Current date: 1st October, 1870 (Start of 4th quarter)
Relevant events in past quarter: Outbreak of hostilities between France and a confederation of German stated headed by Prussia. Most generals predict a drawn-out conflict, likely to end in a French victory.
Okay, build up my livestock. Got it. Start purchasing non-breeding stock as cheaply as possible from other ranchers in the area. Get a breeding program from my own stock together.
[1] Most of your local contacts don't have any heads of cattle to spare, but one shady-looking rancher seems very eager to shift a few of his old bulls at a very low price. It's only after they've been in your flock for a few weeks that you discover they carry a contagious and deadly livestock disease that kills off a sizeable portion of your herd before you can quarantine and cull the infected cattle. Effectively, your herd can no longer sustain itself and you've spent precious dollars for no good reason.
Hire more workers. Buy a small warehouse where I can have my workers work. See who my competitors are.
[5] Word of your success has gotten around town, and there's no shortage of eager men and women looking to partake in your fair wages and lucrative work. You spend a portion of your significant savings on a new building for your enlarged workforce to inhabit, the returns on which you should start seeing by the next quarter. As for competition, there are a few local businesses that roughly match yours in size, but at the rate you're growing and selling, you'll out-compete them in a matter of months.
Hire two store associates(aka general workers), and buy another set of inexpensive merchandice. Lets also open a poll at the checkout to see if we can nail down something that the customers would like to see.
[2] You try to repeat your success with the basic sundries that you started off with, but demand seems to have dried up faster than a puddle in the Californian sunlight. You still have enough cash to hire and pay a couple of inexperienced young men to do odd jobs around the store, but your budget outlook for the next quarter is going to take a serious downturn. To make matters worse, the miniscule footfall in your store this quarter means that your poll collected no meaningful data. You'll have to either work out why nobody is buying your product, or take a chance and branch out into something that isn't already saturating the market.
Oooookkkkayyy... hm.
Right. Time to head south. Work with local transport companies (allowing myself to get hired on as a porter if nothing else) to primarily get to London, but secondarily get some business information in the local transport/shipping industry. London is a busy port; there's money to be made moving goods, both inland and across the Channel.
[5] Your luck finally seems to shine when you turn your attention away from the cursed business of oil. Signing on with a national rail company, you nab a position as a first-class porter and ride the trains up and down the country for the entire quarter, making friends and accruing income and tips the whole time. You overhear from a number of travelling factory owners and statesmen that the shipping industry in England is booming at this time, which explains your success in signing on with the train company. By the time you arrive at London, ready to depart, the company is willing to offer you a more senior position. However, you've also accrued enough savings to strike out on your own. It's your decision.
Better. I shalt exact revenge on those Frenchmen for cheating me... soon. They shall not know the day nor night, but the weak minds shalt see my glorious ride of vengeance.
Grand. Now, I pay a small bonus to the gunsmith and tell him to design a breech loaded carbine, as those will be good for cavalrymen. Preferably something with a sizeable internal magazine, short and accurate. I shall also contact my old friends in the officer corps and offer them the best "Reiter Pistolen Modell Eins", in short RP-m1, (the elegant pistol I designed) for free. In exchange, I ask them to spread the word that officers and cavalrymen can get a good weapon for a reasonable price from me.
Additionally, I shall introduce strict discipline in my factory to reduce damaged weaponry and to maximize production. The managing positions shall be open to the most able, and not the most connected.
[6] Your hired smith must have been galvanised by the money you greased his palm with, since the product he brings before you a few months later leaves very little to be desired. Light, mobile and easy to fire and reload on the move, your new carbine is the perfect gun for a proud Prussian horseman - and it looks damn good, too. The duly-named 'RP-m1' pistol you designed, despite being mediocre in most regards, also sees a spike in demand as generals from various German states comb private industries for last-minute additions to their arsenals as they prepare to march on France. Your new carbine won't be manufactured in sufficient number before the next quarter, but provided the war is still going on by then, it'll surely net you massive amounts of profit. Your careful micromanagement of your sole arms plant ensures that it cranks out the pistol you created at maximum efficiency. Things are certainly looking up for your business and bank balance, but your success hasn't gone un-noticed by jealous German competitors and infuriated French statesmen. They may be tempted to hamper your progress if you become too big of a player in the European arms industry.
Great, I got my stock. Now I just have to build a clientele. I purchase some newspaper advertisements for my store.
[6] You purchase advertising space in local newspapers. You also purchase it in international newspapers, and local posters, and street signs... before you realise it, you've spent a good deal of your capital advertising a niche product to an audience that, for the most part, won't be interested. Still, at least the people who
are interested find out that you exist. Your first customers start rolling in before the quarter ends.
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Topic: Roll to Capitalism (Read 5146 times)