HI everyone,
In real life I am a Child and Youth Care worker (also a social worker with the Ministry of Children and Families). I have an idea for second life, or perhaps teen second life. I was wanting to open up a youth/support center that would offer informal counselling services. As many who frequent the internet are avaoiding particular real life issues (not me ), I think having an outlet where people could come and talk about what is going on to someone who has real life counselling experience would be an asset. What I need help with is how to go about creating a center, purchasing land, and perhaps charging a fee for services, which could turn into a real life profit for those interested. I have actually talked to a lawyer friend of mine and he is in the process of copyrighting this idea and looking into real life government grants for this venture. As I am fairly new to SL I have not mastered how to do everything, including starting a business. So, any ideas? Anybody interested?
Thanks!

Interesting idea; however, I think some research might uncover information that will help you.

I don't want to discourage you from trying your idea, but since you asked....

I have personally seen a number of groups, churches, and other support-style organizations come and go in SL. I have also heard of practitioners like psychologists trying to offer their services.

For example, I owned a small plot in a new sim, so a lot was changing pretty quickly. A church opened nearby - the building was very well done and it looked like people visited it since the pastor appeared to be there pretty often. The church disappeared within a month, only to be replaced by some houses and a small club.

You need to see if there is even a demand for a service like yours - you can determine demand partially based on past experience. I suppose that these types of services are not very popular since so many have appeared and disappeared. The lack of these types of services now seems to suggest that people are investing their time elsewhere for now.

Despite what you hear about all of the change that occurs in SL, there are a lot of things that are tried over and over again and to varying degrees of success. Well thought out plans and careful execution of the project, marketing, and community building activities are necessary to assure some exposure.

However, unlike in the movie "Field of Dreams", because you build something does not necessarily mean that people will come. Your market will determine if your idea has any traction.

One other aspect you might want to consider is how long it takes to get a viable business off the ground and make it a success. It often takes *months* of dedicated work to reach your intended market; many people give up when they are billed for their tier fee for the first time. In fact, a lot of land resellers make their living based on buying land at well below market rate since the owner wants to unload the land quickly to avoid future tier payments (the price of land is cheap compared to the tier you'll pay during the total time you own the land).

If you'd like some more guidance, contact me via IM - I offer business and community building consulting services to RL organizations that want to have a presence in SL.

Good luck,

-2fast

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