Is mainland a good long term business idea?

[adriannesuz McMinnar]

So, I guess it's true that there really is no stable private sim.  After 3 years, the sim I've been renting on is closing and I'm left to decide if I want to go premium and buy mainland or try my luck renting on another private estate.  I really don't have the funds to buy a private sim myself, so that's out.  My question is...can a small business grow into a thriving upscale brand on mainland?  Isn't mainland better just for residential?  Are there frequent enough sim restarts to deal with lag on the mainland?  Does anyone have a particular point of view on which way is better for a long-term business?

 

ORQUIDEA Vintage and Modern Clothing on the Marketplace.

 or Visit inworld :)

[Wildcat Furse]

Running a business on mainland or on a private estate is not different, your product is selling or it doesn't. If u lease something on a private estate, u can opt out whenever u feel like, because u are just leasing/renting the land. In case u would lease mainland then that is another story, as premium member u can lease mainland but when u want to opt out u will have to sell the land yourself otherwise u might loose the money u invested .... I don't know if u are a business starter, but I would recommend to lease first on a private estate and to follow up your business *meows*

(lag is another thing, it all depends on the use of scripts and how your neighbours act, that happens on private estates and mainland, check first before leasing)

[Madeliefste Oh]

For a long term business it is best to make yourself independent. Mainland is a very good option to do so, when you don't have the funds for a private sim. Though there are enough trustable landlords, the weakest point for a business is to depend on someone else land. When they decide to get rid of the sim, all your investments in spreading your landmark will go with them.

I think for a small business mainland is the best option. It is cheap to buy, there is a lot of mainland available nowadays, so you have enough chance to grow you business step by step without having to move to a bigger land. You can easily buy new parcels around you.

There is just one disadavantage: you can have bad luck with your neighbours. They can put very ugly builds next to yours or they can use an awfull lot of scripts which also lags your land, or they can do things that simply irritate you (for example using gestures all day long).

I have my shops on mainland for about four years now. In that time I only had to ask LL once for a restart of the sim.

 

[Claireschen Hesten]

if your not ready to go the whole hog and get premium look out for mainland rental estates i rent & i have my store on mainland near a thriving animation shop my parcel directly borders a welcome center so there's always opportunities for people to wander over i think thats what i like about mainland potential for passing trade because there's loads of sims you can walk through i find being on an RC sim LL will restart it as part of their weekly rolling restarts. it is possible to be a successful business on mainland some places i shop at have their mainstore on mainland 

[Prokofy Neva]

I've been in business on the Mainland for six years with a rentals and content business, and I love it.

But mainland isn't for the faint of heart.

No land purchase in Second Life is "an investment". It is like a boat: a hole in the Internet into which you pour money.

Or, it's a business expense -- really costly server rental.

 

You don't say whether you want to put up a rentals or a store or what. If you find the right sim -- a pretty sim where the view is fairly stable -- you might get some nice rentals going but you can't charge island prices.

I think starting a business is better on the mainland because you have the additional factor of fly-bys and serendipity and also working with neighbours to make things work that you don't get on an island.

The rolling restarts happen just about every other day. If the sim seems to lag out you can call Concierge if you own 1.5 or more sims and ask for a restart. Or even as a premium customer try putting in a ticket.

I think mainland gives you more flexibility. You can buy smaller sizes and you can sell it at least for something, although not what you paid, if you are done. Islands are big and you have to deal with all or nothing.

[Prokofy Neva]

The difference is that the lease of an island is really more expensive. You have to pay the purchase price on many islands, and then the tier, and these are higher than mainland, because the owners have $295 month tier instead of $195 tier. So you will simply have less cost even paying tier directly to Linden Lab for mainland -- if you get a mainland rental you will have the lowest cost of all.

But with land so dirt cheap now there are good deals for far less than the full island price that are still nice.

Islands are isolated. If you can't expect to be found in search, it doesn't hurt to get near other people especially a shopping area, but it depends on the goals.

[Ry0ta Exonar]

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adriannesuz McMinnar wrote:

 My question is...can a small business grow into a thriving upscale brand on mainland?  Isn't mainland better just for residential?  Are there frequent enough sim restarts to deal with lag on the mainland? 

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I started with a small plot like 10m x 16m with 50 prims on mainland about 2 years ago, moved to a bit larger shop for rent in a mall on an island 4 months later, opened my main shop at a plot like 30m x 50m with 410 prims on mainland 5 months later and moved the main shop to a plot like 40m x 70m with 680 prims on mainland early this month.

The new place is on the waterfront and commands a very fine view, so I like it.

  While looking for a parcel for rent this time, I went also to some islands cause I read somewhere it's less laggy on private islands, but I didn't feel that different because maybe my lag is mainly client-side one. :smileysad:

 

[Irene Muni]

 

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Wildcat Furse wrote:

Running a business on mainland or on a private estate is not different, your product is selling or it doesn't. ... ... ...

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Agree. If your product is really a good and interesting product, nobody has problem buting it in  Mainland or in a Private Region. Just my opinion

 

[adriannesuz McMinnar]

Thank you all for your encouraging comments.    I feel much better about taking that plunge now.

[Tiffy Vella]

I hope you do take the plunge, and wish you the best.

As usual, I've come in late to a thread (blame timezones), but have had a mainstore on Mainland for over 2 1/2 years, and love it.

One of the best assets you can have as a business is a stable landmark. Don't let the location of your business be at the mercy of a middleman who may suddenly up-stumps and leave you stuck. On Mainland, you can only lose control of your land if you do something stupid.

Also, it can be ideal to increase your landholdings gradually, without having to invest in a large chunk of island at the start. Mainland can be quite flexible that way, and this has improved since the drop in demand. If I suddenly had to cut my tier, I'd have the option of slicing some off, and could still keep the original section and landing point.

