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Want to Start Business (Need Your Opinion)


Dionysiius
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I was thinking of creating like a small place for people to get together and listen to music. I really don't want to refer to it as a lounge. More like a place to come and relax like a lounge but outside? Maybe it'll be on a beach, not exactly sure yet. I was thinking that is the best bet though. I was going through expenses and be on a 4096sqm plot. I'm trying not to spend too much.

I was also thinking when hiring staff it would consist of just DJs and Hosts only. I wanted to say that this staff has to come with their own following to ensure we have a lounge with actual people. lol Do you think that is asking for too much? 

I have not purchased the land yet as I wanted to see if I could find staff that would be willing to work under these terms but of course not before consulting you all on this forum. :) 

The next thing I was thinking was what if I charged people to get in? I was thinking like $50? If not I was thinking since the staff is guaranteed pay... maybe I could take from the tips? I have that listed below as I would receive %20 of the tips made. I just wanted to ensure that the staff is paid because I know sometimes tips may not really be too generous.

I wanted to just run the lounge and trying to make a profit a long the way. I'm thinking if I play it smart maybe this lounge can pay for itself? I'm not caring to make a huge profit but if I can just break even on tier alone I'll be happy.

I was thinking the time the lounge should be either:

8pm - 10pm

10pm - 12am

I AM LOOKING FOR YOUR HONEST INPUT! 

 

(Note: PRICES ARE IN LINDENS OF COURSE)

2 Hours Per Day


6 DJs - 1800
6 Hosts - 1800
Tier - 1299
---------------------------
$4899

PAY + 80% = TIPS
$300 per event

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My advice is your focusing to much on money, if profit is the the main factor in whether or not you start a business then the business is sure to fail. 

Our business was nigh on free but by the second year we were making huge profits.. profits which I paid completely to tier and to my staff.. 

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As noted, you shouldn't do anything in SL for money. What you're also describing is a club, which SL has a billion of. What would your club do to make it stand out from the billion others? This ties into the thought of charging a cover fee as well as the timing. 50L for maybe 2 hours of entertainment, in a place that is just like any number of places in SL that don't charge a cover and run longer than 2 hours... You're gonna lose your shirt. You are literally suggesting what ever other person suggests and generally fails to do.

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Here are some tips I have learned along the way, take them as exactly that please, however, as different places work differently. It's not necessarily criticism of you, or your idea itself :)

What you'e describing, is a club. I know what you want it to be like, a lounge, but it is very much a club.

Not even a few clubs have *ever* made an actual profit. A select few have made enough from guests to cover tier, or paying staff.  Even less have made enough to cover tier and staff. Do not look to cover any of these within the first year. *If* your club lasts that long, you can start to focus on making enough profit to cover tier/staff pay, perhaps both, but not a profit beyond that. It's just unrealistic to expect anything more.

Cover charges are a bad idea, no matter how you slice it. It's a new place, you're not going to have a big crowd at first, ok not likely, but even if you do, there's no guarantee it's going to stay that way. Cover charges are, often, looked down upon. Unless you have some niche market nailed down that only you can serve, no one is going to pay a cover charge. Some places have a "group access only" policy, and they charge for the group. It's the same concept, although some seem to think otherwise, so more people are willing to pay the group fee, but not a cover charge for the parcel. That's an odd concept to me, but, whatever floats their boat I suppose, lol.

On taking the tips...most clubs that take a percentage of tips, take no more than 10%, that is common even in rl. Anything more than that, and you better already have your own people to fill the place and not rely on a dj or host to do so for you, because odds are, they aren't going to be willing to give you anything over 10%.

If you want your employees to bring their own crowd(which does happen, a lot) it may take you a while to find employees that actually *have much of a following. Many hosts have no following, while many djs have followings, but the size of their fan base is going to vary greatly. Asking staff to bring a following is a good idea, requiring it, is not. 

