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I started with the #40 Company out of the Maritimes and ran a show that cost me $8700 to book and I got 27 people to the event and lost $8000. Has anyone tried the smallest company and been successful? Also I am looking for advice on how to be successful in general with running a VERY SMALL company. Any advice would be appreciated.
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I don't have a ton of experience with smaller companies, but I know that you need to minimize expenses. How many workers are you using? How expensive are they? Do you have any unnecessary workers, such as managers/valets? Don't try to run long cards, as that just adds to the cost.
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I started with the #40 Company out of the Maritimes and ran a show that cost me $8700 to book and I got 27 people to the event and lost $8000. Has anyone tried the smallest company and been successful? Also I am looking for advice on how to be successful in general with running a VERY SMALL company. Any advice would be appreciated.

 

I am not the most experienced player here by a long shot, but I have been doing nothing but starting local since I've been playing. What I do: first off, you need a product favorable to sponsorship; this should bring in about $9900 monthly. You also have to deduct show costs, plus the other stuff itemized in the finances tab. This means you have to keep your roster as small ad cheap as possible. Look at spending no more than $7500-$8500 per show on ALL workers.

 

You won't have star workers, but you don't need them at this point. All you need is to book shows that increase your popularity steadily. Since you start at F-, you should aim for shows in the E range- very easy to achieve. I focus on young talent with potential that can grow as your promotion grows. There are lots of good, cheap workers out there ($250-$400 per appearance), and you should keep at most 14 on your roster (I learned the hard way with this) plus whatever extra staff you want (road agent, managers, announcers)

 

Run one show a month, and look at generating a small profit or breaking even which is possible. Once your crowds get you up to the next size venue (1000 seater) you can move to two shows a month. It's a long process and could take you well over a year, but it's more than doable. Just remember to run one monthly show and keep your labor costs down.

 

As for your first problem, the sponsorship money comes in at the very end or the beginning of the month (can;t remember which) but you will get it before your next show and find that you made a small profit after all as long as you don't run another show. It only looks bad for the moment :)

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I suggest you immediately get out of the Maritimes area since it's community level is at 30% (lowest in the game) and importance at 60% (second lowest in the game). Those are extremely low values that will make your growth (financial & popularity) much slower than say running out of Ontario (95% importance, 90% community).
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I am not the most experienced player here by a long shot, but I have been doing nothing but starting local since I've been playing. What I do: first off, you need a product favorable to sponsorship; this should bring in about $9900 monthly. You also have to deduct show costs, plus the other stuff itemized in the finances tab. This means you have to keep your roster as small ad cheap as possible. Look at spending no more than $7500-$8500 per show on ALL workers.

 

You won't have star workers, but you don't need them at this point. All you need is to book shows that increase your popularity steadily. Since you start at F-, you should aim for shows in the E range- very easy to achieve. I focus on young talent with potential that can grow as your promotion grows. There are lots of good, cheap workers out there ($250-$400 per appearance), and you should keep at most 14 on your roster (I learned the hard way with this) plus whatever extra staff you want (road agent, managers, announcers)

 

Run one show a month, and look at generating a small profit or breaking even which is possible. Once your crowds get you up to the next size venue (1000 seater) you can move to two shows a month. It's a long process and could take you well over a year, but it's more than doable. Just remember to run one monthly show and keep your labor costs down.

 

As for your first problem, the sponsorship money comes in at the very end or the beginning of the month (can;t remember which) but you will get it before your next show and find that you made a small profit after all as long as you don't run another show. It only looks bad for the moment :)

 

You may not be the most experienced player but you catch on really quick and this is basically correct. You can still survive if you run aa company that is not fabourable to sponsor ship but its just a lot harder, I do it all the time because I like the challenge but you don't have to,

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I was losing money just off of the show, when I found out you get money at the end of hte month I bought the game because of the autobooking feature. I honestly hate booking matches but dont mind trying to do angles. My crowds so far are in the 40 people range but I bought a lot of young cheap talent. I am paying them too little I think but am still figuring things out.
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I believe you can also skip occasional months. Unless its changed, I'm quite certain you still get sponsorship money for a month with no show. You will stay pay some workers, those that have downside agreements.

 

Yeah you can, I do it now and then when the cash flow gets scary. But yeah, you have to watch the downside agreements. However, you'd still save the $1000 venue fee, and the $5-600 on show costs,

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You may not be the most experienced player but you catch on really quick and this is basically correct. You can still survive if you run aa company that is not fabourable to sponsor ship but its just a lot harder, I do it all the time because I like the challenge but you don't have to,

 

Well I appreciate it but it's down to you and everyone else here who have been patient and helpful as I and other new players ask a million questions; I've not had this much fun with a game in a long time, and that is in part because of the community here has made it easy to get hold of the complexity and depth :)

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I am paying them too little I think but am still figuring things out.

 

No you aren't, you are paying them what they asked for in the negotiations. If you over paid them they won't work any better for you; think like a businessman and only pay labor as much as you have to to get the job done :)

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I made the mistake of signing talent to 3 year deals. Some of these wrestlers just aren't working out and it doesn't allow me to infuse new talent due to contracts. Is there any way to sim these days faster to like the day of hte show. What is good to do for the other 29 days a month when you have monthly shows.
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I made the mistake of signing talent to 3 year deals. Some of these wrestlers just aren't working out and it doesn't allow me to infuse new talent due to contracts. Is there any way to sim these days faster to like the day of hte show. What is good to do for the other 29 days a month when you have monthly shows.

 

If you don't like the some of your workers you can cut them loose, you don't need to keep them on your roster if you don't like them.

 

In the options you can turn on auto advanced. I suggest Partial not full. Partial will stop the sim if you get an important email or event.

