A dot-point guide for maximising profits in Big Ambitions

I'll add to this guide as I play, however, the aim of this guide is not to be an exhaustive instruction manual for playing Big Ambitions - the tutorial actually does a pretty good job of teaching you how to play the game - but it is here to assist those of you who have a good understanding of the basics 'build tall' and avoid those frustrating "Why isn't this working!?" moments (guide last updated for game build 1869). Comments welcome.

Retail businesses

Staffing
1. I tend to favour hiring three staff per register for 6 hours each shift from 6AM to 1200AM to work Monday to Sunday when establishing retail businesses.
2. The number of registers or checkouts used will depend on the capacity of the store. As a guide I usually rely on the following :
For cash registers purchased from Square Appliances,
o 2 to 3 for 75m2
o 3 to 3 for 225m2
o 3 to 15+ for 1000m2
For checkouts purchased from AJ Pederson & Son,
o 2 to 3 for 225m2
o 3 to 6+ for 1000m2
3. The minimum of 2 registers or checkouts per shop will help you 'sick proof' your business. That is, you don’t need two of either to cover capacity. However, in the absence of a HR manager, having two or more registers will ensure your store continues to operate as normal - even when one employee calls in sick. Moreover, having more then one register running at once, also means you can service more than one queue of customers at once. This can increase revenue. More specifically, although 2 customers can pick up 2 expensive gifts from one rounded shelf at the same time. The in-shop registers can service only one of those customers at a time. This forces customers to queue up. A second register can go a long way to helping you to 'turn around' customers faster, reducing queue times and increasing sales.
4. I usually add the third so that I can jump in and service the shop as well from time to time. This I find is the quickest way to work out the best prices to charge your customers. As you can adjust the prices of your saleable items multiple times in a single day by paying attention to your customers comments.
5. Returning to HR, hire that HR manager as soon as you can. The passive training bonus they provide to their assigned staff is invaluable for ensuring your customers leave the shop with the comment “What a pleasant customer service experience – I am definitely coming back!”

Logistics
6. Similarly, to HR managers, rent that warehouse as quickly as you can. Having purchasing agents periodically reduce the cost of buying stock from the different importers as they increase their purchasing skill and having drivers automatically deliver those goods every morning to your stores in unbelievably helpful to making a lot of money quickly.
7. Constantly getting those Alerts “Store: Cigar Shelf will run out soon” or “Store: Cash Register is out of Paperbag!”, try adjusting the delivery amount up.
8. Still been prompted? – you better go visit that shop then, there’s a good chance there aren’t enough storage shelves to store all your deliveries!
9. Even still having trouble? Try reducing the size of the deliveries for some of the products that aren't in your 'Best Selling Products' list and keep the deliveries the same size for the products you're being told are running out - give the game a day or two to equalise the in-shop inventory - and this should resolve any remaining prompts.

10. As a guide, I tend to rely on the following number of storage shelves for accepting deliveries and avoiding those prompts.
o 3 to 5 for 75m2
o 5 to 12 for 225m2
o 12 to 24+ for 1000m2

Traffic and Advertising
11. Traffic is important - you can dramatically increase sales in a high traffic area. 40 is the often quoted minimum, however, in general so long as the traffic index is above the shop’s capacity, you can do just fine in that shop too – especially once you start advertising. That said, the highest traffic indexes, will almost always result in the biggest inventory turnovers.
12. Don't be afraid to mix and match different saleable items in one shop. Although, a Gift Shop will sell more gifts then flowers compared to a florist, there's no reason, the gift shop can't service demand for both flowers and gifts. My favourite combinations tend to be:

o Store 1: Gifts, Flowers, Cigars, Bottles of Wine and (if you're doing particularly well) Jewellery.


o Store 2: Clothes (all 8 types)

o Store 3: Produce, Soda Cans and Food (both fresh and frozen)


o Store 4: Everything else - All the fast food options and baked goods under one roof!


