Starting location viability, year 1900

[MiKye200]

Has anyone managed to set up companies, on normal difficulty, away from the "best" starting locations such as London and New York, that return enough profit for expansion?

I tried setting up in Sydney but am just scraping by and am worried about having enough capital for modernising designs in a few years.

Is it even possible to set up a company that can turn a profit on 90% of the starting locations on the World map?

[Eric.B]

Quite possible. I've seen a number of people run Chinese companies in 1900, which didn't even happen in real life.

Personally I typically start in Jacksonville and expand realistically (IE. Next branch is Atlanta, New Orleans, etc.)

About the only places that are impossible in 1900 without exporting across the globe are the places with less than 100,000 people or less than 40 per capita. As the population is too small or the population is too poor to support anything.

[Jason]

Tried South Korea as it's my home country, but scrapped it for not being lore friendly.
The country was a shiiiithole in real world until late 80's or 90's compared to what it is today.
So I made a compromise and played in Japan...
The stategy is pretty straight forward, survive and expand into either western Europe or the US. I usually pull all available credit(loans) in the process. I do not use IPO. I want this to be my private company.
Survive the WWs by supplying both sides of the war parties ;)
Once you gain some initial traction in those areas, game over, you're unstoppable.

[thorawaked]

I think it is not very important where to choose. I mean, if you select, lets say, an African city and build a branch in London, you can sell your cars plus factory salaries would be lower.

[Eric.B]

Originally posted by thorawaked:

I think it is not very important where to choose. I mean, if you select, lets say, an African city and build a branch in London, you can sell your cars plus factory salaries would be lower.

Sort of, you'll have to eat shipping costs (Although Africa to Europe is not that far.) The main issue you'll have is with factory expansion. You get a starter factory for free, but the low ratings for African cities will catch up to you if/when you ever expand that factory.

[thorawaked]

Originally posted by Eric.B:

Sort of, you'll have to eat shipping costs (Although Africa to Europe is not that far.) The main issue you'll have is with factory expansion. You get a starter factory for free, but the low ratings for African cities will catch up to you if/when you ever expand that factory.

Oh, I completely disregarded long term issues. I usually produce cars in a city and sell in an another and I approached this topic in this sense.

[LTDominator]

i started in berlin 1900 on normal dificulty, after 10-20 restarts i got it and my company is going well all over the world in 1927 now.
the trick is to start step by step with 2 or 3 cheap cars based on the same chassis. then compare your cars to your opponent designs and do some small improvements to build a slightly better car. start to gain a good image by your customers. in late game i sold my factory in berlin because its cheaper to build in a country with cheaper workers...
shame on me lol

[thorawaked]

Originally posted by LTDominator Ger:

in late game i sold my factory in berlin because its cheaper to build in a country with cheaper workers...
shame on me lol

I understood capitalism better in this game than books and documentaries :)