A Noob starting a nightclub?

I have always wantd a nice little club but have no idea how to develop or run one or more to the point i have no money at the moment so i would like a step by step guide on pricing and building of the club and most important.......

How do you make money off of a nightclub???

The vast majority of clubs don't make money. Their owners are happy to pay to run them, because they enjoy playing a club owner.

The typical ways to make money are tip garnishing, and sale of rental spots in the club mall. Both of these depend on your ability to attract traffic, which you'll have to demonstrate before there's much serious interest. In other words, it's unlikely that you'll make money, and if you do, you'll have to spend it too.

Bottom line is do it for the love of music and creating your own ideal club because you will never make money as a club owner, but it is lots of fun to have a venue where your fave folks and dj's can dance and play and talk.

Please see a post I made about this very subject at

/327/e6/300972/2.html#post2279379

Welcome and enjoy yourself in this great wild world!

/me waves to Gussie

You enter the contests and have all your friends come and vote for you....oh wait you meant as a club owner. You don't make money. It's a money sink.

Well, it's not that easy or anything.

Just buy or build anything you need. A building, dance floor, bar, etc. etc.

Then you need land, a large parcel is needed, and be sure you have DJ's, security, dancers and other staff running around.

So you need a load of money first.

Land is not cheap, prim limits keep haunting you forever, and you need the goods. Which are cheap if you build it yourself. But that requires a lot of building skills, scripting.

And then you need to advertise. Which is also not easy.
people will never find the club if you don't list it and spam it around.

Also, you need to have the lack of a real life, a real job and have nothing better to do than sit at home, playing SL. Because running a starting club, mean you have only time left to sleep and eat.

^ That pretty much says it all. Running a club in SL takes a large amount of your time and funds to even setup. Unless you have a gimmick going for you that draws in the numbers you are going to spend more time with just you and your staff hanging out hoping someone stops by.

All I can recommend is start off small and expand as you need. That way if things dont work out you dont have much to bail out of. If you go big right off you could be in over your head in debt before the month is out.

Don't.

Start a club because you want to run a nice little club. But expect to never make your money back. In fact...plan on being able to pay every penny out of your own pocket, and be pleasantly surprised the months you don't have to.

So...
Step 1
Figure out how much you can afford to spend each month to keep a club running.

After that you can look at how to fit land tier, and employee salaries into that number.

Actually all you would need to do to get a club started is have some friends who want a nice place to dance. If you have a bit more property than I do (I have a 512 and it's all given over to garden) or some empty space on your land, put down a dance floor. This is two or three flat prims. It does not need to glow or flash lights. It's sometimes better if it doesn't. You'll also need to pick up a dance ball. Make sure it rezzes early and is within easy reach. Setting it on a table or pedestal might be a good idea. SL needs a really easy-to-find and click dance ball. Make sure you have a decent media stream. Invite your friends and you have a club or at least a house party.

No you won't get rich, but you can have fun dancing with your friends and you'll be the venue owner. My guess is the whole thing takes under ten prims to put together and if you have a folder for it, you can even take it up when not in use.

I've toyed with building something like this, but it would need to be a sky level. I'd also need a different stream of music than what plays on my property. Of course a club that plays Jewish music night once a week might be a novelty.

My stock response.................

Clubs are popular in SL for any of three reasons:

1. They offer a chance to win money (sploders, contests, etc.)
2. They're a good place to meet and talk with friends (The Blarney Stone, Cartel Hangout, Madhu's Cafe)
3. They feature popular DJs and/or live music events.

Do NOT build your club around Reason 1. The "clientele" you get are sploder hunters, who use tools to find out when yours is about to pay out and tp in for a moment, and friends of contestants, who tp in for a moment to vote and then leave.

Reason 3 is a good one, but be prepared to shell out plenty of money to support the arts. Live musicians don't work cheap, and a lot of the best ones will want a hefty fee to play your club.

Reason 2 is the way to go, for a "nice little club". Go check out Madhu's Cafe, for example...it isn't really a "club" at all, just some cushions scattered around, a little coffee bar, and a small dance floor, all in a pretty little garden skybox. The place is empty most of the time, except for the regular Monday night parties.