Capacity and Pricing
13. Pay attention to customer capacity, there's no real benefit in purchasing more items displays then your store capacity will allow.
14. When tweaking prices, I find I can normally get away with the following price points to start:
o Market price Plus $3-$3 in Working class neighbourhoods.
o Market price Plus $5-$6 in Middle class neighbourhoods.
o Market price Plus $6-$9+ In Upper class neighbourhoods.

Office businesses

The principles are largely the same with office businesses as with retail businesses. However, the below tips can help you avoid those "Why isn't this working!?" moments.

Staffing
1. Employ staff slowly – they are your biggest expense.
2. Watch their hourly wage. For example, when hiring lawyers, I tend to stick to full time employees only who are requesting less than $130 per hour.
3. If you’ve hired staff in a measured way, but profit margins are still thin – start firing employees, the oldest, most demanding and most expensive (per hour) are usually the best to fire first. This increases average employee satisfaction whilst simultaneously reducing costs.
4. If firing staff sits poorly with you though - buy out the remaining competitors in the neighbourhood instead. Keep their best assets, fire the rest and shut down whatever business remains.
5. Alternatively do both tips 3 and 4 together and watch your profits rebound dramatically.

6. I tend to favour 3 employees per workstation, working 6 hours each shift per day, starting from 5AM and finishing at 11PM Monday to Sunday. Other players prefer longer 24/7 shifts – find what works for you. Personally, I find the increase in sales between 11PM and 5AM is not worth the effort of finding, hiring and satisfying the extra staff.
7. As you play, and your staff become more skilful some staff will start demanding more things such as a mouse pad or a particular piece of furniture. Whenever this happens, you'll notice that multiple staff may start demanding the same thing. One way to respond to this is to take advantage of scheduling. That is, if you have three staff demanding a mouse pad. Buy one mouse pad and place it on one desk, then reshuffle the schedule of those three staff to work from that same desk at different times. The result: three demands satisfied with one purchase! Bonus tip: You can view a desk and it's attachments by hovering your mouse over the word 'Computer' under 'Opening hours' in the scheduling section of your office business. Alternatively, put one computer on the floor, then place the mouse pad on that desk. This will push the workstation to the bottom of your scheduling screen and indicate which one it was with a big red dot. This makes rescheduling staff much easier in larger businesses.



Logistics
8. N/A

Traffic and Advertising
9. Traffic is important but don’t be afraid to advertise too. You can put (some) competitors out of business with a good mix of marketing campaigns. For example, 100% marketing efficiency is nice (and sometimes necessary for the largest businesses), but If you can reach 95-98% for a fraction of the cost of a large billboard campaign – you should.

Capacity and Pricing
10. Like retail businesses there's no real benefit to staffing more desks then capacity allows. Having extra desks on hand though can be useful for when shuffling staff around in order to meet there increasingly complex demands or wants. As it will allow you to do so without sacrificing revenue.
11. Office businesses can be particularly frustrating when pricing as there’s no live feedback mechanism like in retail shops. For office business, your best gauge is the Insight & Pricing section of your business in BizMan. This will give you a pretty good idea about how much you can or can't charge customers in your office business – adjust your prices frequently and check it daily until you find that sweet spot of between 90-100% pricing satisfaction.
12. Over time prices can be increased little by little as the average skill of your office staff increases.

Real estate businesses

Staffing
1. N/A

Logistics
2. N/A

Traffic and Pricing
3. A higher traffic index may or may not affect your occupancy rate. It will affect your rent per square though.
o If your occupancy rate is low, try reducing your rent per square just a little.
o If it’s closer to 100% then try increasing your rent per square ever so slightly.
o Real estate is a tricky balancing act and each change will take 7 days to take effect, so choose your rent change carefully.
4. On the bright side though, you now own that building you used to rent – so no more rent for you!

Capacity and Advertising
5. N/A