If the neighbours are doing something hideous, move upwards, away from any lag, and remember that they will probably soon move anyway.

 

Have fun, and good luck

 

[Phil Deakins]

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adriannesuz McMinnar wrote:

My question is...can a small business grow into a thriving upscale brand on mainland?

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It certainly can. I started my low prim furniture store on a 1024m piece of mainland and I grew it on mainland into being among the largest and best known, and among the most successful in its field, earning a load of RL money in the process.

 

[Blot Brickworks]

Yes mainland is OK for for business use. It is greatly improved since the adfarmers are gone.I have always stuck with mainland and this plot Is almost 2 years old.

True you can get some bad neighbors but in my experience they never stay long.

Have a good look around and try to buy somewhere that you think will suit your particular need .

Go for it..........

[Madeliefste Oh]

 

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Blot Brickworks wrote:

True you can get some bad neighbors but in my experience they never stay long.

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That's also true. I have seen a lot of neighbours come and go. The ones who stay the longest are other businesses (at least in my area). When I first became a parcel on mainland there was much more residental use of the land, and you very rarely had the change to buy an extra parcel. That changed about two years ago. First people started selling their land, and later most of them just abandonned it. For a while I was widely surrounded by green land.

Last half year mainland seems to pick up a bit. At least in my region I see a new pattern. The are some parcels bought by people who have breadable animals and there are other businesses starting up in my region. 

[Sea Warcliffe]

Ill just pile in agreeing with everyone here. I started my shop on my little 512 mainland island, and was able to grow at my own pace, till now I have 6,000 sq meters on the same sim. From the start I was so thrilled with my premium 512  (thats basically free if you pay a year at a time and factor in the stipend) - so I made 2 more premium alts who donated their 512 tier to group.  Cheapest tier around :smileywink:

It has worked incredibly well for me  - unlike some of my friends who rent I have never had a sim sold out from under me, I can build as I like, grow at my own pace, and have my friends sell stuff in my shop. I keep hearing customers express surprise that my shop is on mainland - I guess they expected it to be all ugly chaos, but it really isnt.

When looking for land I recommend picking an area that you like and just teleporting about using the map with land for sale ticked. My preferences is to have at least one (and preferably more) sides adjacent to linden protected land or water.

[adriannesuz McMinnar]

Thanks!  I am learning so much about mainland!    Does anyone know which factor makes a bigger difference in lag?  Memory allocated or active scripts?  I visited one sim with 2000 active scripts but only 34MB memory allocated, and another sim with 5000 active scripts but 63MB allocated.  

[Machess Lemton]

Number of avatars makes the most difference followed by number of active scripts. So avoid sim with clubs.

[Medhue Simoni]

Maybe I missed some1 mentioning this, but you do not have full control over the height of the ground level on Mainland. You get like a 10 meter range or something, that you can change it. For a small plot, this might not be a big deal. For a whole sim, like I have, what a headache. After being there over a year and a half now tho, you can't really even tell that I'm forced to have those inclines, but it still sucks.

I really miss my underwater caves. Swimming or diving was something I did all the time in SL. Now, I can't remember the last time I was in SL water.:smileysad:

Oh, and this tiering up BS sucks! Not to mention too, that LL could've been making more money off me if I did not have to tier up, and I just paid for what I use.

[Relm Foxdale]

I debated myself whether to go mainland when I decided to open a stand-alone store. I visited some available parcels and saw all the usual privacy walls and junk that I've sadly come to associate with the mainland. Even though I know that that stuff doesn't matter for a store like it does for a house, I still wasn't comfortable with having a store somewhere where no covenant could result in something really horrific or even harassing. Plus, I'd have to go premium, which I've always been reluctant to do.

I rent my home land from a major estate, so I rented from them for the store, too. Of course, they could go under, but they're a massive outfit and very good and involved people, so I'm taking what I think is only a small risk there.

On the subject in general:

I definitely think a stand-alone is an excellent idea, though, if you can swing it (that's the fun part). I always wanted one just because it'd be nice to have my own space, but what helped drive me to act was when someone I knew was going to lose a major store of his because the RP sim it was on was closing. I knew that at any moment, the same could happen to my main store (and lo and behold, that sim's closing now), so I figured it was best to act while the iron was hot and get moved over so a sim closing had no effect on me. And it's my own space, which is the best part, where I can put up whatever building and plants and crap I want. I even built a Halloween skybox thing with freebies and that freaky-cool furniture. Of course, there are never enough prims, ever.

Of course, being on your own plot also lets you list in search and all that good stuff.

When I rented it, I laughed because I was already not covering costs and was now renting 1/16 of a sim. I thought, "Well, now I know I'll never cover costs!" But oddly, I've been more or less making rent.

[Zanara Zenovka]

 

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Tiffy Vella wrote:

One of the best assets you can have as a business is a stable landmark. Don't let the location of your business be at the mercy of a middleman who may suddenly up-stumps and leave you stuck. On Mainland, you can only lose control of your land if

you

do something stupid.

If the neighbours are doing something hideous, move upwards, away from any lag, and remember that they will probably soon move anyway.

---

 

Exactly.

No matter how good your landlord is, you never have full control when renting - things change; people move on.

I had a great rental for the first 2 years, but the sim got sold, and despite promises that the new owner would continue rentals, it never happened. It took me months to recover the business from that move.

I then bought my own land and couldn't be happier. Yes the neighbours did hideous stuff, but i too moved upwards.

My tier is taken out automatically, I get live support on the rare occasions I need it, which is just for the odd sim reboot. I don't have to deal with anyone besides LL. It's about as pain-free as it gets.