On our second segment of this series, we will focus on the club business in Second Life. In case you missed the first part of our series on business owning in Second Life, you can view that story here.
If you are new to Second Life, it will not take you long to hear about clubs, events, or djing! Owning a club in Second Life can be fun and rewarding, but it also takes a great deal of time, planning, and organization.
Since owning a business in Second Life, mirrors business owning in real life somewhat, I am going to employ a real life business concept—the SWOT Analysis. No this is not MBA 101, but you should analyze your own capabilities before jumping into what can be a costly venture in Second life. I have streamlined the concept of SWOT into four categories. Please consider these five things, as they are the key to making or breaking your club in Second Life:
- Budget- Decide from the beginning, how much of your real life money you can put into a club. You will need money to pay for property for the club, as well as for events if you decide to hold contests, and for advertising the club. There is also the possibility of paying for special events, dj’s, or event hosts. You also have to budget for club equipment and the actual club building.
- Theme-Will your club have a theme? Is it going to be a rock, pop, top 40’s, country, etc type of club? You can also make your club appeal to a specific community in Second Life, such as goth, vampire, furry/neko, steampunk etc to name a few. What will the rating be? Adult, mature, or pg?
- Location-do you want your club located on the mainland or will you rent private estate land? Each type of property has it’s plusses and minuses.
- Staff-How will you find DJ’s and hosts? Do you have the time to host or dj yourself? Will you used managed DJ’s or will you simply send out in DJ groups?
- Time-Do you have the real life time to devote to the club? This is very important, particularly if you cannot find enough staff to keep your club going, you may end up hosting or DJing or at times doing both.
If, after considering the five things above and you still would want to own a club in Second Life, then keep reading! So let’s imagine you have a club set up, fully staffed, and you are ready to open for business. Before you throw open the doors, consider the following tips:
- Consistency-It’s important that you have a consistent schedule, not only for your staff, but for our VIP’s. People have routines in Second Life and if they know their favorite club is opened a certain time, they are more than likely to plan to go to your club. Try to narrow down days and times that work for your staff and your VIPs.
- Advertising and Promotion-this is important so people know you even have a club in the first place! Make sure your location parcel is listed in search, take out a classified ad, and put your club on your picks. Encourage your staff to do this as well. You should also strive to put events in the Second Life event’s listing daily. Of course promote your events in your group. Consider setting up a blog and tweeting events using the Secondlife tags.
- People-keep the drama out of your clubs, ensure that your club staff and the VIPs are happy! This means listening and paying attention to their wants and needs to ensure that your club can function without any real hassles.
Once you are ready to open and have considered everything on this list, the next steps is to keep your club fresh and a great place to be in, this means reevaluating things such as times, themes, genres, and even the location of the club. Of course paying attention to the trends of Second Life also helps. Remember owning a club can be challenging and a lot of work, but it can be as fun as you want it to be!
Actually there are many people in Second Life who make enough off their creations so that they simply live off Second Life as their real life means of income. There are some clubs that actually make a profit, whether it’s with land rentals or shop rentals. Second Life business does mirror real life business in the sense that one has to still market/promote the business, worry about numbers and profits, and of course there are business employees in both Second Life and real life. There are shops that employ models, management, event planners, and people to run the business.
I know you are blogging about “business” in the RL sense but many shops and clubs in SL have an entirely different take. Many of us have shops to sell copies of stuff we made for our own use, if we recover a little toward tier it is a bonus. Many clubs are gathering places for like-minded people with no intention of profit. Because there are no production costs and land costs can support a store or club and a home, the SL economic model is not always the same as RL.