How do you not instantly go bankrupt in Franchise Mode?

[olivepants]

Looking for some help because I love the building so far and am finally able to navigate the user interface decently well, however, every attempt I've made at a franchise zoo so far has crashed and burned like, almost immediately. Does anybody have any tips at establishing a good early game revenue that'll enable me to make a decent enough profit to continue building things?

I usually have enough money at the start ($40,000) to make like two decent exhibits and get the staff buildings up and going, but the zoo isn't profitable enough to keep me out of the red even with donation boxes and education boards scattered all over the place (Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe education is the factor that encourages guests to donate).

Thankee for any advice in advance!

[Jaggid Edje]

Take out the lowest interest rate loan so you can build several habitats with high appeal animals, don't forget your donation boxes, and you should be golden.
As soon as the zoo is making decent money, pay back the entire loan early to get out of paying more interest.

What really helps early on as well is putting in habitats with 3 species. Visitors love mixed-habitats and the golden number to get them the most happy is to have 3. This also saves you money early on in terms of building the habitats.

Some people will tell you to start with exhibit animals, which is a viable strategy, but they are actually more expensive to get started than a habitat and get less donations. So though it's viable, it's actually slower.

Edit to add: And yes, education is an important factor in getting visitors to donate, and for their willingness to spend overall (gift shops,etc.)

[olivepants]

Originally posted by Jaggid Edje:

Take out the lowest interest rate loan so you can build several habitats with high appeal animals, don't forget your donation boxes, and you should be golden.
As soon as the zoo is making decent money, pay back the entire loan early to get out of paying more interest.

Some people will tell you to start with exhibit animals, which is a viable strategy, but they are actually more expensive to get started than a habitat and get less donations. So though it's viable, it's actually slower.

Thanks!! I didn't even know that there was an animal appeal stat, I'll try to keep my eye open for it my next attempt. Are there any huge expenses I should be aware of like overhiring staff or having too many stores?

[Jaggid Edje]

Well, for sure definitely don't have too much staff and don't build more shops than are needed. I always set a visitor guest limit (in options) of 1000 when I start a new zoo, and i don't turn it up until I've got 1000 visitors who are happy and satisfied.
That way I can gradually bump it up and gradually add shops as needed and keep a good finger on the pulse of what specifically is needed first.

Also, don't forget to increase ticket prices as you add animals.

[Hex: Hyperfixation]

taking out loans. at least for me

[grampers62]

A zoo needs to get at least three if not four habitats going before things get very profitable. Yes, getting guest educated does indeed boost the amounts they donate. While the exhibit facilities don't make a lot of cash themselves they do add to the guest draw. more guest equals more income from everything. An important thing is to check the guests at the gate and see what the individuals are saying about ticket price. Keep raising the ticket price till they mostly say the price is fair. Be careful adding staff as too many will not be doing that much work and cost a lot in expenses. Often players will build too quick and/or add too many expensive animals which becomes hard to overcome.
Finding a strategy that works for your personal style of play will eventually come as you play so don't get too worried about what others do but do see what works for others and see what works for you.

[mhtrev]

Pick cheap animals that procreate like crazy. (Flamingos, Indian Peafowl, Common Warthogs, Common Ostriches, African Wild Dogs etc.) You can do the same thing with exhibit animals like Goliath Beetles, Golden Poison Tree Frogs, Lehmann's Poison Frogs, etc.) Only build what's absolutely necessary to make those items work. Let them procreate and then sell the little buggers. Next put in a couple of slam dunk shops like Pipshot Water and Chief Beef. Start slowly building up to larger animals like Lions that procreate quickly and are worth a lot of money. This a slow process, but I've never needed to take out a loan. (This is more than 800 hours of playing talking. :) ) Looking at gestation period and number of babies per litter is important. Within a few months you'll have more flamingos and peacocks than you know what to do with. The same will be true with warthogs and ostriches.

[Jaggid Edje]

@mhtrev, you actually make more money more quickly by taking out a loan to start. It lets you jump start the zoo to the point where you have enough habitats that it moves immediately into the "very profitable" category. And because of that, you can pay off the loan early and therefore pay almost no interest.
i.e. not taking out a loan just slows down your income growth rate while taking one out and then paying it back early has no down side, so there's no reason not to do it.

[yodabauer]

When you start your next franchise zoo the conservation credits and research will carry over (not money though). So rest in at least the first Zoo is the hardest. Once you have more CC you can use those to get started on high appeal animals next Zoo, which helps a lot.

