Business Profitable?

Hello,

I did a quick search, and pardon me if this has been brought up time and time again. But I am really on the fence on what percentage of persons have been profitable in there respective business.

I am interested in starting to sell some prims I have created, beds, tables etc... but curious to how many of persons out there are doing well with this, and the time put into it? I am not looking for the "quick cash" sort of dream, but just have seen alot of "stores" and malls etc.. but really haven't seen or heard of much buying going on? What is selling etc?

And or how many have thought it was going to sell, but your prims sort of sit there, even have a bit of marketing. With the new linden stats, it seems that only a small percentage of business owners are making a decent amount, but over all just curious on what the populous is.

Thanks in advance...

Cheers,

Wes

Yes, it is just a small percentage that make a decent amount..... but the possibility is totally there. I think the people that aren't too successful are the ones that 'think they can do it' but don't really put the effort in. Running an SL business takes the same smarts as running a RL business. Trial and error, failure and success.... alot of people get into it thinking "oh, ill just make things, and they'll sell, and ill be rich" It never works that way. It takes a strategy, plan, marketing, and everything else that makes a business successful. If you are really going to do what it takes to make profit and be successful, then you will be. In SL, it definitely does take a creative approach which many people overlook though. You can't just make the same stuff that is all over SL, and expect to come out on top.

My advice is to not put too much money into it at first.... start very small, but put alot of time and effort into it... see where that goes... see what works and what doesnt.

Hi Wes Welcome to Second Life!

I think, to some extent, it depends on what you consider "profitable". For me, it took at least six months to make enough money on a consistent basis to feel that I was profitable. But that doesn't mean I was pulling my earnings out of SL and into the real world. Oh heavens no! Not when there are shoes, hair and outfits that I have not yet purchased!

Today I am doing much better (spending less, making more). My sales cover my tier and other fees, and give me lots of play money - I am even taking a bit out of world to make myself feel like a true entrepreneur.

I am a mentor, and I get asked this question a lot. My advice to new residents is not to spend much time at first, thinking about making a profit - even if that is ultimately why you are here. Spend your time out in the world, observing, meeting people, and integrating into the grid and SL society.

It is unlikely (but not impossible) that anything you could make in your first few months here is going to bring you a ton of profit anyway. The smartest thing that you can do is make friends with experienced residents, and build things for your own enjoyment. In time, you will find your niche.

Good luck Wes!

Well, if you read the November 2006 issue of Playboy magazine, there is mention of a SL resident making $5000 USD a month running a club, so I guess if you are a good businessperson anything is possible.

Pablo

'Profitable' ... Not many.

You have to identify the market you want to go after, study the competition, and build your skills. Turning SL into a replacement for your 9-5 job is daunting to say the least, and a lot of people fail.

Study, learn the tools, and find something you enjoy doing... Work outward from there. It's hard to become a success if you're 'just a builder' or 'just a scripter'. Learn, fail, and learn some more.

Good luck!

There's writing in Playboy? Wow.. never noticed.

Yeah, and if you read the previous issue, Miss October likes "geeky overweight guys who spend most of thier time on the computer."

Persephone is right, expect it to take time, it doesn't happen overnight.

One thing I've experienced that makes all the difference is whether or not people know you as a person and not just that store in such and such mall. When people know you they tend to seek out more information about you. They read your profile, they visit your store, they like what they see and they tell their friends.

Don't just be a store, be a part of the community. Hold events, participate in events, actually spend time in SL making friends and having a real impact. And have fun!! Honestly, the most successful I've been is when I'm having the most fun and putting that first.

This is really good advice. I tend to spend a lot of time at live music events. It always delights me when I find that somebody I met at an event - maybe I didn't even talk to them specifically, but I remember their name - ends up at my store later that day.

Becoming a member of the community is first step toward a successful business in Second Life - and it's a lot of fun too!

Thanks for the comments and advice everyone. I am anxious to see what can happen with a little elbow grease.

