Wanting to Start a Club

[perfectstormss]

Hello,

 

So my friends and I wanted to explore the idea of creating a club.

 

1. Can we hire a builder?

2. If so, who is known?

3. Do you buy an entire Sim or Rent land?

4. Any pointers?

We want a hip hop style club for second life with a lot of flare and modern theme, any guidance will be welcomed

 

TIA!

[Rowan Amore]

1. You could but that's costly.  Find a nice skybox you all like and start there.
2.  Search marketplace or look around in world at other sims.
3.  I'd suggest renting a parcel on a commercial sim.  1\4 sim should be good to begin.  Smaller would work, too.
4. If you're looking at it as a money making idea, don't.  A place for friends to hang out is usually what they end up being. It's more times than not, a money pit.

[Gem Oxygen]

5. Prepare to pay for your own place for a very long time with your RL money for months.

6. Pay for marketing out of your RL pocket, you will need to place ads at various other regions weekly, renting ad-boards is recommended, which means marketing posters someone creates for you, or you make. If someone makes one for you that is not something tossed in, you're going to pay for that too.

 7.You will need to find and pay for a regular DJ, and not just anyone will do, people come to clubs to listen to top, good quality music, stay away from Karaoke.

Most clubs  like Rowan said usually ends up just as a family n friends hang out, even then they get bored and move on to something more exciting if you do not offer what every other listed club offers. decor, build, music is key. Plus do not think you can build and they will come, those days are pretty much gone out of SL because everyone wants a club and the world will flock it it . You MUST participate, entertain and play a hugely active role in it, promotions, events, dances.

Any SL club that is successful and lots of people usually have been around for years and the owners have treated the club  just as they would as if they opened up a real life business. If you just want something casual and want a fun lil place to hang out and invite those in your circle more power to you, if you  want high power traffic and a money maker, be prepared to be in it for the long haul and put a lot of money in it.

[Bree Giffen]

18 hours ago, perfectstormss said:

1. Can we hire a builder?

2. If so, who is known?

3. Do you buy an entire Sim or Rent land?

4. Any pointers?

1. Yes you can, but a custom built club will be expensive. Might want to look at prefabricated buildings in the SL marketplace.

2. No idea. Try right clicking on the walls of a nice club and see who the creator is. 

3. Buying a sim is also expensive with a large initial payment and monthly fees. If you rent, find a reputable landlord.

4. I think promoters are always overlooked by club owners. Just opening a club and creating a classified ad is never enough. Might want to start small. A smaller club space looks packed and popular with fewer people while a huge space looks depressingly empty with the same number of visitors. Also, you learn the ropes and lose less money. If you find success, you can always grow.

[Lancewae Barrowstone]

One thing you have in your favor:  a group of friends. That alone gives you an upper hand compared to all the zillions of cooly built clubs with accoutrement à gogo, and where hardly a soul is ever seen.  If your group gathers regularly to dance and talk and have fun together, then you become attractive to others.  You are a functioning club.  You may have gotten over that ONE BIG HURDLE that all clubs face: an empty club brings no one. 

As for the build, it can be simple, a stage in a pasture of cows and chickens.  Hah.  I mean, Anything is okay if the club is working.  It's the people, the music, and the attitude that counts.  Announce it to us when you have it created.  

 

[Lewis Luminos]

@Lancewae Barrowstone is right; you already have a group of eager friends and that's about 75% of what you need to make a successful club.

On top of that you'll need a parcel of land where you can plonk a skybox (clubs at altitude are less laggy than ones at ground level) and you'll need at least one person who has an available stream for DJs to use (most pro DJs have their own).  You'll need to pay the land tier or rent, and you'll need to pay your DJs (and hosts, if you don't just do that yourself). You'll also need at minimum a singles dance machine with at least half a dozen good general purpose unisex dances. 

If these costs are split between you and your friends, it won't be terribly expensive per person. I run a small club out of my own pocket with one DJ event per week and even without tips and donations, my regular expenses are less than £5 per week. I started out with a prefab skybox and over time I replaced it with my own build in a similar style.

[Prokofy Neva]

You might want to wait 30 days and see if the desire passes, as you are in for a lot of trouble.

Like you, when I was a newbie, I wanted to make a club. All newbies love this idea. I bought land on the auction and made a club. It ended in tears.

Why do clubs end in tears?  A major reason is you argue with your fellow club owners over different visions or their unwillingness to pay tier or do work or whatever other reason people online can find to argue. But then there are these problems:

o No one comes to them. That is, first your friends come enthusiastically to the opening, then they disappear. You have no tips.

o You put vendors on them to help cover the tier, no one buys anything.

o You rent stalls to cover the tier, you now have the management problem of those tenants and then they leave as no one buys from them.

o You keep trying to get traffic, visitors, stuff, you put in a DJ, or you put in an art show, or you have a building contest (my favourite thing) -- and none of it lasts.

o In the old days, the Lindens used to give you actual dollar cash money for the amount of "dwell" you gained on your land. In those glorious days, I used to make like US $30 from some of these sites every month, although with others, I redistributed it to tenants as a perk. But understandably, they took that away after they got started.

o No one tips the DJs or musicians or artists sufficiently. They go away.

o Month after month, not only do you have to pay tier -- let's say at least $25 for a 4096 or whatever, and you can't make the money to cover it. 

o Meanwhile, you have to keep buying new content and even pay DJs or buy streams to have something to compete -- and you lose money.

o You attract griefers and people with various scores to settle with club members.

