Tips For Starting A Business

I've found many good articles and blogs giving tips on starting a business. I've taken the best of these and modified them to apply to business in Second Life®.

Choose a business you know. Choose a business you are familiar with and able to answer questions about. Don’t pick a business that requires a lot of work if you are limited in the amount of time you can spend in Second Life®. It might sound fun to do something you know little about, but if you sound that way to your customers or are unable to provide answers, doom is likely.

Get to know your customers. You must know who your customers are because all of your advertising, branding, product types and even product names must be geared towards them.
Know your customers’ needs. Pay attention to what people say and ask for. Knowing what your customers are looking for will help you decide what you should be creating and spending your time on.

Take your time. Start small and expand only as you have the money. If you aren’t making money, why would you want to expand? Expanding too quickly can be labor intensive and not cost effective.

Make things easy. Make the items in your store visible and easy to find. Provide easy to access information and a decent quality picture. In addition, don't make things too difficult for yourself.

Experiment! Mix up your products and constantly try new things. Sitting dormant will not attract customers. Be innovative and never afraid to experiment.

Promote Promote Promote. You MUST advertise. Find the best approach and places to advertise your business and keep trying. If one thing doesn’t’ work, drop it and try another. Never stop advertising.

Customer service is the key. Be polite and always give customers your time. Give refunds if required. Always be helpful and friendly. Ensure that when your customers leave, they feel satisfied.

Forget the competition. If you pay attention to your competition you are likely to imitate them. Be unique and you will attract your own customers. Have faith and confidence.

Running a Second Life® business is not that much different that running a real life business. Basic business principles apply. Too many people jump into running a business in Second Life® thinking it is easy. It's not.

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