Rates of business faliure in SL

Hi,

I'd like to hear from people that have been forced to shut down their business or have decided that business in SL is simple not worth it anymore.

My own store is currently not paying it's way since the new search was impemented.

I've reworked all the product descriptions - no effect. Even my L$3000 ad did not return any business. Since cancelling the ad and replacing it with a LS50 ad my business is still in decline. So the cost of an ad has little effect in my opinion.

Now sales are not paying for land rental. I feel particularly aggrved that SL take your SL3000 ad money and provide you with absolutly nothing that you paid for. Yes business has it's ups and downs as trends change but this is a joke.

I've never relied on classified ads and only started using them regularly the beginning of this month for the whoppin' L$50. I find that customer service and word of mouth is the best advertisement one can get. I've done some advertising here and there but didn't find it to make back what was spent. The best return on advertising I get it from Trivia events sponsorship and the like. I give the hosts/coordinators gift cards redeemable through me. The word of mouth about my customer service helps heaps to. I pay attention to sales and give different things to regular shoppers or to people that spent a fair chuck of change. IE, a girl was in my store buying some clothes for her guy friend. I sent a IM to thank her for her patronage and sent her a bikini from my store along with it. So she got something out if it too.

I don't know what your business is or any other means of advertising you do besides the classifieds. I can only suggest you try all ideas you can come up with before you fold your hand.

My sales dropped significantly when the new search went in too.

I've only been in business about 3 months now but I'm thrilled with how my store is doing. I do classified advertising. I spend L$500/wk. I probably don't need to spend nearly that much but it's a drop in the bucket so I don't want to tempt fate by changing it.

Like Theo, I get much of my business through word of mouth and sponsoring events. Usually trivia too. I'm glad Theo and I aren't in competing businesses or I might lose a friend.

I also frequently send gifts to customers who send a few extra bucks or so to thank them. It usually results in a Thank You IM and a nice conversation which I can only assume will result in a nice word or two down the road.

Along with your great customer service, it also helps that your products are extremely attractive and well done. Loving my lounge chairs.

Doing well, albeit on a pretty small scale. I pay my tier and make some RL pocket money, and that's just fine by me. If I got off my ass and produced some more content I like to think I'd be doing even better, but it's all about finding the time lately :/

I've never bought a classified ad, though I keep debating doing so. Instead, I rely on word of mouth, what I consider to be a quality product, being in a"niche" market (kinda comes with my territory), and providing good service.

As with everyting, it requires a lot of work. But heck, the store is kinda secondary to having fun. If I make some lindens in the process, then yay me.

Mari

The land rental biz has been very slow the last few weeks...

been picking up a little over the last couple weeks

but the market I am in is saturated so I do not expect business to be booming

it is nice when something sells and I do my utmost to make sure that if any of my customers have a question or a request that I do my best to fulfill it or answer it
or god forbid a problem, I will do what I can to fix it

/me discretely slips Ray the L$20 he was promised.

Recently, in a thread about modifiable items I said many shop owners complain regarding failing businesses in these forums. I said most are well deserving of it and rightly so being they don't know what the public wants. Actually, for the most part they know but don't care enough to accomodate customers with options as has been said here many times. Hence, failing businesses in many cases.

And it's not just about non-mod items it's about everything, customer service included as many of these business owners don't know how customers should be treated and they get what they deserve in return. Soon as they open a business their ego's swell up making them think they're immune from treating customers correctly.

So keep it coming.



Not referring to op as I don't know this person. I'm talking in general.

I'm doing well personally..
My partner on the other hand, he's doing so-so.

Ricardo, you are making some fair arguments. I really gave serious thought about the whole mod/no mod issue and at first I took the no mod route. I thought like many others that I didn't want people to pull my items apart and then copy them. Then I thought about the fact that in RL that if I buy a couch I can recover it any damn way I want. Why would I think someone in SL wouldn't expect the same?

The other thing is, if someone really wants to copy an item they can. They'll figure it out. I need to keep making new stuff anyway otherwise people will get bored with what I have. If I get so bored I don't want to make new items I'll probably close up shop and find something else to do.

As for customer service. I think customer service in SL overall is better than RL. I think it's pride of workmanship. But I have met some real assholes too. I'm amazed at what some shop owners put on their profiles about not wasting their time etc.

I've suffered a loss of sales since the new search and gambling ban, but I think that's applied across the board.

