies but goodies. Given what these analyses throw up, you have to apply that self congratulatory business acumen of yours and devise a strategy which will allow your business to thrive.

Really, just stop your whining and get on with the job of making a business work within the environment you're given.

If this all seems a bit like something you don't want to do, or even despise the idea of, that's fine. In that case stop calling yourself "business people" because you're not.

Talented, creative designers maybe. Business people ? That would be a big NOPE.

Businesses whine, they whine in RL too, anyone who doesn't notice this isn't paying close enough attention.

Um.. no. The large businesses EAT the carrot. It is then gone.

Then let's not forget that many of them deliberately try to distort their examples in order to prevent that working.



... And then became a full-time competitor to the next person who wanted to do that.

By the way, how many is "many"? According to the economic statistics, only 377 people actually made enough in SL to have a full-time wage equivalent after tax. In a world of millions that's kind of insignificant.



... And this is where I'm suddenly fascinated.

Do you believe that this information is so poisonous that anyone who reads it must give up? Do you likewise believe that, in real life, Bill Gates and Donald Trump and Alan Sugar and other successful businesspeople are all still in the "wow wow wow I can make millions" phase, else they would have given up already?

Of course they aren't. The failure rate of small businesses is something that everyone who ever takes a Business degree learns, probably in their first semester. If they go into business without taking a degree, they'll learn it from their banker or their inventors. Desmond Shang has posted that, ultimately, there is room for only two top members in each market. Ordinal Malaprop has posted that many scripting markets are locked down. CaSimone Acquitane posted that SL would inevitably be dominated by the rich.

Knowing these facts doesn't make people inevitably give up. What's important is that they choose not to give up with their eyes wide open.

If telling someone the truth makes them give up, it is right that they should give up. Because it means that their previous decision was based on a fantasy, on incorrect information. Many rational adults choose not to start businesses in RL for very good reasons. If they choose to start one in SL while knowing what SL is, and for reasons that are to do with SL (eg, the cost of entry is lower, they enjoy the work more) then that's fine. But using the confusion that many newbies have about the online-game status of SL and the nature of business within it to push them into the "wow wow wow" mode (_everyone_ can succeed if they just put in the time, just like WoW!); having them do in SL the same action they already chose not to do in RL without understanding that the risks are the same; and then pocketing the tier when they fail is just utterly wrong as far as I'm concerned.



It depends how much you enjoy grinding, but that probably still is more enjoyable than most jobs. However, ultimately using SL as an "additional income" has no future.

Yes it is, and it always has been.

It doesn't matter whether or not it's all been done. There is absolutely nothing to prevent new people entering into the same markets and being greatly successful. It's not a case of what's left to do; it's a case of who is willing, and has the commitment, to do it.

No. According to the SL economic statistics, the Gini coefficient in SL is much _worse_ than 80/20.

The title of this thread is "What can LL do to help small business owners?". The inference is LL doing something to improve the success of small businesses, which, apart from getting a large influx of new users, necessarily means a lowering of the success of large businesses. If that's not what you meant, ok, but it certainly read that way to me. So it's not surprising that I responded to something you didn't mean.

lol - that's right. But I responded to the original post. It seems that the original post didn't contain a full enough explanation of what was actually meant because it certainly sounded like, "What can LL do to improve the success of small businesses?"

If that is true, then all existing large businesses are doomed anyway, so what difference would it make for LL to act against them?

You don't make sense, Yumi. Some existing large business are no doubt doomed, but remember what made them large in the first place - time, effort, desire, commitment, etc. Those who choose not to compete against upcoming businesses will see a reduction in profits and some may even be doomed, but not all of them will react in that way. Those things that made them successful in the first place will help to keep them successful, unless they decide that they are not going to bother any more.

probably the best thing for business owners would be for ll to stop changing rules and pricing on a whim. there is NO stability, no way to plan, no way to forcast. everything is a crapshoot, all or nothing for the small business owner, and ll is the biggest liability of all

Right. But what you said is that if a new entrant had desire, drive, and commitment then nothing could stop them. Now you are saying that in fact, the large business _can_ stop them by having the same thing. Make up your mind.

No, it doesn't. It's not a zero-sum game. Small businesses could do better if people spent more money.

I spend almost nothing in-game because it's such a chore to find things. Both big and small businesses could get more of my money if there wasn't so much mediocrity sucking up my precious time whenever I look for anything.

