Bio Engineer Archive
Thread: Running a Succesful Business: How To?
Hey there,
First off, I'd like to say I am having a lot of fun being a bio engineer, and have vastly enjoyed making creatures for the guild. In fact, I've even opened up an exotic pet adoption center in the guild vault, where members can 'adopt' one of my clones.
But I have a problem with one thing: My planet hopping trips for DNA are getting extensive and expensive, and I have no way to balance their cost short of grabbing missions and sampling the lair to death. I've always helped folks with their pursuit of business and merchant affairs... I even teamed up with a friend and guildmate to tackle vehicle pre orders... but I can't seem to sell a single pet.
My vendor is in a player city with a shuttle, so location isn't the problem. It's also in a shop with another vendor that sells vehicles, so traffic isn't a problem either. But for some reason, I haven't sold one single pet since the patch. At first I was using the pricing formula Wired3k posted in Excel form - the prices looked fair to me, but I didn't know the market. A CH came in and told me he can't sell sludgie's for more than 25k, and their stats are better than some of the pets I had up there. So I re evaluated my pricing, and lowered it considerably. For example, I now have sub CL 10 pets with nice stats at 20k each. Considering the standard rate pre patch was 1k per level, I don't think 20k is a lot to ask for creatures that everyone can use, and that are quite 'valuable'.
So what am I doing wrong? I've advertised on the Kettemoor boards (only once... I don't appreciate spam, so I don't imagine many others do), I've even stooped to pet peddling when I have a deed on me, and still I have made not one sale, while the vehicle vendor in the opposite room from mine, also run by me, but stocked by a business partner, continues to see profit.
Does anyone have some advice? Right now my vendor is stocked only with pets... but I plan to put some very nice Stim As up there soon, in hopes it will give me some return business and something to pay for all of those DNA harvesting trips. Any help on marketing without aggravating people would be muchly appreciated.
Thanks!
I'm a newbie to BE, so right now all i'm making is lvl 2-8 pets, I have branded them as Entertainer Pets and sell them 3k a pop, which are mostly the bunny type creatures. I made some tissues +1-+3 Bleed Def and im selling those for 150-450 a pop. So far things have been selling well. I dont know if i'm selling too low but i'm making new friends and customers and to me thats why i got into BE. If i run low on creds i shoot over to dantooine and do some quenker or piket missions.
There arent too many Be's in my area that keep a good stock of pets, if any at all.. so i cant really price compare what i'm selling. But when an entertainer sends me a /tell and says "you really have cute bunnies?" that just makes it all worth it
when i get higher up or even master then i will have more vendors with different lvl pets, so everyone can enjoy them.
I dont see your price points as anything wrong, why not check around other BE shops see what others are charging, or run threw busy cities shouting friendly your Store Co-ords. I did that in coronet, bestine, dantooine, and a few other places...
I have also seen people with droids patrolling the cities advertising their name and/or shop co-ords. If you havent tried it yet get merchant xp enough to allow you to get on the planetary map. I always look at the map for shops or on these forums before i shelp around towns looking for what i want
I hope this helps
It could be worse… you could be trying to recover your costs without a vendor. I’d write more, but I have missions to run. 
seriously, at least 100k/day, I bought myself a large naboo house on naboo's beach today (huge house)
PS: I make kaadus so once adult they can be mounted.
Lower prices below your competitors and stock your vendor with pet stims/vitality packs.
I have mademillions in the last two weeks 
All I did was put up a house near coronet. Not to offend but the player cities are lame and nobody goes to them. Everyone stays around the usual spots like coronet, AH, Theed, etc.. So I would place a vendor as close to coronet as you can and you will get quite a few more serious buyers in there.
Then I put the word out via the forums. Made sure to keep as many pets on the vendor as I could find time for. I could sell three times the pets if I could make them btw.
I don't know your non ch stats but your 25k price would be low compared to my prices.
I also sell mask and injury cloths. Don't sell to many but I have made a good 200k of them in the last week.
