Accounting 2021 Second Life Business Owner Interview

The Assignment:

For extra credit in my Accounting 2021 class my goal was to find and interview a Second Life business owner. I searched for businesses in second life and IM’ed some business owners. I got a reply from Adriana Hian, who volunteered to be interviewed. She is from Salvador de Bahia, Brazil, and currently sells business solutions on Second Life. My questions were going to focus on:

1) Why she started second life

2) What kind of business is she involved with in Second Life

3) What experience she has with accounting

4) The importance of accounting

What I learned:

I wanted to know why Adriana became involved with Second Life. She initially wanted to try Second Life for fun. After two days she had her own land and got a job in Second Life. Soon she started her own business, from which she sold art, clothes, and costumes. Later on, she decided to move in a new direction. With her previous experience in selling products with success, she decided to sell business solutions for new and problematic businesses on second Life. For sale now are her classes which focus on:

– Business Ownership and Leadership

– Advertising

– Building positive employer-employee relationships

– Product innovations

As for accounting, Adriana made the logical observation that it’s best to be able to do your own accounting in Second Life since you may not know your employees in real life. Obviously ethics is an important issue to be aware of both in reality and in the online environment. She stated that she focuses on the amounts of money in the accounts and the consistency.

I then asked about whether Adriana made any mistakes in her Second Life accounting experiences. She revealed that when she logs into her Second Life web page, she can click on “transaction history” and find her past transactions there. Records are stored automatically on the web site, which surely makes verifying one’s history much easier as it is an additional source of one’s personal journal. The Second Life website even provides the service of exporting the data into an Excel file.

From the interview, it seems the tools and services are in place for Second Life businesses to be profitable. The community seems to be growing so it will be interesting to see how large businesses like hers may grow in the future.

The interview is below:

[12:33] DaHanG Foggarty: Hi, are you ready for the interview?

[12:37] Adriana Hian: sure

[12:37] Adriana Hian: if you want you can tp me

[12:39] Adriana Hian: or if you like i can tp you

[12:39] DaHanG Foggarty: teleport? sure

[12:40] Adriana Hian: i teleport you or you teleport me lol

[12:40] DaHanG Foggarty: you teleport me

[12:40] DaHanG Foggarty:

[12:40] Adriana Hian: ok one sec

[12:41] DaHanG Foggarty:

[12:41] DaHanG Foggarty: thanks for volunteering

[12:41] DaHanG Foggarty: one moment please

[12:43] Adriana Hian: thats ok

[12:43] Adriana Hian: i have more than enough time

[12:45] DaHanG Foggarty: So, why did you get involved with second life?

[12:45] Adriana Hian: first of all , it was just i wanted to try it

[12:45] Adriana Hian: and the first day i installed it, i meet someone

really nice here

in sl

[12:45] Adriana Hian: and it all started with that

[12:45] Adriana Hian: after 2 days i had my own land

[12:46] Adriana Hian: and got a job in second life

[12:46] Adriana Hian: and a month later i started my own business

[12:46] Adriana Hian: i think people stay here when they meet nice

people at the start

[12:46] Adriana Hian: because suddenly you have a friend you only can

meet here

[12:47] Adriana Hian: in fact that friend is still my friend, and he

does all the building for me

[12:47] DaHanG Foggarty: Interesting, so do you have any experience

with accounting?

[12:48] Adriana Hian: yes i do it , to be sure im not losing money in

second life

[12:48] Adriana Hian: i had a lot of business here, but it took too

much of my time. so

now im only helping people with their problems, or those who want to

start with own

business and teaching people

[12:49] DaHanG Foggarty: So what exactly is it that you do? And how do

you help people?

[12:49] Adriana Hian: notecard of what i been doing in second life

[12:49] Adriana Hian: i can give you a notecard on that also

[12:49] Adriana Hian: im holding classes

[12:50] Adriana Hian: teaching employers

[12:50] Adriana Hian: helping owners that lose money or have problems

[12:50] Adriana Hian: with shops, clubs and other stuff

[12:50] Adriana Hian: i been in second life since december 2006

[12:50] Adriana Hian: im basically a business person in real life and

second life

[12:51] DaHanG Foggarty: Cool

[12:51] Adriana Hian: the notecard has many notecards in it

[12:51] Adriana Hian: it stand all i do and classes and what i do

[12:51] DaHanG Foggarty: So, do you do your own accounting, or does

someone do it for

you?

[12:51] Adriana Hian: i do my own accounting

[12:52] Adriana Hian: mostly i wouldnt give the duty of accounting to

people in second

life

[12:52] Adriana Hian: cos they could be telling inside information

[12:52] Adriana Hian: in reallife you know ho the accountant is

[12:52] Adriana Hian: here you are not sure who the person is

[12:52] Adriana Hian: and if the accounter does wrong, im the one has

problem

[12:52] DaHanG Foggarty: Very good point.

[12:52] Adriana Hian: so i trust myself, since i know i can do it

[12:53] Adriana Hian: but in real life i have a person doing the accounting

[12:53] Adriana Hian: here anyone can say they are elvis presley and

you need to trust

them for that

[12:53] DaHanG Foggarty: hehe

[12:53] Adriana Hian: and the question is whether you should give that

trust to someone

you dont know physically

[12:53] Adriana Hian: answer should be no

[12:54] Adriana Hian: else peopel will use youre trust against them

[12:54] Adriana Hian: in second life i only trust 5 people

[12:54] Adriana Hian: because i know them in real life

[12:55] DaHanG Foggarty: Are you aware of any principles or guidelines

used for

accounting? Basically, do you know the importance of having consistent

and reliable

records?