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If you don't like the some of your workers you can cut them loose, you don't need to keep them on your roster if you don't like them.

 

Absolutely. Your contracts may run three years but they are all pay per appearance. Which means if you feel they aren't working out and you want to fire them, there's nothing stopping you. It costs nothing to fire a guy at the lower reaches of the game. If you were big enough to be dealing with written contracts, buyout costs might be a concern. But playing at Local, it's a long time if ever before you have to start concerning yourself with that.

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I made the mistake of signing talent to 3 year deals. Some of these wrestlers just aren't working out and it doesn't allow me to infuse new talent due to contracts. Is there any way to sim these days faster to like the day of hte show. What is good to do for the other 29 days a month when you have monthly shows.

 

Heh then I'm really doing something wrong because I lock my workers down to 10 year deals. This allows me to build who I want to build without their cost rising along the way.

 

Absolutely. Your contracts may run three years but they are all pay per appearance. Which means if you feel they aren't working out and you want to fire them, there's nothing stopping you. It costs nothing to fire a guy at the lower reaches of the game. If you were big enough to be dealing with written contracts, buyout costs might be a concern. But playing at Local, it's a long time if ever before you have to start concerning yourself with that.

 

Very true. I don't tend to cut people very often (since I don't hire people I don't like anyway) but I have no issues with pulling the trigger, and it doesn't cost a cent.

 

Some tips I have that might help.

 

First, some non-wrestling roles can be prohibitively expensive at the lowest promotion levels. Announcer and road agent, I'm lookin' at you. At local, color commentators are a luxury you can do without. If you want, you can have your announcer do their own color commentary (worked for Joey Styles!). Road agent is a role you don't really need at all. If you have a worker with good psychology, have them RA matches that they're not in. You can milk this until Regional, where money won't be quite so tight.

 

If you've ever been to a real micro indy show, you'd know that they use their workers multiple times per show. It's not uncommon for a tag team match in the opener (schmozz ending usually) to turn into two singles matches in the middle or even at the end of the show or vice versa. Use that. If you have to use one of your more expensive workers, get full value out of them. Put 'em on color commentary, have them RA matches (if qualified), and/or use them in multiple segments (angles and/or matches). Local size is the equivalent of a backyard/micro indy promotion. Do what those promotions do to make ends meet (or get the ends close enough to wave at each other).

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Simple advice:

 

If you made your own promotion, skip a month to save some dough.

 

If not, only hire nobodies, people that don't cost anything. Get rid of anyone that is draining you at this time.

 

Use whatever they have wisely. It's so darn easy it's not funny. Take someone with good sex appeal and use them in sex appeal angles. Take someone with good menace and use them in menacing angles, good entertainment, ditto. Make your own angles that utilize these things... For example, it's really easy to make a four man hype angle, that rates people on whatever you want. So take what they have (Entertainment, Menace, whatever is their best quality for angle rating), and make an angle placing each one with it... An example could be Two Menace, two Entertainment, and they can have two different storylines and advance with these.

 

Utilize the match's with the knowledge that every single match is going to suck, so build around that fact. Use your angles in logical ways to enhance the show... At low end, with normal US type wrestling companies, you want to realize that no popularity means your match's will suck, but you can get around this with the angles, so use them.

 

Use the Auto-Advance feature on semi.... Use it so that every month feels like a day, and after 12 days a year has gone by. In other words, get all your duties out of the way so it doesn't stop every other day. Get the crew you want to work with hired, and don't hire no one else til' your ready to grow in size.

 

I hate most of what I said because it makes the game really easy... but I can't help doing it.

 

IF you hate doing it like that, then don't. Take some of the things and utilize them, but make it more realistic. It's what I try to do. It means you might have storyline problems (not having two over 35 or whatever), but at the low end of the game, most of the time your going to gain popularity anyways... As long as your show does better then your company overness, your going to grow, and as long as you are growing your going to make more money.

 

Sometimes you get lucky with people, and they grow pretty fast. The hardest part for me is not over bloating my roster. IF you do, just realize you don't have to use everyone at every show. Sometimes I do it by Division.... when I bloated my roster. This month I work on Womens and Cruisers, next month Tag and Heavyweights, etc.

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I made the mistake of signing talent to 3 year deals. Some of these wrestlers just aren't working out and it doesn't allow me to infuse new talent due to contracts. Is there any way to sim these days faster to like the day of hte show. What is good to do for the other 29 days a month when you have monthly shows.

 

Re-negotiate, and put them on six month contracts, or ones with a fixed number of dates.

 

Nothing to stop you renegotiating further down the line, but you only need a minimal number of workers, and there's enough out there that you can cycle through them looking for ones worth keeping. The ones who don't work out get released when their deal runs out - and without causing the negative relationship that firing them can sometimes cause.

 

The only downside to this is that a worker might ask for more money if they've got over in that six months. If so, their match grades should have improved and you can justify the extra cost (if it's not too much). Consider signing those workers to longer deals... but probably not the ten year deals Remi advocates.

 

You can (so far as I'm aware this hasn't changed) renegotiate PPA deals at any time, unlike written deals where you wait until the last month. If a worker's improving and you're about to give them a big push that may see their popularity jump, consider extending their deal first if it's only got a short time to run. No better time to get someone tied down on a long term deal then when they're about to get pushed to the moon.

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Its a matter of the amount and skill of your workers. If you have a few good workers you them to death. Angles are key. I do a 2 hour show with a promotion just above Cult. I have about 4 great workers(my guy, Raven, my cousins custom guy, and Champagne Lover in a RL mod with a few of my fav guys from the CVerse) These 4 eat up about 1 hour alone in angles and matches. It really helps out. Maximize your top guys and whore them out. They will be your key. Once they get your popularity better you can start pushing and adding more guys to your card and pushing more guys and making more money.
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