So this post is fine-tuned even more than the BSG Tips Revisited. People have made comments to me that make it seem like the post isn't clear enough. Hopefully this will shed some light on my exact process. I'll break it down so that each section corresponds to each section of my former post, meaning the same section title.
Choose a Strategy
What is a high quality/low model approach? The high quality refers to your S/Q rating. This needs to be higher than everyone else, maybe starting at a 7 and bumping it up one every year or two. The number that worked best for me for low models was 50. What is the mid quality/high model approach? The mid quality is right in the middle at 5 or 6. Definitely no higher than six, and I'd probably stick with 5. The number for high model really varies. I saw people with between 250 and 350 models when they took this approach.
One cool thing about either approach is that you can still be the low cost manufacturer, meaning that you make shoes at a cheaper price than anyone else. This gives you an advantage over your competition because if things get cut-throat, you can drop your price and still make a profit. This is like Walmart. They can drop their prices below others becuase they get stuff really cheap. The high quality approach is geared toward maximizing your profits so that each sale gives you a ton of profit. You may not sell a ton of shoes, but you will make a killing if you sell enough shoes. The mid quality approach is geared toward selling an insane amount of shoes and making some profit from each sale. This still gives you a lot of profit if you sell enough.
Corporate Citizenship
When I say optimize in posts, your goal is to get the highest profit for your buck. To do this, you have to look at the little box on the left of your screen and focus on the NET PROFIT section. If the % increase goes up when you change something, you are optimizing. When I say toggle in posts, that means you adjust the numbers. You can do that by entering a specific number or using the up and down arrows to change the amount. You toggle each variable, or area, until you have optimized your profits. Toggling things to optimization is what will make you the winner in this game.
Playing the Game
Review what I just wrote concerning optimization and toggling. An excel spreadsheet is not necessary to use. If you put the competitive rate to at least +2%, you'll do well. Remember how I mentioned to toggle everything? Make sure you do it. The whole toggling process should take you at least an hour your first time doing it. The regional sales volume is located at the bottom of the screen. Make sure to write those numbers down for each region.
Plant Capacity
A good strategy for building plant capacity is to build about 1000 units every other year. Check each year for people who sell plant capacity and if you can, BUY IT! It's so cheap that it's worth it every time.
I like to alternate the upgrades that I want with buying plant capacity somewhere in the game. Usually I'll get an S/Q upgrade early so that it doesn't cost me as much to have high quality.
Branded Production
Toggling and optimizing again! When I say multiply the wholesale demand by an increased percent, I'm talking about anywhere from 15% - 25%. So to do that I've given you the number range of 1.15 - 1.25. Just pick a percent, say 18% and that will be the number behind the decimal. The 1 will always be in front. So in the example above the number would be 1.18. Hopefully that makes it a little more clear.
Branded Distribution
The only real thing to understand here is how tariffs work. So if you don't know, NAFTA stands for North American Free Trade Agreement. The reason there are no tariffs is pretty self explanatory in the name, but if you want more information just google it.
Celebrity Bids
One part I left out of this post was that Celebrities really do help you, but like everything else there is a price at which it makes no sense. You can still win the game without celebrities, but it does help you. I will usually bid on all celebrities that I can for a bid price of 3,000 - 6,000. It really depends on what they were going for. Usually you can win 1 or 2 per round.
Private Label
I have been told that many professors are encouraging students to focus on one aspect of the game, such as wholesale or private label. This is ridiculous! If you go with high quality, the private label market can be one of your best markets. This is because you will sell fewer shoes, most likely, than other teams. That means that the rest of your capacity can go toward private label production.
Again, toggle everything. Get your cost per shoe as low as you can. The hardest part of the whole process is to determine how many teams will play in which market, how many shoes they'll have available to sell in each market, and what price they'll sell at. It's a fine art to determine who's doing what. It's a gamble that can pay off big.
Finance & Cash Flow
When paying off debt, leave yourself a buffer. I usually like to have between 10,000 and 25,000 in ending cash so that I can purchase other things the next year if I need to.
Well, I hope this was useful. Let me know if you have any further questions or additional tips for others to know!
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