Small shop in industrial sim

[Matti Leitner]

I am a new mesh builder- and I think the hardest thing for me is advertising. I understand that you need money to make money, but with the amount I've already put into the game for building, my husband is more than wary of me continuing to fork over cash and not seeing any revenue. In a desperate attempt to make sales, and hopes of getting votes- I dropped the price of all my stuff to 1L. I get sales every day due to this, which was better than getting none at all, but it doesn't make enough for me to actually benefit from it.

So onto my next task. I can now (probably) start to afford an extremely cheap and small shop for some of my stuff. Granted, the term 'cheap' is extremely different for a lot of people, but what I am attempting to look for:

A lot of my builds are industrial decor, so a sim that is similar to it, I think, would help the business thrive.

Seeing as how I am currently selling all of my stuff for 1L, I am looking for something that can accomodate a Dollarbee setting: Something as low as 50L a week for a generic amount of prim would be in the higher end of my pricing limit. 

Lastly, I would like to be decent looking. I understand that for my price limit and my very low funds- that is practically impossible, but I feel like there isn't any reason why a sim should be outdated these days. There's plenty of free (or practically free) merch to make an area look good. 

On another note, and completely off topic: If ANYONE has any idea on how to help start a business from scratch, I would more than gladly take critiques, criticism, and ideas- because I have been doing this for several months with no avail, and I feel like my mesh creations are worth more than what I am actually getting out of them. 

[MSTRPLN]

I'll be following this topic since im a beginning mesher too (beginning as in, on SL i have experience), i recently came from a different game so any critique etc would benefit (: Sorry i can't be of any help, currently im building on a friend's land but when i need a shop, this topic could help.

[Tamara Artis]

Since you said, and sorry for continuing that off-topic part...

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Matti Leitner wrote:

If ANYONE has any idea on how to help start a business from scratch, I would more than gladly take critiques, criticism, and ideas- because I have been doing this for several months with no avail, and I feel like my mesh creations are worth more than what I am actually getting out of them. 

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As soon as you can, change all prices from one to anything between 50-100L$, leave one thing at 1L$ and every few months make another freebie. 

Inform yourself about vendor design - the focus is on the product, the image should show the product in the best possible way. Don't put letters above the product image, don't let letters touch the edge of the vendor image, don't put object at the side leaving an empty space in the middle. Make more than one photo per product. Include long descriptions for each of your products (remember, everthing you write in the product description can be considered as a keyword, not only the actual keywords).

Your vendor names are great but I would consider putting the brand name on the last place.

Create social presence for yourself and your brand - Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, G+, Wordpress or Blogger are just some of the places with huge SL communities and all big names advertise there. Try at least some sites, create nice profile, join groups, connect with people, post news about your brand. Do not spam!

In-world join some promotional groups, create an alt and join more promotional groups, search for shopping events that accept new brands. 

Forget the land for now, it is completely fine for a new brand to sell only on the MP, when you have enough earnings to afford not only land but also a nice quality building and store furniture and maybe even something to decorate the outside of the building and have enough money to survive few months of low sales - then you can rent in-world shop. Until then, focus on creating more products and creating a presence for your brand.

And I like your stuff, for real, forget that 1L$ pricing, it makes you look like a cheater, or someone not serious about what they are doing. Good luck! 

[Matti Leitner]

No no, thank you very much. The information is helpful. I don't get to actually discuss a lot with people about this, so any help and all help is greatful. 

I will look into what I can do to make things differently. Start a tumblr perhaps, and change prices up accordingly. Then I shall see what happens from there and go forth.