I also sell pet stims and vitality packs which do sell good but that is just pocket change.
I have balanced my produst almost perfectly. About half my money is CH and half is non ch. I have to sell over twice the non ch pets to make the same as my ch pets. More work but better market share.
I have shopped the other be vendors and my non ch priceis a bit higher and I have yet to see anybody seriously selling ch pets so I guess my prices are the best there.
Right now is a prime time to sell your creatures. Make them good, place them near a busy city and put out the word. i can't believe they won't sell.
Good luck
SilakDar wrote:
Does anyone have some advice? Right now my vendor is stocked only with pets... but I plan to put some very nice Stim As up there soon, in hopes it will give me some return business and something to pay for all of those DNA harvesting trips. Any help on marketing without aggravating people would be muchly appreciated.
Thanks!
From my own experience, I would have to say that not having Pet Stimpacks (and vitality packs) is a big mistake. These are what people will come to your vendor for more often than pets and will provide a steady flow of income. Yes, pets will make you more money than stims, but stims bring in more frequent traffic. If you build up a loyal stimpack following that buys your stims regularly, they will see the pets on your vendor. When they're in need for new pets, they're bound to check the ones on your vendor out. Also, do not discount selling your stimpacks in the bazaar. I make it a practice of only selling pet stimpack As in the bazaar, but when someone buys one, I email the customer a thank you, and inform them that higher grade stimpacks are available in my store ONLY. Also, I charge a little higher for bazaar stims than the exact same items in the store. If I notice a customeris a regular"bazaar buyer" of my stims and has never visited my store, I send him an email informing him that he'll get a better value buying the stims at the store. This makes your regulars prefer your shop to buying their stims, and gives you the opportunity to use the bazaar to hook new customers. I've had a pet store since my novice BE days, and my clientele has grown significantly using these methods. You don't have to price underneath all your competitors. Price fairly, but make sure you're well stocked at all times.
While that spreadsheet probably still needs some tweaking - I've been using it as is - and haven't had a problem, no one has yet come up to me and said "Man - that's just too high'(which could actually mean - it's too low).
Now - your server may have different economics - that's always a possibility, but I suspect as others have already mentioned - your problem is traffic.
There are several ways to generate traffic into a store.
Your first best resource is other players - happy customers tell others, and send them waypoints. If all else fails - find some newbies that wouldn't mind standing around starports for a few hours to advertise for you. Folks like entertainers or surveyors are great for this because they are often in populated areas and stationary.
Posting on the boards is also good - gets your name out.
Make sure if you are wanting BE business - you have your BE tag on - and you are marked as searchable in your player information.
If you have other products to sell - especially consumables that generate a lot of foot traffic, another excellent way to generate traffic.
Even if YOU don't want to put up more vendors or sell more items - if you know folks looking for a storefront that sell items that would compliment foottraffic, you might want to let them place a vendor in your shop. Anything that gets a customer in the front door is a good thing, and they tend to browse around once they've gotten what they've come for. It may be that someone looking for a vehicle just isn't thinking PET at that moment, something else in the shop - like meds might help.
My biggest problem at the moment isn't price - it's supply (and trying to figure it all out still). I get massive tells every day - can you make me such and such and such. Folks just don't understand ordering a highly specialized animal isn't quite the same thing as a red shirt with X bonus on it.
How is your vendor named? I name all mine by what they carry. Fred and Wilma just isn't as informative as PETS - MEDS - PET FOOD. If you have the skills to make them bark - or put them on the map - do so, it's well worth it.
Like others - I highly recommend selling pet meds. It's a consumable that has customers making your shop a regular stop, they WILL browse thru the animals while they are there for food and meds for their animals.
