Tips for starting a small company?

[praguepride]

I haven’t played a WMMA in years and I am just picking up 5 and hoping people could share tips for effectively a beginner. I know starting up a brand new promotion is difficult but it is satisfying for me to grow from zero to the top.

 

That being said any and all tips are welcome! How should I scout for talent? How can I build talent up to bring the company up? What ratio of stars to scrubs should I be looking for on my roster?

 

Any and all advice is welcome!

[Raufbold_2]

<p>I don't usually micromanage, so my strategy is just a few general tips:</p><p> </p><p>

1. Don't allow your stars to be poached (High Regional and above). Pay them hundreds of thousands per fight if necessary, but don't let them go. It will pay off in the future.</p><p> </p><p>

2. Hire lots of lower level fighters to host shows often. In the beginning you just need to grow popularity, and pretty much any fights will result in a rise</p><p> </p><p>

3. Get to High Level Regional popularity as soon as possible and secure a PPV contract. From this moment on you will be able to sign exclusive contracts with fighters, so you'll stop overpaying. Additionally, that PPV broadcaster, even if very small, will start bringing way more money than any advertising one.</p><p> </p><p>

4. At this level, start looking for real stars in the world's top and poach them no matter the money. Also, create your own broadcaster(s).</p><p> </p><p>

Done - you're set up for success.</p>

[BHK1978]

First off welcome back prague, I cannot remember the last time I saw you on here.

 

I guess I would take the opposite approach as Raufbold_2, in that I hardly ever sign many name fighters for fear of losing money. That being said maybe Raufbold_2's approach is better. I don't know, I have never tried it that way but after reading their tips I think I might try that approach once.

 

Now keep in mind I usually always play as GAMMA, but I have started small companies in the past. The one thing I always try to do is...

 

I would say hire as many scrub/can fighters as you can afford and only have a couple of good fighters. You could always pit can vs. can and that way you can rebuild one of them for their next fight with a fighter you want to "push". I say "push" because there is always a level of randomness in fights and sometimes those scrubs pick up a win against someone you want to see do good.

[shawn michaels]

 

1. Don't allow your stars to be poached (High Regional and above). Pay them hundreds of thousands per fight if necessary, but don't let them go. It will pay off in the future.

 

 

All his tips are correct, but this one is the key. Overload the payments if needed, just make sure you don't use all the big names in one show, as to avoid losses, and eventually your spending spree will pay off in due time. I'm currently slowly choking UFC on my save as Bellator by signing everyone that matters away from them. It is a long process, but fun and rewarding. Building from scratch is pretty much the same, but takes more time.

[Blackman]

Pay them hundreds of thousands per fight if necessary, but don't let them go.

 

I think he said he wants to build a company from the ground up. That would'nt be an option.

 

Are you playing the default or real world db?

 

Just find a niche weight class with a big talent pool, like FW or women's FlyW, and bet on that. Your viewers don't care at all about weight class diversity. If you dominate the rankings in one weight class, you risk less that your stars get poached as there's no competing platform. That being said, GAMMA can still get your FW for their LW division, but that will happen less frequently.

 

Apart from that, it's probably best to bet on some good fighters and give them some cans that fight other cans first to get some momentum. But see that you at least have 3 good ones, as you'll be screwed when your top dog gets poached anyway. They get popular, you get money. With more money comes more fights between cans, a broader pool of talent, etc. In this sport, you want to have several title shot candidates, given injuries are frequent.

 

I'm not sure whether signing "rejects" is worth it. They HAVE to be about LLN pop before you should even consider it. They probably won't win, so in the end, you won't lose much money. If you want to micromanage, use the fight bonuses (that they'll never get anyway) to get a better base deal.

[Raufbold_2]

Dunno - I start with a standard 100K in my pocket, and that's exactly what I do. The trick is pretty simple - while you agree to pay them lot of money, you only actually do that if they fight, because there are no guaranteed fights. so what you basically do is hold on to them as long as you can, until you can secure a PPV broadcaster for which such a fight will pay off (usually even small ones bring over a million dollars for a good main event, so it will). Otherwise, just don't use them.

I used this strategy, and almost all of my shows were profitable from the very beginning (bar the very first one, where you cannot even secure a broadcaster that will pay you).