So these things are why I personally don't make a club, but more to the point, I refuse to rent to clubs. Buy your own land, and experience these joys and sorrows yourself.

What makes a good club?

o The ability to attract people even when there is no event and nothing live -- pretty builds, hangouts, photography, just nice chill spaces with a stream.

o A manager willing to constantly socialize with people and help new people.

o A bouncer to constantly eject griefers and maintain order, preferably not the same person as the manager who has to be friendly.

o Vendors with things people actually want to buy, i.e. not junk, not business in a box, but top designers and creators.

o Live events like live music or poetry readings that people like. This takes work. Tremendous amounts of work that generally burns out every manager of a club, everywhere, always, until they quit.

If you and your little friends want a club, have one on a 512 and see if that works. Seriously. A nice little club without the grandeur of an entire sim let alone 8192 is a way to find out if you really have what it takes.

And do me a favour. Buy some abandoned land in the back of the beyond, not next to me, so you don't lag my sim. A key reason I don't rent to clubs is that through using camping and exploders and gimmicks, they can sometimes get visitors and even 40 visitors taking up an entire sim from a 4096, which means other people can't get home to rentals they pay for. No thanks!

 

Edited August 21, 2020 by Prokofy Neva

[Kimmi Zehetbauer]

When I had my club, it was mostly live music and I did it for fun, not to make a killing. I ran the place myself although I had help from a friend. I turned the place to someone else who made it her own and stepped back due to RL stuff and other things.

[Amanda Crisp]

Running a club in SL has to be a labor of love, because 99% of the time its not financially viable.

Thats *not* a reason not to try, but expect it to be a money-sink for quite a while - maybe forever.

If you want to run a place where interesting people can mix and mingle and you don’t care much about being #1, you have a much greater chance of being satisfied with the whole thing.

Advice: Be good to your staff. So many club owners see the $ going out with not quite as much coming back - and go straight to “shouty” mode.

I have seen this multiple times over 15 years here;

-Berating staff (who USED to be your friends) in Group chat in an attempt to find coverage for shifts is a losing proposition. So is trying to expand too fast.

If you can provide a fun experience 1 night a week and people keep coming back, slowly build up to two, and so on.

If you can keep the mindset; “This is something I’m doing *with* my friends and *for* my friends” - its amazing how far that goes to keeping Staff and guests.

The moment you mentally become a Business; that’s when things get risky on the SL club scene.

Please post when you open!  I’m not specifically into Hip Hop, but I’ll show up and bring my Partner.

Any excuse to dance and meet new friends is a good one 🙂

Good luck!

[Jennifer Boyle]

2 hours ago, Amanda Crisp said:

Running a club in SL has to be a labor of love, because 99% of the time its not financially viable.

Advice: Be good to your staff. So many club owners see the $ going out with not quite as much coming back - and go straight to “shouty” mode.

If you can provide a fun experience 1 night a week and people keep coming back, slowly build up to two, and so on.

If you can keep the mindset; “This is something I’m doing *with* my friends and *for* my friends” - its amazing how far that goes to keeping Staff and guests.

The moment you mentally become a Business; that’s when things get risky on the SL club scene.

 

Yep!

[Lewis Luminos]

7 hours ago, Amanda Crisp said:

Running a club in SL has to be a labor of love, because 99% of the time its not financially viable.

Thats *not* a reason not to try, but expect it to be a money-sink for quite a while - maybe forever.

If you want to run a place where interesting people can mix and mingle and you don’t care much about being #1, you have a much greater chance of being satisfied with the whole thing.

 

All of this is absolutely correct.  I have been running my club for 7 years and I can count on the fingers of one hand how many months I've covered 100% of my costs. Usually I cover around 50%, with the rest coming out of my own pocket.  I do it because I love it, and if I wasn't spending that money on my club I'd be spending it on something else. It absolutely HAS to be a labour of love.

The one thing you need to ask yourself is, "If I make no money at all, and have to  finance 100% of it out of my own pocket, would I still do it?"  If the answer is not an immediate "Hell, yes!" then don't do it, because then the pressure will outweigh the enjoyment.

[Orwar]

   The first rule of the club is, you don't talk about the club . . .

[PermaRuthed]

If you want to create an illusion of your club being popular put in a voodoo sploder.  It'll get you visitors for sure but they'll be plunder bots looking for booty payout.

[Evah Baxton]

Just set it up. If you get any good DJ's, invite me. I'll be happy to check out a new club.

[Kimmi Zehetbauer]

Best clubs are ones that don't have the seizure inducing flashing lights --- host gesterbating non-stop --- DJ talking over the songs or only play portions of them --- calling out those not tipping and some others I can think of!

[perfectstormss]

http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Darkest Kiss/109/38/28

 

 

feel free to take a look!

 

opinions welcomed good or bad