Sponsors for Second Life Live Music Venues

For those who don't know, Second Life Live Music Venue owners typically carry all the costs of running the venues. They pay tier for land to have the venue on, some venues pay the performers and some are tips only and some pay a staff.  Most rely on venue tips to help recoup just a small fraction of those costs, however, it rarely comes close to covering even the costs of paying performers. So it is very important that people do tip the venues when they can. Tipping is a kind gesture to thank venues for providing free entertainment.

To further help alleviate some of the costs, I recommend venues try to find sponsors. I have had success in the past with finding sponsors for the performers I manage for their individual shows. Also, I have had success with sponsors covering costs for big events.

Here are a few ways to get started finding sponsors.....

1. Figure out your venues numbers. How many shows a week for how many hours. Then keep track of your average draw per hour. This can be done simply by looking at how many people are at the show at the mid way point which is typically the peak time. Keep track of those numbers for a few weeks and then you have something to approach sponsors with.

In real life events are sponsored all the time.

2. Know how much of your costs you are trying to cover. If you spend L$XXXXX a week, what % would you like to get sponsors to help with?

3. Put together a note card that outlines the data from your venue numbers to show the sponsors how many people they can reach by sponsoring your shows. Also, include how long the sponsorship would last.... weekly? monthly?

4. Reach out to content creators that are suitable for your venue and explain to them that you can offer to place their Logo on a clickable prim or adboard with a LM to their location near your stage for X amount of time for X amount of L$. Also, it will help to explain that the sponsors will be mentioned by you or your staff through out the shows X number of times.

Don't fear rejection, this is after all a sales pitch to the content creators. You have to go through some no's before you get to yes's but if you can point out the benefit to the creators, then eventually you will find some willing to give it a chance.

Start with creators from stores where you shop, then you can tell them that you are a regular customer and you will feel good about promoting their brand at your venue.

This is just a quick blog post with ideas, its up to you to put in the time and effort to make it happen. I'm happy to consult with venue owners if you need more information or tips on how to go about finding sponsors. Just drop me a notecard in Second Life, Kalli Birman is my legacy name.

Second Life Business Basics

As a follow up to yesterday's post, I decided to post a few helpful tips for businesses in Second Life.

Let us start with, SL is not a game. People treat it as a game but in fact it is not. It would be more accurate to describe it as a 3D social network with some game like qualities.

There are people in Second Life that make their living here, however, most people are here for recreational reasons. The people who make their living in SL already see it as a real business, now I'm not saying they all run that business well or effectively but they do likely consider it a real business and not play time.

The thing is, even if SL is recreational or a creative outlet for you, if you exchange goods or services for currency or services, you are doing a business transaction. Due to the nature of SL anyone can start a business very inexpensively and just because one owns a business, does not make them professional business people. However, they still need to take those business transactions seriously.

It is never easy to balance work and recreation, even in real life, but it can be done and maintain professionalism. Starting with the basic of time management. If you are trying to have time for both work and play then it might behoove you to delineate a set time for dealing with note cards from clients or customers and do list in your profile your preferred method of contacts (i.e. note card, IM, email). If you run a venue and have events as your work time, make sure you give yourself enough of a time window to send notices and do promotion, get the musician set up and time after to wish people well.

Sometimes delays happen, it is inevitable. I've had to postpone things or rearrange things because something happened in real life that didn't allow me to be in SL. If these events occure, let people know! I cannot express that enough... LET PEOPLE KNOW.  The general populous of SL doesn't need to know your personal business, however, if you have agreed to some sort of business arrangement, like setting up a store, performing a show, meeting with a client, give them as much notice as you can that you need to rearrange or change a timeline. Most people will be understanding and willing to work with you, but if you do not let them know that you cannot do what is agreed to, they will feel blown off or not be willing to work with you in the future. It is about having integrity or a strong work ethic.

I could keep writing on and on...there might be more blog posts in this series in the future but for now, if you need assistance with your business you can always contact my business partner, Seth Regan/ Mankind Tracer in SL or myself. We own the Tracer|Birman Agency and can help with many different aspects of your business, such as: Website Design, Graphics Design and other Digital Design, Social Media, Marketing, Social Marketing, Brand Creation, Event Planning, Brand Introduction, Logo Design, Corporate Identity. More specific services geared toward Second Life include, Logo Design, Social Integration, Custom Builds, Event Planning, Marketing, Product Design and Sim Layout/Design. If you would like more information you can email us at info@tracerbirman.com

You can also check out Seth's blog HERE which has a lot of useful marketing information.