Don’t build all the buildings the game yells at you to make. Quarantines aren’t that important, tbh. And you don’t need security guards when your zoo is small. Research is important because it’ll get you things that will make your life easier. But they can probably wait a bit too.

[Overeagerdragon]

Basically all you need to start running a profit (on easy mode) is 1 of each staff, 1 habbitat with a low maintenance animal (think the various forms of "dogs"; ie hyena's, Prairiehounds, wolves) 1 exhibit (any critter will do) and 1 of each TYPE of shop.... with the 20K loan you can easily build all of this and have money to spare and will start running a profit from the get go; especially if your exhibit has a fast breeder like spiders (you'll go nuts with selling their offspring for a nifty bit of pocketmoney).

[s_linkletter]

The key to making money from exhibits is not the donations, it is selling the offspring. Build initially within the power radius of the gate so you don't have to build power sources immediately. Avoid the big cats at the beginning. They eat money instead of meat, it seems. I have had franchise parks at 2 million dollars, but adding a large display of lions was a quick way to drain that fortune.

[olivepants]

Originally posted by mhtrev:

Pick cheap animals that procreate like crazy. (Flamingos, Indian Peafowl, Common Warthogs, Common Ostriches, African Wild Dogs etc.) You can do the same thing with exhibit animals like Goliath Beetles, Golden Poison Tree Frogs, Lehmann's Poison Frogs, etc.) Only build what's absolutely necessary to make those items work. Let them procreate and then sell the little buggers. Next put in a couple of slam dunk shops like Pipshot Water and Chief Beef. Start slowly building up to larger animals like Lions that procreate quickly and are worth a lot of money. This a slow process, but I've never needed to take out a loan. (This is more than 800 hours of playing talking. :) ) Looking at gestation period and number of babies per litter is important. Within a few months you'll have more flamingos and peacocks than you know what to do with. The same will be true with warthogs and ostriches.

I'll keep this in mind! Thanks!

Originally posted by yodabauer:

When you start your next franchise zoo the conservation credits and research will carry over (not money though). So rest in at least the first Zoo is the hardest. Once you have more CC you can use those to get started on high appeal animals next Zoo, which helps a lot.

Don’t build all the buildings the game yells at you to make. Quarantines aren’t that important, tbh. And you don’t need security guards when your zoo is small. Research is important because it’ll get you things that will make your life easier. But they can probably wait a bit too.

I had no clue about this, but if the conservation credits are the leaf thingies I think I'll be in decent shape for my next zoo haha

Originally posted by Overeagerdragon:

Basically all you need to start running a profit (on easy mode) is 1 of each staff, 1 habbitat with a low maintenance animal (think the various forms of "dogs"; ie hyena's, Prairiehounds, wolves) 1 exhibit (any critter will do) and 1 of each TYPE of shop.... with the 20K loan you can easily build all of this and have money to spare and will start running a profit from the get go; especially if your exhibit has a fast breeder like spiders (you'll go nuts with selling their offspring for a nifty bit of pocketmoney).

I hadn't sold any animals from my previous zoos so this is going to be a change for me lol, but I'll keep it in mind!!

Originally posted by s_linkletter:

The key to making money from exhibits is not the donations, it is selling the offspring. Build initially within the power radius of the gate so you don't have to build power sources immediately. Avoid the big cats at the beginning. They eat money instead of meat, it seems. I have had franchise parks at 2 million dollars, but adding a large display of lions was a quick way to drain that fortune.

I think my two starter exhibits in my previous zoos were Lions and Wolves so this tracks for me lmfao

[Overeagerdragon]

Originally posted by olivepants:

Originally posted by mhtrev:

Pick cheap animals that procreate like crazy. (Flamingos, Indian Peafowl, Common Warthogs, Common Ostriches, African Wild Dogs etc.) You can do the same thing with exhibit animals like Goliath Beetles, Golden Poison Tree Frogs, Lehmann's Poison Frogs, etc.) Only build what's absolutely necessary to make those items work. Let them procreate and then sell the little buggers. Next put in a couple of slam dunk shops like Pipshot Water and Chief Beef. Start slowly building up to larger animals like Lions that procreate quickly and are worth a lot of money. This a slow process, but I've never needed to take out a loan. (This is more than 800 hours of playing talking. :) ) Looking at gestation period and number of babies per litter is important. Within a few months you'll have more flamingos and peacocks than you know what to do with. The same will be true with warthogs and ostriches.

