The first time you make money in Starpeace Online is an event you won't likely forget. No matter how well you organize your company, organization alone won't make you profitable.
How do you become profitable then? Of course, it all boils down to the fact that you have to generate more income than expenses. The bad news is that aside from that, there is no golden rule.
It's pretty much like real life. The entire economy is a delicate balance of supply and demand. You need to find your place in the economy and grow from there. Big companies can have a profound impact on the economy, to the point -if operated properly- they can create a demand they can exploit later. Smaller companies have the advantage of being much less expensive to operate, but they must find the right niche in order to profit.
There are also a few tricks that will help you. We have listed them below:
Minimize salaries
Are you a capitalist or not? Salary is a big money-eater. If there is high unemployment in your city, what's the point of keeping salaries high? Unemployment is your friend. There won't be a shortage of workers with unemployment around.
While you do this we recommend that you check the Spending Power of the population. As it becomes low, people stop buying goods, and that's something you don't want.
Ideally, the investors in the city and the Mayor should work on making the city desirable enough so that people will move in even without a job. By creating a nice pool of unemployment, you can remind your workers how lucky they are to have their lousy jobs. Low salaries can always be offset by selling goods at lower prices. This can become very profitable when the technology that produces goods more efficiently is in place.
Don't buy stuff you don't want
This can happen when you are inexperienced managing warehouses. Be careful to activate in a Warehouse only the wares you need and, when you do it, set the maximum price you are willing to pay for them. Some unscrupulous investors could sell highly priced goods to your warehouses if you don't do it.
High quality doesn't mean good
High quality goods are always pricey. You will never make money from selling high quality stuff to low class, since the price would be too high for them. If you do make money, then another player has to be losing it, and this is a situation that is unlikely to last.
Always try to ensure your stores are as specialized as possible. That is, if you are selling in a low class neighborhood, then you should buy low quality-low price goods, so you can sell them at a price they will buy and you can make profit. The same applies to middle class and high class.
Make generous use of the demolish button
Let's say you built a factory no one wants to buy from. You might choose to keep it just in case its production becomes needed later. This is wrong. If it is not generating any money, you should demolish it. Remember: while you are at the Apprentice Level, you can demolish all you want and still get all the money back.
This rule applies not only to factories, but also to every facility you were expecting to profit from.
Never build civic buildings
The city is in dire need of hospitals? Go to the townhall and click on Rate the Mayor and post a column asking for them, but never, ever build the hospital yourself.
The only civic building that could be justifiable for a small company to build would be a police station. In some cases crime could be affecting a residential area that belongs to you. In the event the Mayor refuses to build a police station in the area, you won't have any other choice, but to build it yourself.
Otherwise, leave civic buildings for players who are interested in politics. For newbies like you, survival is the top priority.
Factories do not print money
There is a threshold, beyond which the price of a product cannot drop, without the factory loosing money. Make sure you set a price that will cover your costs: expenditures in salaries and supplies. If at this price, none of the customers in your client list actually buys your product, or they only buy it in small quantities, then you have a problem.
You could always raise the factory's operating ratio by lowering the price, but since you would lose money this makes no sense. The only alternative is to cut your expenses or get customers that will buy your merchandise.
Factories spend money on supplies and workforce. You could try reducing salaries, but only take that measure if you haven't recently already done so. Next you need to ensure you are getting the cheapest supplies available. Sometimes the list the default list is not representative of the cheapest available. Try searching for new suppliers, and keep your fingers crossed.
Do not repair your real estate properties
Real Estate properties can turn ugly sometimes. This happens because crime or pollution is high, maintenance low, or simply because almost nobody is willing to move into your building. This ugliness further damages the desirability of the area, thus having a negative impact on the other buildings in the neighborhood.
Repairing the building will restore it to its original condition, and the ugliness effect will disappear. However, if you don't eliminate the real cause of the problem, the building will have the same problems again after a couple of years.
Have patience!
Before you manage to create your first successful company, you will go through several failures. Even the best players declared bankruptcy from three to five times while they were learning the game.
You can think of this in terms of getting killed in massive RPGs. It is not something you like, but it is necessary. Otherwise, the game would be too easy and much less fun.
If you don't make it the first time (or the first couple of times) you try Starpeace Online, reset your account and try something different. The more you try, the more you will learn, and the better you will become.
