Notes

The Small Business Game Tips:

-This'll be a doozy, the first week in my honest opinion, is the most difficult and challeging Week. Everything after seems to go progressively easier until your store begins to sell own it's own.

- (If done correctly you'll end up buying so much stock providers won't have enough to give you, all the while selling out of stock every week.)

__________________________________[+] Footer [+]__________________________________

- Anything with an asterisk * will most likely be just my own personal thoughts and opinions -Paranthesis (like this) will be extra notes, certain information, or advice - All else is implied/suggested as it helps

- First off, don't be afraid of hitting close to the 99+ Hours Mark, as long as you don't go over 99 your character will be just fine
(Though customers will not be as satisfied with your handling)

- And be extremely careful of your character's health, being forgetful will lead to him/her dead which will mean a lot of lost progress.
(*It's very easy to lose track of your health because of how much money you'll be making later on)

_______________________________[+] Starting off [+]_______________________________

- In Week 1, your primary focus should not be on getting immediate profits right away.

- Take time to get customers to first come to your shop first, then convince them to buy in your items later.

__________________________[+] Lack of starting cash [+]__________________________

- Takes loans from both friends and family, you'll need all the money you can get from the start.
(* After 2 years of playing, I can't seem find a way to push that 5k into something I can get an effective starting boost out of)

- Inject your own capital to get a cash boost on Week 2.

- Invest in only a handful of stocks to at least make some products sell.

- Do not invest in a bank unless you are extremely desperate and/or able to pay it back in full in a short amount of time.
(You'll need to have written a business plan even before you ask for a bank loan - Otherwise you have a chance of being rejected that loan)


_________________[+] Improving Merchandising and looks [+]_________________

- Invest in Yearly Shop Cleaning as early as possible.
(This is a one time transanction that will last the entire year - *Profitable in the long run - Ensures you don't have to clean every single week)

___________________________________[+] Staff [+]___________________________________

- Advertise for staff you can hire the next day
(*I usually hire as many staff as I can - To get my products rolling out in the long run - injecting your own capital will help deal with this.)

- Invest in other businesses as soon as you can, whenever you can
(*Bob Duncan takes forever to get you these investments)

__________________________________[+] Office [+]__________________________________

- You can invest in an online store in Week 1.
(Although the sooner the better - *Web Agency is my preffered choice - It's fast and comes online as soon as you buy it - But it costs 5k)

- Take consideration in investing in a new Replica Kit later on - It's really up to you when to decide to invest into it - *I personally don't invest in it until I've made a stable enough money base as it is only additional profits and not main profits.
(Although investing into early would not be a bad decision at all.)

____________________________[+] Store appearance [+]____________________________

- Put up displays on your store regulary to ensure a professional look. (Make sure to do this regularly - Themes are optional
(*Not worth buying until you have the consultant as well)

- Refresh ticketing every now and then
(It's a whopping 12hrs you might be wasting that could be spent on something else)

___________________________[+] Business promotion [+]___________________________

- Sponsorship is optional (Perform this until necessary or unless low on cash.) - The Local Nursery school and radio talk back show is relatively cheap - (*Although that 1 extra hour off could make a huge difference)

- Subscribe to weekly business breakfasts.
(This is a one time transanction that will last yearly so no need to do this again - You will get a 2 hour reduction off the start of every week - Employees will make this a miniscule worry)

- Pressing releases is an easy and cheap way to increase your profile.

- When promoting your business checkmark everything.
(*This is really risky as it drains a lot of your characters health and uses a lot of cash - It can be well worth it to get the customer base up and running)

- If possible promote all your products by performing an indoor demonstration (*This will drain your health significanlty - And uses 80$ for every item you do it with - You can easily gain those 80$ back with the amount of sales you will have increased doing it)

- If not possible to promote all of your products, just promote the most expensive ones first.
(*I'd promote the Replica Kits since they will go off-season sooner or later)

____________________[+] Customer Service Management [+]____________________

- Point-of-sale reporting isn't needed until the further weeks.
(When finding out whether customers visit but don't buy - Finding out how many come to your store - And how many items they buy per visit)
(*When you do invest into it the best buy is the Full System as you save 1k and 2hrs - Or you can buy each of them individually every week)

- When possible afford a customer database
(It'll help in the long run)

____________________________[+] Health and Hours [+]____________________________

- Make sure you have enough time to spend on increasing your character's health
(7 hrs minimum of time spent to gain lost health back)

- *It seems effective to - Take Coffee first - Sleep in second - and Go to Gym third
_______________________________[+] Future Office [+]______________________________

- In a certain Week ahead, devote some hours doing Online Training as it boosts your overall efficiency and effectiveness as boss, manager, retailer, advertiser, negotiator, etc.
(When fully invested into, this can become very effective in making the store basically sell itself)

- Take out Insurance
(Full Cover 1k - Just buy it - Just in case something happens you'll be covered)

- STORE SECURITY - This is very vital to your store. Get The Real Camera, Monitored 1 YR subscription, and the Electronic tagging system.
(Sooner or later, shady guys will start showing up around the store - These guys aren't consumers... They're competition - If your store starts becoming successful you'll start to see many of these guys around - And sooner or later theft will occur - Even from staff members!)

- *I've never really taken time to invest in the ownership structures as taking care my own company by itself was quite a hassle - But if you want to experiment and see if it's a profitable exchange by all means try

________________________________[+] Long Run [+]_________________________________

- Once you start selling out of stock, begin inching the prices of your products little by little
(*Or scale it by 2$, 3$, or even 5$ every week and experiment)

- Promote your database to keep your customers entertained and coming back to your store
(At this point you should be able to checkmark all of them without the fear of losing cash)

- Around Week 15, you should be raking in around a million (and increasing) every week

Reap... Rinse... Repeat...