I am guessing by your breakdown that each dj and host will get $300l per shift, plus their tips. That's a *very* good thing. Djs and hosts that are paid well, will return/stick around, and will (typically) give you great work. While those that rely solely on tips alone, are less inclined to work super hard (though greater in number). That's a bit subjective though, it depends a lot on the atmosphere, management, etc...

Know what you want in advance as far as atmosphere is concerned. You need to know what you want, before you start. That includes everything from the decor tot he music, the type of people you want to attract, and anything else you intend to offer.

Places that are simply designed for hanging around, don't last as long as places that offer something more. Please, for the love of holy jello, do not put malls or storefronts, or any kind of vendors on the land. That tells people you can't pay for the land, or the staff, and are more likely to offer less and less as time goes on. Though it's not always the case, it IS the case more often than not. Personally, I recommend staying away from some of the music genres that are heavily covered elsewhere on the grid-mainly because you'd be a very tiny fish in an already overly saturated ocean. For example, 70's, 80's, 90's (and even into early 00s)-often all rock, are waaaaaaaaaay over-covered. Everyone and their mother does that, lol. Country music is an iffy one too, because of well established places. If you want to stick with a genre, that's a great idea, but I wouldn't put a "year" limit on it, as it were. You should know your genre(s) before you even get the land though, wel, I would anyway. 

Keeping lag to a minimum, regardless of the source of lag, will help. Do your best, you can't fix it all. You should also pay close attention to other things on the same sim. Are there other clubs, big hangouts, storefronts, residential? All of this will play a role n how you conduct your business, or they should anyway, lol.

Your operating hours are going to severely limit you in every single way. You will *not* profit off this, not even likely enough to cover part of tier/staff pay, let alone all. It just won't happen. Other places that do manage covering even part of tier, usually do so because they're open for much longer hours, or at least more in a day. Nearly every club that as profited enough to cover basic overhead, is a 24/7 place. 

My best bit of advice, and I apologize in advance I know this is lengthy enough....is to go around the grid and visit the countless clubs, lounges, gathering places, etc.. Get a feel for them all, even the empty ones, or the ones that don't cater to your specifically desired audience. You can even talk to others that ahve run them, or do run them, most are pretty easy going and love to share advice(as long as you don't make it sound like a sales pitch for your new nifty idea, that's usually frowned on, lol).

Best of luck to you :D 

(apologies, again, for any typos, I think I caught them all with spellcheck but I decided to stop using a TTS here a while ago..and, well...being blind doesn't make typing easy, even if you've fully memorized the keyboard lmao)

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not sure if you have done any inworld research on this. If not then have a look at:

Dance Island (techno), Muddys (easy), Black Horse (country), Ambrosia (pop), Wet Willies (rock), Franks (jazz). These have been inworld for quite a few years now and are still doing good business. Theres others also that have the same longevity

none of these places charges a door fee. (Franks has a VIP group that is pay, but is a onetime join fee)

is not that door fees cant be done. Is that the competition dont have them

 

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Very informative and thank you for replying. I was also thinking of a different kind of business based off of roleplay instead. That is the main message that everyone seems to agree upon. Have a business and do it for fun and it'll stick around a lot longer.

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Hi, thank you for responding. I actually was visiting a few spots. Lol Surprisingly I was in a roleplay city and they had a dj booth on their land a good number of people showed up. I wanted to visit one of the places I used to work at on SL but I don't remember the name. That place stayed packed.

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yes. There's a number of venues located on themed sims. Like for example goth, urban/hiphop, scifan, deathmetal, etc which are not open 24/7, the venues attract those into these scenes

i think being very clear in the thinking about what the scene is, is the most critical

for example, something I just saw earlier

i notice in the Wanteds on here, someone is asking for a builder to make a defqon style stage for them. Is hardstyle this, which has a strong following in Europe and Asia/Pacific. Malay/melbourne etc dance styles fused with gamer weekend warrior culture

theres been a number of hardstyle venues and still are. That defqon style staging tho is pretty interesting to have a go at. Visually and atmospherically it takes the scene to a whole other level, as it does in the RL

  

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