Commitments, Contracts and Cancelling

In my last post "Do You REALLY Want To Manage A Musician in SL?" I touched on the topic of commitment in the last paragraph. Today I want to further expand upon that subject and what commitment means for musicians, managers, venues and anyone working in Second Life.

Managers:

If you want to manage a musician or venue, you are accepting a big responsibility. One that needs to be taken seriously as a very real commitment. Your musician or venue is counting on you to be prepared and on time.

Ultimately it is up to you and the venue or musician to negotiate terms of employment, such as, your role and all it encompasses. YES, I said employment!! It is a real job in a virtual world, if you are willing to work for  an hourly rate in SL, that a job. If you commit to a position, you need to take it as seriously as you would a real life job. If you would go to your real life job with a head ache or tummy ache then you need to log on to SL and do your job. There will be times when you need to cancel or cannot do something for legitimate reasons. A night out with the girls or going shopping is not a legitimate reason if you have a made a commitment to work in SL at that time.

Musicians:

As the manager of a musician and a venue owner and manager, I have certain expectations of musicians. My first expectation is simply to show up. Be there for the date and time booked and be there 15 minutes early to set up or ready to set up when the musician before you is done. When I hire a musician, that is a contract between me and them for a service for whatever pay is negotiated. Just like in real life you are accountable to the terms and conditions of the contract. If you MUST cancel because of an RL gig or illness, give as much lead time as possible. Try to never cancel last minute if it cannot be helped and have your manager do it directly or you do it yourself. NEVER play the telephone game. I do not accept the excuse "I asked Ms X to let you know" It is not Ms X's job to let someone know you are cancelling. Should you have to cancel with less than 48 hours before the show, then do the right thing and offer a replacement booking at a discounted rate of at least 20% or more. If you fail to show up at all, with a legitimate reason, then offer a free booking. However, if you consistently cancel shows or fail to show up, you will start having trouble finding places to book you. Live up to your commitments.

I also believe that if a venue needs to cancel with less than 48 hours notice they should be willing to pay the performer 50% of the fee from the booking because the musician has lost the hour they have committed to and may not be able to find a replacement gig or if they do they may have to reduce their fee for a last minute booking.

Anyone else conducting business or working in SL:

When you make a commitment in Second Life, it is as good as making a commitment in real life. If you agree to a service, it is a contract with someone. Stores are responsible to the people they do business with. I don't care if SL is just your hobby, if you are willing to exchange goods or services for payment, then you are a business person. Give your customers a way to get in touch with you. Note card, email, IM or some form of communication is very important when you have a customer base. These are simple basic ideas but all too often in Second Life business is not taken seriously. Also, when entering into an agreement with another business, you are taking on yet another sort of commitment. If you are not willing to put in the time and commit to the business, should you really be doing business in SL?

Final Thought:

If you want to do business in Second Life you must be prepared to put in the time to make it work. Musicians, venues, managers, businesses, hosts and anyone else who is trading a product or service really needs to understand that people are relying on you to do what is right and live up to an ethical standard.