The key to the "success" of such a club is finding a clientele, or making one. What you need is a number of friends who enjoy each others' company...because of some shared interest, or even for no reason at all. Start a group..."Fry Cooks of SL", say. Or you can join an existing group. Once you have five members or so, offer your land for a weekly get together...just a discussion group, maybe. Nothing fancy. If your group grows, put up a dance floor and a dance ball and hold a party. Then make it a weekly tradition. Presto! Instant (well, not instant, but easy) club!

That's the homegrown approach. I've seen it done professionally, too...an individual or group of investors buys a sim. They put up a club or two and a mall, using professional builders. They hire full time managers, who in turn hire and train and manage dancers and get DJs. The whole thing runs on tips, and income from mall rentals. Go see Midnight Sun Isle for an example of this. Talk to Midnight Shinja for advice...she is one savvy sim owner, with an eye on the bottom line. If a club or anything else in her sim isn't profitable pretty quick, it's gone. Costs vary widely, but if you buy a full sim and hire the builds, plan on spending $2,000 or more (US$, not lindens), and $295 per month. Or you can rent a whole sim from an estate owner, for around $350-400 per month, and do the building yourself...but that will take time and talent. Either way, managing a whole sim will take all of your available time.

Clubs and Music Venues etc are money sinks, they make no money as was mentioned, most people that run sims like these don't mind spending rl money to do it, you can't open one thinking your going to make a profit, or even your money back, I can't count all the clubs I been to that closed up, most because of cost issues..

Clubs & Venues try and get back operating costs by having a mall and rent out shops, or by tips, which more than likely won't ever bring the revenue in to cover your tier fees etc, most clubs also hold events/contests (best in blank etc) for x amount of lindens, to draw in people, most clubs seem to also have dancers/strippers, the events/contests are mainly to get traffic coming in to help rent out their shop spaces.

Even renting the land etc it will be expensive, so basically it's for those that have the rl money to open club/venue because they enjoy it, and the $300 or more a month usd they spend they can afford.

Thought I felt my ears burning. Thanks for the mention, Lindal. I think my place is an example of untapped potential. I have an enormous potential client base in the South Asian community in SL, most of whom come through at one time or another. And my own parties are always a smashing success drawing a very diverse and fun crowd.

But I have not been able nor willing to devote the time and energy necessary to have those events more than occasionally. If I really wanted to make my place great, I would have world music parties once or twice a week and more Indian-focused parties once or twice a week as well. The latter would have to be at a time when I could not personally be there. That would mean hiring staff, which would mean both giving up some control of how my place is run and spending lots of money to get quality hosts and DJs - the jobs I do myself at my own parties.

So to the OP, even a place that people like and enjoy and that has a niche market itching to come and hang out in it is not going to be a successful club without gobs of investment of both time and money. And "successful" club just means one that people enjoy using - not one that makes any money. If you want to run a club in SL, it has to be because the theme is close to your heart and because you genuinely want to entertain people and make them feel welcome.

By the way - forgive a small plug - Madhu's Cafe is currently under dramatic renovation; nothing is safe from my designer's hatchet and the place is being completely transformed. There will be a party when it's all done.

I'd come to that!!

it is possible but a real pain in the butt..
I've managed a few of them and we made money but it was more work than my RL job and a lot more stressful.
you would need everyone on the same page.a lot of club loyalty and have to build it up slow..

i would say .if you are new to SL learn building and design..there really are no quick ways to making money unless you scam someone or come in with some product that people are really gonna want..
clubs are a big pain in the but to try and make profit..

There maybe about 10 nightclubs in SL that make money at a guess, if you want to check them out and think you're that good go for it.
Content creation is the bestway to make money.

My advice

Don't buy someone elses club

One scam is to tell a newbie that you have a business for sale that you say has great profits and traffic but you are leaving SL now due to personal reasons ...

Obviously you can buy prefab buildings that you put on your own land, but you should look around so you get an idea of how much things cost in SL.

my club costs me varying amounts of money to keep open, but OMG i just love it so much. since i am uneployed right now, ive only been able to get things going on saturday nights, so if anyone wants a place to throw a party or have a show, theres a wonderful little club just sitting there waiting to be filled with people : )

lizzie

yours and a 100 more waiting sorry i know it hard been there. really it take alot of time and a thing call money RL money ,, dad always told me it didt grown on a tree hehe does in sl * money tree* dont think you can open one and think it be pack all the time. and 2 there if it does goes well at first that good but you going to been puting out L$ too keep them there too . and my club got close, lack off ppl, and money *rl* it happens
later
mad