Good luck.
to bad your not on Gorath .. our server is in desperate need.. for a Good BE.. that has some customer service skills.. hehe i offered .. 125k for a cl 10-14 pet on my server.. with stats that most on this forum said was reasonable.. and could not get anyone to make it for me.. they just want to force feed super Kaduus down our throughts..
he he move to gorath.. ill get u set up with a great spot for a vendor.. dont know what Dialup is thinkin.. my business has raised 5 times since it was established in our player city.. (as with all the other 20vendors) doing way more than when i was set up in one of the closest houses to theed.. one thing id add too.. is make sure that yours and all the other vendors are advertised on the map.. more people are learing how to us the vendor search on the main map.. the more vendors in one area seem to draw more people.. and by all means make sure u have variaty.. and if someone needs to have something that is designed for how they fight.. give them a opportunity to get it ^^ that will give u great reputation..
Thank you for all of the replies.
In response to moving my vendor: My vendor is set in a player city, yes... but it's a player city that has a Master of every crafting profession in a marketplace setting, of which my store is a part of. I could move it, but I enjoy my spot amongst hard-working guildmates. I will bring some pet deeds with me and try selling in Coronet though.
In response to my prices: I'm glad you all think they're low... they're low for the server, too. I'll take a better look at the BEs in stock and perhaps re evaluate once again.
In response to vendor name: The vendor is named Mounts and Pets by Tekaos, barks a message about pets, and is listed on the planetary map.
In response to selling stims: I'll start doing that right away - I love the bazaar idea, tempting them with lesser quality meds for a higher price and then showing them what you *really* have in stock.
I think I covered everything.. again, thank you for the help, it's much appreciated. I'll make a few changes based on the suggestions, and see what happens.
Oh and Wire... for the record, I think your spreadsheet is awesome. Stingy CH... *cough*
I don't have a vendor, i don't spend any length of time standing in the market screaming that I have something for sale. However that is mainly because I'm fairly well known on Ahazi much like Fairchild is so customers come to me when they need something. If you really need to start bringing in money you need to get into the petstim biz and sell in small quantities on the bazaar, this will give you enough income for almost anything as long as you price things fairly. I charge 1800c for 750/35 petstim Bs and the fact is I've had people wait weeks for a crate to be made because it's such a good price.
One of the best things ive found is create a brandname for yourself and put it onto all of your products. I personally use 'Tal-Biotech' which is short and snappy. That way when someones buys your petstims or whatever they permantly have a reminder of who you are in their inventory for as long as they have those items. If they were happy the first time they usually come back. It also helps to get involved with the bio-eng community, other bio-eng players are not your competition to the point where you need to alienate them. Often you'll find bio-engineers who know each other passing around customers to someone they know because they personally can't handle the order. Maybe times i've been busy and given someone Fairchilds name so she might be able to help that player.
In the end it's all about good customer service, prices vary like hell but you'll find some people buy from you reguardless of the prices because they like you.
Tal-N wrote:
I don't have a vendor, i don't spend any length of time standing in the market screaming that I have something for sale. However that is mainly because I'm fairly well known on Ahazi much like Fairchild is so customers come to me when they need something. If you really need to start bringing in money you need to get into the petstim biz and sell in small quantities on the bazaar, this will give you enough income for almost anything as long as you price things fairly. I charge 1800c for 750/35 petstim Bs and the fact is I've had people wait weeks for a crate to be made because it's such a good price.
One of the best things ive found is create a brandname for yourself and put it onto all of your products. I personally use 'Tal-Biotech' which is short and snappy. That way when someones buys your petstims or whatever they permantly have a reminder of who you are in their inventory for as long as they have those items. If they were happy the first time they usually come back. It also helps to get involved with the bio-eng community, other bio-eng players are not your competition to the point where you need to alienate them. Often you'll find bio-engineers who know each other passing around customers to someone they know because they personally can't handle the order. Maybe times i've been busy and given someone Fairchilds name so she might be able to help that player.
In the end it's all about good customer service, prices vary like hell but you'll find some people buy from you reguardless of the prices because they like you.
finally something i aggree with u on 100%.. especially the part i highlighted..