Bear in mind that results from these forums will be skewed since many users don't use them. Konstruct Magazine claimed that SL's business failure rate was 90% - the same as RL - but that might be a bit pessimistic!

The vast majority of my sales have come from SL Exchange which also give people the chance to buy as gifts (one of my items sells about 40-50% as gifts). I wish it was easier to do that in world.

Having just seen this thread I realise that maybe I should also be advertising in world more, so I've added a classified add.

Let's see what happens.

The several comments about sales going down since the new All search came in is very interesting. I'm assuming that the businesses whose sales went down are not high in the All rankings, which would mean that a lot of people are using that search. I find that very interesting as it's not possible to see which search people arrive at place from.

Yes it would be interesting to see the top 100 most searched words.....tho 2nd thoughts the 1st 75 would probably all fall into the mature category (the nickname for Richard and the alternate name for a cat being the top 2) ...make that the top 500 words searched

Hmm breaking even, considering all I pay out is advertising, put buggerall effort into it and spend nothing on raw materials or wages. Not everyone can make a living from their home computer.

Would have liked a choice in the poll of "Not quite breaking even, but as long as the wife doesn't realise how much money I'm pumping into this game I don't mind."

Last time I checked, purchasing an ad doesn't guarantee you business. It just gives you an ad for that amount. No more, no less. If you think you are "paying for" anything else, you need to look up "advertisement" in the dictionary.

I usually use the All search. I find it easier. When I have attempted to search using the other tabs I never find what I was looking for.
Saying that though, I do read descriptions and very rarely go to one on the first page just because its there. I prefer to see a sample of the items in the picture too. Pretty logos are great, but if it is a choice between seeing a pretty logo and one where it shows a picture including some of the sold items, i am going to choose the latter i am afraid.

I think it is a shame so many businesses are having to close. But if customer service is important to you I doubt you can go far wrong.
I have been to a few places from the forum business notecard, and I like every one. Everyone was very very kind when I was setting that up, and it made me even more determined to visit. I try to buy something or at least give a small donation to support the place if I like it. Some I probably spent more than I should have lol
I visited your store Phil yesterday, and i do intend to go back. You have good stuff.

I dont understand businesses closing and blaming it on second life .If your business is failing downgrade it ffs dont just sit there on your ass tell you go bust get less land, downgrade your classified costs,downgrade everything you can .I have had a drop in sales too but I will never loose my businesses because of it .Lazyness Stubborness greed and stupidity is the only real reason most will losse there second life businesses common its alot easyer than real life .Remeber when you started your businesses did you have what you have now no so why cant you downgrade a bit LOL

What I think Malik's referring to is the new Search All system, where classifieds only appear on searches if they're in the top 10 of classifieds for that keyword.

Of course you can see the problem with this - you might pay L$3000 for an ad and have it _never appear_, because all the keyword searches that took place in the month were on keywords with 10+ other ads that paid more. An ad might not guarantee customers, but an ad that's never even _displayed_ isn't an ad.

Part of the problem is that at lot of what is needed to make content in SL is some artistic talent. And we all know how tempermental and protective of their work artists are. And a lot of artists do not have the right tempement to run businesses. In RL most artists create, and let someone else market their work, although that is changing.

Creating Content in SL is time consuming, but so is the business of selling it properly. I tyhink a lot of creators skimp on the second part, it's dull, tedious. Some artists are not great "People" people so they won't be equipped to provide customer service. Some content creators might be better off finding an inworld business partner to handle the selling , as some probably do.

I'm with Ricardo, if not as Militantly on the No Mod issue. Yes, someone has worked hard to make the item, but we have also worked hard either in world or out to make the money to purchase your items. Like Bradley said, you have to keep improving and making new stuff. Your business won't suffer as much from someone tearing aprt your stuff as it will from selling the same tired items and never changing.

My search method hasn't changed since I started. I type in my keyword, say "Shoes". The list comes up, I alphabetize it, traffic numbers mean nothing to me, and I start at the top. I look around the shop, maybe buy and if the surrounding sim is interesting I wander there a bitand a new Landmark is born if I like it. If not, I go to the next place. Now, my shopping is pretty much done at the places I've landmarked as favorites, but every so often I'll do a search for new places. I also look at the new products forum here, or from the people posting here. That's how I came to Phil's place and several others. Bradley's is next, I need some lounge chairs. I've never used a classified in the year I've been here.