I'll keep this in mind! Thanks!

Originally posted by yodabauer:

When you start your next franchise zoo the conservation credits and research will carry over (not money though). So rest in at least the first Zoo is the hardest. Once you have more CC you can use those to get started on high appeal animals next Zoo, which helps a lot.

Don’t build all the buildings the game yells at you to make. Quarantines aren’t that important, tbh. And you don’t need security guards when your zoo is small. Research is important because it’ll get you things that will make your life easier. But they can probably wait a bit too.

I had no clue about this, but if the conservation credits are the leaf thingies I think I'll be in decent shape for my next zoo haha

Originally posted by Overeagerdragon:

Basically all you need to start running a profit (on easy mode) is 1 of each staff, 1 habbitat with a low maintenance animal (think the various forms of "dogs"; ie hyena's, Prairiehounds, wolves) 1 exhibit (any critter will do) and 1 of each TYPE of shop.... with the 20K loan you can easily build all of this and have money to spare and will start running a profit from the get go; especially if your exhibit has a fast breeder like spiders (you'll go nuts with selling their offspring for a nifty bit of pocketmoney).

I hadn't sold any animals from my previous zoos so this is going to be a change for me lol, but I'll keep it in mind!!

Originally posted by s_linkletter:

The key to making money from exhibits is not the donations, it is selling the offspring. Build initially within the power radius of the gate so you don't have to build power sources immediately. Avoid the big cats at the beginning. They eat money instead of meat, it seems. I have had franchise parks at 2 million dollars, but adding a large display of lions was a quick way to drain that fortune.

I think my two starter exhibits in my previous zoos were Lions and Wolves so this tracks for me lmfao

You'll have to get used to selling animals; especially when it comes to exhibits... Exhibits that have spiders (for instance) breed way faster than its population dies out...which results in overcrowding (or in gameterms; Social groups that are too large) which causes the animal's housed in the exhibit to drop in wellfare quite rapidly. Unlike habbitat animals you can't release exhibit "insects" into the wild for conservation credit...but you CAN selll them for money... in some cases; a single culling of an exhibit to get it back to healthy status can easily net you over $20K.

So you HAVE to sell exhibit animals in order to prevent protesters from showing up and in doing so can make a LOT of money... If you combine that with (for example) Diamond back Terrapin tortoises/turtles; a single culling of all your exhibits to keep them happy can make you an easy $100K with as few as 4 exhibits.... exhibits you bought for $3.5K /pc (14K total) and maybe 8x 2 exhibit animals (somewhere around 15K)... so if you REALLY want to make it easy on you... buy those 4 exhibits for a grand total of around $30K to make around $100K/yr....

Not going to tell you which animals those are though; wouldn't want to spoil all the fun for you ;) But having said that... 4 exhibits alone SHOULD make you enough money each year from keeping them "socially happy"

[Jaggid Edje]

Personally, I find the income from selling exhibit animals to be trivial compared to what a zoo makes from other sources that do not require the tedium of manually doing something regularly. I generally opt to only put exhibit animals in my franchise zoos that have long lifespans and leave breeding off for them. And they also are significantly less profitable measured as profit-over-time vs. initial expenditure than habitat animals.

[s_linkletter]

Originally posted by Jaggid Edje:

Personally, I find the income from selling exhibit animals to be trivial compared to what a zoo makes from other sources that do not require the tedium of manually doing something regularly. I generally opt to only put exhibit animals in my franchise zoos that have long lifespans and leave breeding off for them. And they also are significantly less profitable measured as profit-over-time vs. initial expenditure than habitat animals.

Yes it is tedious, but in the beginning the player has nothing else to do and very few other sources of income, so why not farm some exhibits? Once the income begins flowing well, and any loans are paid off, they can demolish the exhibits if it pleases them to do so. And yes your exhibits are less profitable if you turn off the breeding. Duh.

[Jaggid Edje]

@s-linkletter, with the starting loan you can build 3 habitats with 3 species in each and have your zoo making a profit of around 100,000 a year within a year. There's just no need to take the time-consuming and tedious approach of exhibit-animal-breeding-and-selling.

I turn off the breeding because it's not worth it, imo, not the other way around.

Now if they would just get around to adding a toggle option on exhibits that would auto-sell offspring if turned on....I'd be all for it then. I don't say no to additional income, only to needless tedium.