Clothing Tips
Hints and tips on how to run a clothing company, provided by users of the game.
Tip #1: The best thing to have,when running a clothing company,is photoshopping skills. (Or a friend / in-game person who makes 'designs' [as we call them] and allows you to sell them in your stores.) Of course,they need to look GOOD if you want to earn well.
Tip #2: If you DO happen to have photoshop skills,you might want to consider making 'Fight Skins'. These are pictures sliced in half (A top and bottom) that will form a picture,showing the fighter's face and his 'body' (determined by the picture) and maybe some other cool things,like belts or tattoos etc. People can buy these for 10 sets (10 tops and 10 bottoms) for 300. Which would result in 6000 for you. Of course,there is the posibility of selling for more.
Tamel Moultrie here for Smashwear Clothing. At this moment in time I have had the number one clothing store in the game for 3 months straight so, I would like to point that out as my creditability.
Photoshop skills or an arrangement with someone who has photoshop skills is a MUST. The better your clothes look the more you will sell and, the more you can charge. I would recommend never going over $30 an item though unless its a special item. I started Smashwear out with purchased designs and since learned to use photoshop. Smashwear is very successful now and I see no reason to keep the secrets from the rest of the game. I love this game and wish everyone was good at it or at least I hope to increase your gaming experience.
There are other tricks too that I will reveal for veteran clothing shopowners. If you have a high volume store (meaning you sell a lot of stuff) and are running into problems with your ordering cap (maximum amount of orders that can be made for products = 3500 per month) then try selling posters, logos, belts, anything else you can make and hand out without using your store. Load it into a photo sharing website (photobucket, or whatever) and send the link to the customer. They can then buy donations without using any store inventory and you are still making money.
If you are running low on inventory and have used your cap up, try changing clothing items prices to $300 dollars so you can continue to take in payments for work.
Advertise. Sponsor some events that you know will do good or that a lot of people will be reading. Make a thread for your company and include a mission statement and maybe prices or new items. Whatever you think the customer should know about your shop. To take it a step further, if you have writing skills or have someone you can pay to write for you, I recommend making ads for your clothing company and sending them out any way you can. Maybe strike a deal with an org owner to post your ads in their org mailer so you can hit a number of managers at once. Multiple deals will allow hundreds of managers to read your ads.
Treat fighters right. Don't go broke giving out sponsorships, but give out the largest dollar amount you can afford. Non V.I.P. members can struggle with money because their only income is fight purses. Make sure to take care of any and all non V.I.P. managers because a little sponsorship money from you can go a long way to someone that really needs it, and gives you another loyal customer.
Hype 1...Stores are ranked by their hype level so the object is to gain hype. In my opinion sponsorships are only part of the trick to hype. The rule is quality over quantity so I suggest sponsoring only the best fighters you can get to sign. You could send 100 sponsorships to brand new fighters or send sponsorships to 20 real good fighters...it has the same effect. Your hype also moves with the fighters so if half of your sponsored fighters lose their fights then expect your hype to take a hit. Thats why you sponsor winners or at least sponsor enough winners to make up for those that lose.
Hype 2...Sales amount is another trick to hype in a clothing store. Even if you don't sponsor too many good fighters if you have a lot of money flowing through your store you will gain a good amount of hype from this too. Try laundering money for people. It's a great way to increase your store income and sales, in turn giving you hype. You can also try making store items "at cost" ($4.40) to increase your sales. It doesn't make money, but it sure does sell items quick!
Visit the threads everyday. The forum is like craigslist for MMATycoon. There are all kinds of managers on there who need photoshop work done and you can pick up a lot of work from them. Some of my biggest and best business deals have come from the forums...
Link your shop to your photobucket page. This way people can see your work and what you are capable of before they even talk to you. If you are good your work will speak for itself and you will do well based off of just showing your good work to the world.
In closing I would like to say that there are many different styles of business, but if your style involves questionable conduct (screwing people over) in any way you will fail. It is better to always stay honest with the fighters and managers. Always do work at the price you quote them, don't try to change the price at the last minute or short someone items...Always work in the timeframe you have given to the customer. Some managers depend on work coming in on time especially with event posters. If you can't meet the deadline then tell them. Better to be honest than to screw them, even if that means losing the job. Remember, there are no real rules for business conduct on here, but the threads should keep you honest. If you screw someone all they have to do is create a thread explaining what you did and the whole game could boycott your store, fighters, and manager profile. I have seen great careers go down in flames overnight due to a thread posting shady activity. Noone will sign your fighters, noone will let you train in a private gym...the game is basically over for you at that point.
There are many other tricks that I will let you discover on your own because if you follow what I have said here you will have a successful business, and will eventually start thinking up your own ways to build your clothing store!
