Business in a box, business

Ive always wanted to have a mall on my land, but I dont make anything and pitching others to rent space is just a pain. Ive recently discover something that appears to have been around for a while, "business's in a box". They look great but are they ?? Things I have been reading about them they are alot of freebe stuff, and even stolen. Are there any good business out there worth the investments ??

If you want a mall on your land, might I suggest inviting merchants who make their own goods to place vendors on your lot and take a percentage or charge rent per stall?

Please do try not to overburden your sim, though, if it's mainland it's horribly rude to whoever else might be living there.

They're mostly freebies that were made by people who wanted to share their stuff with others for free as opposed to having them be used to line someone's pockets. But it's your call ultimately. I doubt you'll be able to recoup the money you're spending on tier that way. It's not great content (stuff) and for the most part it's free around the grid.

If you don't make things to sell, I'm curious as to why you would want a mall...?

As has been said before Buisness In a Box sets have a bad and increasingly worsening reputation and seem to consist largely of stolen and freebie content.

If you just want to be a landlord maybe a couple of small houses to start? Or, rather than a "mall", a mixture of nice little homes and a few nice little shops all available to rent.

I would really encourage you though to take your time and learn to create something of your own. I think you will find it much more rewarding in the long run! If you really want to own a mall of your own it will be MUCH more attractive to potential renters if it has a succesful anchor store (yours) selling orginal content.

I know learning to make something new can seem impossibly overwhelming at first, but I really encourage you to give it a try!

**edit for not having had my coffee yet: I now see that you don't want to be a landlord just have a mall of BIOB stuff? Just ignore my suggestions then, sorry. I never thought of a mall with no renters on purpose**

I'm going to echo Ingrid's comment...

Perhaps, if you don't make anything, and don't want to deal with renters, a mall isn't really what you want.

If you don't paint, hate artists, and don't wanna deal with buying art, why would you open an art gallery?

I keep hearing a little voice in my head that says "oh my god, a mall? for meeeeeeeeee? just what I ALWAYS wanted..."

Also. About those "business in a box" things.

Even assuming most of the content wasn't stolen and/or freebies.

Even assuming it was good content to begin with.

Why would you think it would sell? If it was a good product, several people would buy it. Several stores would open up selling it. And since theres no real physicality in SL, since you can basically teleport to the front door of any store in SL, why would you think your store would get business if there were other people selling the same stuff?

Grid malls lack the redeeming qualities of first life malls.

Specifically:

- semi-decent air conditioning during harsh desert conditions
- snacks (sadly overpriced - best trick is to buy em in a drugstore)

Other than that, it's like wandering around in someone's closet in a crowd (for me).

Not that it matters. Follow your bliss, I guess?

Well honestly Im just playing, I have built (yes built) a cool little mall (7000+ m2)around a dance area. I dont plan to, but it would be great, if I actually made a couple of dollars. I just being a hobbiest and trying to learn something. But I was asking about the boxes because I dont want to get ripped off or rippof anyone else. My theroy is the mall will attract traffic for the club and the club for the mall. As far as attracting renter ( and this is off subject ) I havent really figured that out yet. any one got a bix plsn for that ?

I will be very honest, when I first started in SL, I brought a Business in a Box deal... I can quite honestly say I have never put it up for sale!

I paid way to many L$ for it as I thought that it would "give me a leg up" and in the long term would pay for any tier I had..e.t.c..

The stuff was really bad quality, really bad. I do not know if it was freebie stuff as I stupidly never shopped around for freebies when I first started, I just dove straight in and loaded up with Lindens! But I would of been embarressed to of put the stuff up to sell...

Also I was thinking... when I shop from stores.. ( I would not of worn this stuff!) but when I shop from stores, I like to go back to see their new things, by just chucking up someone else's work, I would never be able to offer "new" stuff, I would become very bland very quickly.... even if I was lucky to sell any of that stuff.. how long would it of kept up for? Fashions in SL change all the time, I was in no position to keep up to date and on par with people who had the real talent.

So what I did was take myself away and learn how to build furniture... I am still learning and while I can not say I am perfect.. actually far from it... but I love it! I have sold a couple of pieces and the buzz that someone else likes my work blows me away!

I know there are some genuine Business in a Box's out there, but remember if you brought one... who else did and would they spring up in a mall near you anytime soon?

Good luck in whatever you decide to do

Even the totally legit business in a box deals quickly become freebies because they get distributed through out SL quick as hell. If you'd like to buy full perms items to resell it's best to buy the content from the original creator and make sure that you are getting exclusive rights.

Thats a much better idea, and some names do wholesale to I think.. Raven and Uk Couture to name a couple but eeek don't quote me for sure.. maybe that would work better?

Business in a box is a short term business but it works. However it's not a reputable business and people get abusive if you're undercutting them.

If you have money to spend then look to some official reseller options where you buy in bulk.

You'll probably have a good bit of fun, but from what I've seen it's only the social butterflies (the ones who interact with hundreds of people and have tons of charisma) that can float a club/mall combo and not lose a lot of money.

Generally these folks have been popular way before their businesses ever existed in some community or other - goths, vampires, elves, whatnot... it's some kind of personality thing.

There's so many people, that the place stays warm and financially solvent like a beehive. One bee isn't very warm or makes a lot of honey, but in the thousands, that's one warm, sticky beehive.

As for a business plan to attract renters, when you find one let me know! Heh, I'm actually serious. I've done well myself by sheer accident, but honestly when I started the Victorian thing I thought maybe only 3 or 4 true eccentrics would want to participate in my obscure, 19th century island. Wrong-o! But was it *me* being smart, or a good business plan? Not really. Just sorta happened.

Find what you love, do that, don't spend more than you have and you'll have a great time regardless!

Hey Cheryl, read your post and been wondering about the same thing. Have you looked at Apez ? Maybe some one can comment about using there vendors in a mall ?

What's so freaking hard about someone making their own content to sell? BIAB is crass, mostly consists of garbage and well known to be fodder for greed and theft. Seriously, if someone made content actually worth anything, they'd sell it themselves instead of giving it away fullperms while knowing full well what exactly is going to happen to it. I wouldn't believe anybody would make a BIAB and honestly think it'll be used properly.

BIAB isn't worth it for research. Just hit a legitimate freebie yard and figure out how to build your own stuff off of it. It's better than going the trashy get-rich-quick scheme route and supporting the human dirt that resells BIABs.

I can well understand the OP's wanting a little mall. I did, too, and now I have one! I have 5 units, of which 4 are rented to friends/family. We have a small outlet for my husbands main store, 2 art galleries and one under construction which will sell specialist shirts. All is original content, and rather than charge rent for what is essentially my hobby, we charge a small percentage on sales via vendor thingies, and a peppercorn rent. The other unit, which is mine to run, is a freebie store. Yes I know, there are sooo many of these, but bear with me. When i was very new I found a lot of freebie places huge and overwhelming. Also the boxes tended to contain a mixture of items and it would take ages to wade through to find what I really wanted. Then I would end up with several copies of the same item, and it was very confusing! So my little freebie place has things boxed specifically in categories, ie jeans, short dresses, hair etc. And it is all checked out not to contain badly made rubbish. I also have a box of landmarks to other noob friendly free places, and a box of helpful notecards to encourage people to build and learn for themselves. As virtually all my freebies are full perm I encourage whoever likes them to pass them along.
I was amazed to meet a chap there one day who suggested we load up with several copies of each box and sell them!! He didn't realise it was my shop, and that as everything is copy and transfer he would only ever need one of each box! I explained that it would be wrong to try to sell freebies, but of course it does happen and always will.