Question about Business Partners

I am in the process of putting together a completely new (almost) idea and event for SL, and had a question about bringing on partners/investors.

When looking for investors, what are some ways of handling the possibility that they could take my idea and act on it themselves? Should some sort of RL contract be signed or something, or are there other ways?

Thanks for your help.

Vincent Hegel

Vincent,

A good rule of thumb is to not get into business with anyone whom you do not trust. It's kind of hard to trust anyone whom you cannot meet in RL or speak to over the phone at least. It takes a while to build an online relationship so I would suggest getting to know people before entering into any type of agreement (or sharing your ideas especially).

If you are talking about investments of real $$ that are more than what you yourself are able to contribute to a project, I would definitley get RL contract involved and verify the identity of the investor.

Hope that helps!
Mad

Also, I forgot to mention that you might try using a Non-disclosure agreement stating your idea in detail and have the individuals sign it. It's a legal and binding contract.

Good luck!

A Non-disclosure agreement is probably the way I'm going to have to go. I do plan on meeting with the investors (in SL) I am talking to a few times just to get an idea about who they are.

How should I verify their identity btw, ask for a DL photocopy or something with the NDA?

I appreciate the help.

Make it easy on your self, Vincent, DONT trust anyone as your businesspartner because it simply doesnt work that way in SL. People lie, alt and dont keep their promises.
I am in SL for almost two years and can write you a 12 part soap about it.
Relationships and friendship are very superficial, it's the same with trying to do business with someone. They nod if you swing 100k in front of their nose, but what happens the next day is never to tell.
Save yourself the troubles and rely on the only one you can rely on in SL: yourself!

Well, to be honest I wish that were possible, but I have found it tedious to try to find work at the hours I'm online that pays me enough where I could even think about considering undertaking this project myself. This is more of an event, and in order for it to work, and be as big as I plan on it being, it's going to need investors. I simply can't afford to do this on my own, in SL or in RL, and an investor is really my only option at the moment.

I understand your point, but I do think that SL is exactly like RL. There are plenty of people willing to take advantage of others at any chance they get, so form superficial relationships in order to do it, and there are honest, sincere people who are genuine in their motives.

In either situation, you have to judge for yourself, give yourself some legal protection from being taken advantage of, and go from there.

And could you please explain what "alt" is to me? I haven't been on the board long enough to know all the terms.

If you have ANY doubts... don't place the trust.

Contracts get you nothing, except maybe some tiny little recourse when your idea or money IS stolen.



Garnet Psaltery helped me get my West Trade Imports started... loaned me land and all that, and the rest has been an incredible story.

I don't run alts in my groups... as an officer she could literally sell all of West Trade's land to herself for nothing at any time.

But she won't, I trust her implicitly and I have 100% faith it's a nonissue. Anyone you feel you'd *need* to have a contract with... well, keep them away from your business

I agree with you here, but even when you feel it's not "needed" it always should be understood by both parties, whether they know eachother well or not, that it's standard practice to use them in business situations. I've seen brothers (in RL) stop talking to eachother for long periods of time because of business disagreements. It's ALWAYS a good idea.

I simply don't know anyone that is willing or able to work on this project with me, as nobody I know cares to use SL.

A SL partner/s is going to be the only way to go, and so I am looking for ways to handle the necessary situation in the smartest and safest way.

Hey vincent, you might want to consider looking for well establised users/businesses to partner with. They would be less inclined to rip you off, because that would be bad for their name and business. And in a digital world your reputation is worth a lot if not everything.

That would probably mean you would have less control then you hope, but also more security. It would also give you a change to build up a name as someone that can be trusted and counted on. Because right now, why would anyone trust you.

Write up a business plan, study the market and approach the right people. Give them a reason to work with you, find out how your idea would be benifical for their business. And don't base your plan on the idea that your plan/event is new, it might have been tried but failed, or it just didn't hit your radar yet.

This a personal pet peeve of mine, i have shattered the dreams of a couple of people when i pointed out that their 'original' idea was already being done. Instead of improving on it, they gave up. Don't do that, study your possible competition and find their weaknesses. Second Life is constantly growing and there is more then enough room for competition within it.

Sorry for going all SL Business 101 on you, I hope you find what you are looking.

No it's alright. I agree with you, and have already considered most of what you said.

A business plan is being written up, the market is already there (I base this off of RL examples) and I already know it would be the first of it's kind. What I have in mind hasn't really been done before in SL (in a minor way it has, which is why my original post said it was almost a completely new idea), and could turn out to be a very big event, in SL and in RL. In a way, it actually is an improvement on an existing part of SL. It is more of the creation of an event, based on something already been created within the game.

And you're right, why would anyone trust me. I am a fairly new user of SL. That is one of the reasons I am asking about contracts.

As someone noted above, by the time you have to resort to contracts for enforemcement, you've already lost.

Real life notaries exist to provide the service that authenticates that this person is who they claim to be. However, your idea should be golden before you solicit investment and even then, re-read paragraph one.

You can run your shop out of your own pocket, it costs little but time to create something, it is free to give out copies, and you'll get a much better sense of the appeal of the item that way. When you start getting IMs saying "I saw your foo, it is cool, where can I buy one?" you know you have something. Most very successful SL merchants started out giving away stuff - let the product be its own advertisement.

Vincent,

As ugly a truth as this may sound. I would have to put my signature on this advice as well. It's nice to be able to have a business partner you can trust and use contracts and all, but 99.9% of the time here in SL, you're your own best friend when it comes to ideas and money.

=)

Well, the problem with that is that it's not a product. It is an event of sorts, and the nature of the event would involve sponsors, and it's a project that I would not be able to undertake on my own, either financially, technically, or otherwise.

I will consider everything said and go from there. Thanks for all the help.