Small Business Search
While I’ve met some incredible people over the last few weeks in the real world (many of whom I will be blogging about soon) I’m interested in meeting some people in the virtual world right now. Specifically:
- Do you know someone who owns a small business in real life that has a virtual world presence?
If you do, please leave a comment or email me at info@calebbooker.com.
Why do I want to know?
Right now there is no faster growing demographic in North America than the independent entrepreneur. Especially here in Canada, the idea of going out there on one’s own and building something out of nothing has caught on in a very big way. These are the world’s true adventurers, courageously risking it all in the name of something they believe in.
But…
Out here on the newest frontier of business and technology, they are rather under-represented. There are many growing small businesses that create virtual world products or services, but the number of real-world small businesses that are able to harness the power of virtual worlds is dismal.
This is largely because most small businesses are focused on their immediate surroundings. Most of the Second Life based businesses are entirely focused on creating virtual products or services because that’s where their customers are.
So then, is it even possible for a business in the real world to use virtual spaces to access their customer base? It’s hard to “go local” in a virtual space right now - the dreams of “augmented reality” where every real-world location has a virtual counterpart, and vice-versa, are a bit far off.
This, however, is only a schizm in the way we think about things. It’s not an actual problem. There are dozens and dozens of ways small businesses can achieve serious benefits from virtual spaces right now (I rambled off a half-dozen in a rather disorganized blog post a short while ago). The question is how to make these solutions accessible to small business.
That requires some exploration. I can theorize and act like a happy little pundit forever here, or I can do something real like investigate what’s already being done. Thus the request for your help.
Barring this, I’m just going to have to start building virtual world presences for my real-world friends myself. I hope I don’t have to do that, frankly… I already work full-time! LOL…