[12:55] Adriana Hian: you thinking about second life now or real life

[12:55] DaHanG Foggarty: second life

[12:56] DaHanG Foggarty: but if you want to respond to both that is fine

[12:56] Adriana Hian: in second life, the important part is the amount

in the accounts

[12:56] Adriana Hian: because there’s no goverment jumping in here to

see if you do wrong accounting

[12:56] Adriana Hian: but i basically go for numbers

[12:56] Adriana Hian: and also make plan for how much can i spend each

month and how much i get in

[12:57] Adriana Hian: and i record all i get in and out

[12:57] DaHanG Foggarty: Have you ever made any major mistakes in your

history of

accounting? Or if you did were they simply so small they could be

considered irrelevant

for you personally?

[12:59] Adriana Hian: what was the last setence i did say

[12:59] Adriana Hian: did crash

[12:59] Adriana Hian: at least in second life accounting is easy to

keep track on and i

write down all in and out transfer

[12:59] Adriana Hian: and in secondlife

[12:59] Adriana Hian: you can go to their homepage log in

[12:59] Adriana Hian: and go to account

[13:00] Adriana Hian: and choose tranaction history

[13:00] Adriana Hian: then you get in and out, and chose form and til date

[13:00] DaHanG Foggarty: [16:56] Adriana Hian: and also make plan how

much can i spend each month and how much i get in [16:57] Adriana Hian:

and i record all i get in and out

[13:00] DaHanG Foggarty: was the last thing you said

[13:00] Adriana Hian: you can also get it in excel file from the site

[13:00] Adriana Hian: yup i thought that was the last word i did say

[13:00] DaHanG Foggarty: Oh, interesting

[13:00] Adriana Hian: i have a recording machine attached to record all

transactions

[13:01] Adriana Hian: and the one on their homepage tells me how the

money come in

[13:01] Adriana Hian: if you sell an item it states the name of the item

[13:01] Adriana Hian: the money we give to each other for buying

[13:01] Adriana Hian: stands as a gift

[13:01] Adriana Hian: im also a second life mentor

[13:01] DaHanG Foggarty: What items do you exchange or sell on second life?

[13:02] Adriana Hian: in the past i rented out costumes in secondlife,

and i had an art

gallery, sold art, sold clothes,

[13:02] Adriana Hian: and now im just selling business solutions

[13:02] Adriana Hian: and holding classes that people need to pay to

attend to

[13:03] DaHanG Foggarty: What kind of business solutions?

[13:03] Adriana Hian: but i also do real estate in second life

[13:03] Adriana Hian: business solutions, are fixing negative hmmmm

[13:03] Adriana Hian: missing english word in my head

[13:03] Adriana Hian: negative money on places

[13:03] Adriana Hian: make them go in +

[13:03] DaHanG Foggarty: liabilities?

[13:04] DaHanG Foggarty: debts?

[13:04] Adriana Hian: yes debts

[13:04] Adriana Hian: put together pricing sales

[13:04] Adriana Hian: get them published, advertising , promotion

[13:04] Adriana Hian: basicly what you need to success in second life

[13:04] Adriana Hian: include training up their employees

[13:05] Adriana Hian: so they can go on holiday

[13:05] Adriana Hian: or be away and trust the people working for them

, that they are

there and not running away

[13:05] DaHanG Foggarty: hehe

[13:05] DaHanG Foggarty: wouldn’t want that

[13:05] Adriana Hian: for those of us that have business in sl

[13:05] Adriana Hian: its important to get money in, and get it to go

around

[13:06] Adriana Hian: before i had 24 employers, in my advertisng

agency in second life

[13:06] Adriana Hian: with basic salary

[13:06] Adriana Hian: and also bonus deals for them

[13:07] Adriana Hian: but a day only has 24 hours , so i decided i

should stop it since i

didnt have time

[13:07] Adriana Hian: so i cut back and got more time for friends and

have fun

[13:07] Adriana Hian: but i still earn money in it

[13:07] DaHanG Foggarty: hehe, real life is important too

[13:07] DaHanG Foggarty: well I think this is enough for the interview

[13:08] Adriana Hian: many people have work in real life

[13:08] Adriana Hian: and you can say for them its more difficult

[13:08] DaHanG Foggarty: true

[13:08] Adriana Hian: i m in second life almost 18 hours each day

[13:08] DaHanG Foggarty: That’s a lot!

[13:08] Adriana Hian: sleep an hour here and a hour there

[13:08] DaHanG Foggarty: Thanks so much for answering my questions.

[13:09] Adriana Hian: ok, my pleasure if you need anythgin more just ask me

[13:09] DaHanG Foggarty: I think this is good enough for my assignment,.

[13:09] Adriana Hian: and in notecard states all im doing now

[13:09] DaHanG Foggarty: Thanks, I will come back if I have a question

for you.

[13:09] Adriana Hian: ok thank you

[13:09] Adriana Hian: sorry for my bad english

[13:09] Adriana Hian: hope you understand it

Business Solutions

Adriana’s Qualifications