eric scott RJ: Erik Scott CO: Sappo Post Rating: 0 + / - Total Posts: 130 Karma: 29 Joined: Apr 5, 2012 |
Posted on Apr 8, 2012 So... I have my two 20m factories pumping out productI have 1 20m store selling said products. What should I be expecting as a decent income per tick? Cause right now it is about 2k / tick Maybe I am dreaming of being an instant millionare... but this seems awfully slow. And this product is also within the 80% market demand |
georges nolan RJ: Silvertear Post Rating: 0 + / - Total Posts: 23 Karma: 25 Joined: Mar 31, 2012 |
Posted on Apr 8, 2012 (Last edited on Apr 8, 2012) Upgrade your store, I started to see a really good profit per tick at around 1000m^3.EDIT: if you can't afford to upgrade it, consider taking a loan out, or playing the stock market to give you a good bit of cash to play around with. |
Space Butler RJ: Space Butler CO: Space Butler Post Rating: 0 + / - Total Posts: 19 Karma: 18 Joined: Apr 2, 2012 |
Posted on Apr 8, 2012 (Last edited on Apr 8, 2012) I wouldn't upgrade your store too much for one single product. Don't forget about maintenance costs for the building. Try selling your product on b2b as well for a reasonable price (under your store price).Conversely, buy products from b2b that you can sell at a profit through your store. |
Brent Goode RJ: BB Goode CO: BB Goode Post Rating: 0 + / - Total Posts: 506 Karma: 180 Joined: Apr 5, 2012 |
Posted on Apr 8, 2012 I built a store, and it was more than enough work all by itself, if kept properly stocked. Someone had to tell me to stick it with imports if needed to make it cost effective. Once I started doing that, everything changed. I have been at it only 3 days, but my stores are making money. I don't look for the standard 2x gross return. I put prices where they seem to get a decent velocity and turn over the product.Turnover is usually more important than margin. If you are not seeing enough turnover, your prices are too high. Where I can get 2x, 2.5x, even 4x and 5x on a product, great, but if I have to settle for $20 added to cost of goods to get the velocity, then so be it. I would rather make $10/unit 1000 times over, than $30 a unit because it was a full 50% margin but only sell 100 of them in the same time frame. Size of the store is always important, but I didn't waste money on store upgrades (mostly due to a costly first-hour mistake ;-) ) though I did put it into factory/farm upgrades and research upgrades. So, with only one 10m2 store, based on what you have said above, I am strongly outpacing your stores by levels of magnitude. I don't know if that helps, but it is all I have to offer. Good luck |
Zack WenJian RJ: Zack CO: Zack Post Rating: 0 + / - Total Posts: 114 Karma: 503 Joined: Mar 31, 2012 |
Posted on Apr 8, 2012 (Last edited on Apr 8, 2012) Exactly.. price = 2x cost is just a guideline.Turnover is the thing. if u are only able to login to restock your inventory once at night, and once in the morning, plan the price of your product to sell exactly when you are about to restock. Same to the factories for production. this is where MR=MC. not 2x price formula.... |
Tony Wooster RJ: Johnny Appleseed Post Rating: 41 + / - Total Posts: 41 Karma: 51 Joined: Apr 4, 2012 |
Posted on Apr 8, 2012 (Last edited on Apr 9, 2012) 2x actually is the mathematical maxima of your net profit (for a given tick) in the stores themselves. This means if you set your price higher or lower, you might turn over more product, but your business isn't actually growing as much. Zack has it right, though, that you should target for login periods -- otherwise your 2x for four ticks and then selling out for hours until you log back in is less efficient than a price that depletes stock just as you log back in. It's also less efficient if better deals come along that you miss because you have no ready pocket-change.Edit: It's been mentioned elsewhere, but here's the (approximate) formula for profit: profit(price, cost) = [(1+0.02(quality-avg_quality))/price]^2*[0.03*avg_price+2*ba se_price]*per_item_constant*store_size*(price-cost) Which can be simplified by collapsing all of the constants into 'alpha', so: profit(price, cost) = alpha*(price-cost)/price^2 Take the partial derivative of that, and you end up with: d/dprice profit(price, cost) = alpha*(2*cost-price)/price^3 Which is zero at p = 2*cost; if you graph or take a further derivative, you'll see that this is a maxima. 2x, learn it, love it, live it. (And if my math is wrong, please let me know!) |
Mister Death RJ: McFlono McFloninoo Post Rating: 0 + / - Total Posts: 266 Karma: 300 Joined: Feb 6, 2012 |
Posted on Apr 9, 2012 (Last edited on Apr 9, 2012) You're dead on, Tony. In practice the curve is pretty flat at the top and with other considerations in mind you may wish to set your price anywhere from about 1.5*cost to 3*cost. You're only losing a few percent on your margin.Other considerations include: lowballing to clear out some low-quality produce as your factories begin to produce higher-quality stuff; highballing as a B2B supply source dries up; lowballing to increase cash flow and fuel company growth; et cetera. In practice I shoot a little (not much) below 2*cost because I like the higher cash flow, but if I were running a shop purely from B2B imports I would aim exactly at 2*cost and stock a minimal inventory. If I were running a shop purely from B2B player purchases I would aim somewhat above 2*cost as risk mitigation and carry a somewhat larger stockpile. |
eric scott RJ: Erik Scott CO: Sappo Post Rating: 0 + / - Total Posts: 130 Karma: 29 Joined: Apr 5, 2012 |
Posted on Apr 9, 2012 Thanks for the help and replies,Getting there slowly... not netting about 15k a tick now. Mind you it seems like a never-ending cycle of 'spend 300k in improvements for a 2k/tick return' I am sure this will plateau out as my production and sales catch up to my insane spending :) |
Nwabudike Morgan RJ: CEO Nwabudike Morgan CO: CEO Nwabudike Morgan Post Rating: 0 + / - Total Posts: 108 Karma: 344 Joined: Apr 4, 2012 |
Posted on Apr 9, 2012 Don't forget, if you spend $300k up front to make just $2k/tick, then that means you're making back your entire investment in just a day and a half, which is pretty fast! There are 96 ticks per day, after all, so they quickly add up.
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Josh Millard RJ: Tex Corman CO: J. Quaff Arabica Post Rating: 0 + / - Total Posts: 167 Karma: 231 Joined: Apr 3, 2012 |
Posted on Apr 9, 2012 Yeah, your per-tick take times 100 is a good thumbnail estimate of your net income a day from now if things are steady (really it's times 96 -- 4 ticks per hours * 24 hours per day -- but round numbers are a lot quicker). So 15K per tick may feel small, but 1.5M this time tomorrow is a pretty solid number to focus on.
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eric scott RJ: Erik Scott CO: Sappo Post Rating: 0 + / - Total Posts: 130 Karma: 29 Joined: Apr 5, 2012 |
Posted on Apr 9, 2012 Ya, I'm finding it very hard to break myself out of the old style of thinking... where you would see large numbers returning quickly, rather than small numbers returning slowly and building over time
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Scott (Admin) RJ: Ratan Joyce CO: Ratan Joyce Post Rating: 0 + / - Total Posts: 1175 Karma: 5083 Joined: Jan 13, 2012 |
Posted on Apr 10, 2012 If you're making the return in 1.5 days, then you're 5 times as fast as I'd like you to grow :-)
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