Just thought I would test the waters before I spend quite a bit of time setting a few things up, either way SL is fun in of itself.

Cheers,

Wes

I pull out money every two weeks. I'm making more than I could working part time in RL, so I just sit around SL now waiting to cash out XD

Hello,
sorry if I mix up something... but when I registered yesterday in SL there was a hint somewhere that there is a maximum of $250 per month to be paid out to a member (if he/she has the respective amount in Linden$ of course...) So I don´t understand all the success stories about people getting rich in RL by being successful business men/women in SL.

Thanks a lot for your help.
Aaron

There are various "Currency tiers" that limit how much L$ an account can buy / sell within a certain time period. Accounts younger than 45 days (main grid) have very low limits for buying / selling currency, after that you can buy / sell a lot more, and there's various tier levels for "professionals" which go pretty high in the buy / sell allowance. (For example, Business Owner tier 8 can sell up to 160.000USD worth of L$ per 30 days) You can find a detailled explanation and listing of the various tiers on your account page, there's a link from "Lindex Currency exchange" page.

As others have stated, "profitable" is a very relative term.

There are a few people in SL who actually make a full-time RL living from their efforts in SL. Very few do, however.

I know one of them. Her RL body and health don't permit her to do most normal RL jobs, but in SL she has managed to make a niche for herself, where she can earn enough to live on. She's certainly not getting filthy rich. But at least she has the satisfaction that she need not be dependant on disability payments and welfare now to support herself and meet her basic needs. Still, I know for a fact that what she earns is less than what many of us with a normal RL job earn. Is she successful? I would say she is. She's earning more in SL than she could in RL. But someone else putting in the same effort for the same return might feel otherwise.

Most of the people who make large quantities of money in SL also were able to invest large amounts of RL money in their business efforts, to get them started. A business that is struggling to make tier on a single sim can't hope to be as stable or as profitable as one that has hundreds of sims. So a big-time land baron in SL might have two or three "under-performing" investments, but can cover their losses with profits from their other sims.

For the rest of us, "profitable" usually means that we cover our rent or land tier and other operating expenses, have enough left over to have some fun in SL, and once in a while get to take a little cash out of the game and use it to go out to dinner or get something nice in RL. That's my case. My SL businesses cover my SL expenses, and give me a little extra each month in RL. But usually not all that much money.

In the long run, almost all work in SL is only hobby-level 'employment'. When you consider how many hours a content provider spends working, on-line or off-line, to make their business a success, you can almost always make more money per hour at any RL job that you might be able to do. Even minimum wage work pays more than almost all work in SL. So, for most of us, you don't work in SL to make a RL living. You do it for fun, or to reduce or eliminate the expenses of your play-time in SL.

If you look at the SL Economic Statistics only 12,364 people (out of 1.4 million accounts) made more then US$10 profit* last month, and that is up from previous months. Only 160 people made more then US$1,000 that month.

* It is not clear what LL is reporting as profit. I can't help but wonder if the "profit" being reported is before paying land tier or after. Or if it measures only US$ taken withdrawn from Second Life. The econimic statistics page doesn't really explain these numbers. And like others that LL reports, such as the number of "residents" I expect it is inflated.

You also have to define profitable. If you're a nomad with no land who gets paid US$1000 to write a script, you're profitable. Aimee started on a basic account without land and built an empire.

The answer you're probably looking for is this: there is no such thing as easy money in Second Life (any more). Acquiring skills, marketing yourself, providing customer service, and actually DOING the tasks required are all good old-fashioned hard work activities.

If you work hard enough, you can make a good amount of money in the virtual world. But the same could be said for first life as well. Very few make more per hour in Second Life than they would in first life. I know I haven't, but most of the things that have been most profitable in Second Life for me have been things I started because I enjoyed the challenge they presented, and they happened to grow into something that there was a market for.

Regards,

-Flip