LL can help by not rewarding mediocrity. Here are a few suggestions:

1. Remove traffic entirely from the search rankings. Make traffic calculation opt-in so that people who want to see it for their parcels can see it, but it won't be calculated at all for people who don't want to see it. This would have the additional benefit of relieving whatever load it was that made LL change this calculation recently.

2. Eliminate commission from SLX and replace it with a monthly fee for listing each object. This would encourage people to combine the thirty four items that are identical except for color into one or a few listings, and encourage people to not continue paying to list things that don't sell.

3. Eliminate classified ads. All search results will be ranked according to paid keywords and parcel size (explained below). Want to be listed under "hair"? You'll be ranked against everyone else that paid for that keyword. You won't also be ranked under "free", "boots", "avatar", "skin", "animation", "furniture", "furniture", "furniture", "furniture", "furniture", "furniture", and "prefab", unless you also pay for those keywords (and paying more than once would be counter-productive). Scoring won't be based on the words in your listing or the name of your parcel (except for "places" search) at all. Only paid keywords count. This way it'd be beneficial for your listing to contain actual information. The "places" tab would match on parcel name only.

4. Search would have categories such as "shopping", "entertainment", "education", etc, selected using a drop-down or buttons in the "all" tab. Paid keyword placement would be category-specific, e.g. paying for "hair" in the education category will rank you only in that category. You'd have to pay for both "education" and "shopping" to be listed in both. Also, you can only list in the category that matches your parcel, so to list in two categories you'd have to split your parcel, reducing its ranking in both categories. The ranking would be the product of the amount paid and the parcel size.

Most of this is thought-of-just-now and likely full of holes

hmmm...no bots...check

You obviosuly don't prescibe to Obamanomics... community organizers + leftist idealoges + hate for captialism = engineered economy = FAIL

I think you might get some flack on this one, Anya. It actually works against a small business owner trying to get started. You're going to be paying without the guarantee of sales. Probably cost prohibitive in the beginning, and probably cost prohibitive for someone who sells 50L to 100L items. For someone who has 300 items that are legitimately entirely different from each other.....also quite an outlay on funds. Xstreet is currently one of the most effective forms of advertising that is basically free.



Classified ads are the MOST EFFECTIVE tool I have in place right now for bringing in new customers. They can be quite effective if tweaked with the right keywords, and I don't mean spamming either. A 100L classified ad with the right words can place you on front page of All Search, right next to the big guys. Very cost effective.

On the paying for keywords....I can only speak for myself, but I've got an eclectic mix of product - probably over 2000 items that are all very different styles, and I made different styles specifically to tap into each market, and grab every opportunity. I would need to buy 1000 keywords. Also - buying a keyword like "hair" would be futile. To be effective, you would have to buy very specific keywords to stand out.....then it becomes cost prohibitive. Can't think of any hair names at the moment, but can give an example of furniture - would need to buy Art Deco, Antique, Modern, Traditional, Retro.....and the list goes on and on, and that only describes a style.....you also need keywords for product.....that list is endless.

As it stands....someone who busted out a very large inventory of very different products....the sky is the limit as to what they can run. Add a cost for that, and you've placed an obstacle in the path of someone who is doing exactly what everyone is demanding....and that's offering unique products and lots of it.

Also ....I have a heck of a time encouraging new business owners to pop for a classified....even at only 100L a week.....so I doubt that they are going to pop for 30 separate keywords to describe their inventory.

The keywords you mentioned are so saturated.....paying any amount of money for them, would not be effective.....so again, just placed another obstacle on the new business owner.

Answer: Not a damn thing.

Quoted for truth. I'm a small SL businessman. When I started my business, I thought I might sell 50 units, tops, per year; I mostly made my products for me, and had a single vendor on someone elses land as the entirety of the storefront. We now do that in a month, and the person who used to control 90% of the market we're in is shifting focus to other things. I like to think that's because we make a superior product and give good customer service; we don't list on SLX, don't use any traffic-enhancement measures, and advertise only in a single classified. The Lindens have graciously ignored us, and I expect we will continue to prosper (and enjoy our work) as long as they do.

Granted, we're not making enough to quit the day jobs. But we do make enough to cover tier on the store, rentals on our network vendors, and live comfortable Second lives on the profits. I call that success.

IPO


and start acting like a service provider production shop.