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Business Rules Having an in-game business is, for some characters, a major character goal. As a whole, we don’t necessarily feel that the Resources merit appropriately represents the entire possibilities with a business, so we went ahead and made our own way of handling businesses. To be doubly clear: Businesses and the Resource merit are two different things entirely; one cannot be justification for the other. There’s four points you should know about what you need for a business. First, you need a type of business and a name for a business (pretty common sense, eh?). Once you get that squared away in your head, you can start thinking about what other things you’re going to need. Second, you’re going to need some capital. You know, money, cheese, bling bling. There’s a lot of ways available to get the cash for a business, and you can read more in this section to find out some of your options and what kind of businesses there are (and how much they’ll cost you). Gaining Money for Businesses & Start-up Costs
First thing you should know is how we designate different types of businesses. There’s Minor businesses, which you’d see as like a hole-in-the-wall restaurant, or a small bookstore. A Major business could be buying a franchise store from the McDonalds food chain, or a pawn shop or small jewelry store. An expansive business is something that’s assumed to have multiple locations, like a department store or something else that likely has been made through your characters connections to have investors and multiple stores even outside of Atlanta. These, of course, aren’t your only options – they’re just examples so you know where and what to put your business down as.
Start-up Costs: • A Minor business requires $50,000 minimum to start. • A Major business requires $500,000 minimum to start. • An Expansive business requires $5,000,000 minimum to start. Most characters probably aren’t going to have that sort of liquid cash in their accounts, but there’s multiple ways to go about getting it. The most obvious is to form storylines with other characters to come up with the money required, but there’s other ways as well. Investors, Bank Support & Other Methods of Monetary Support
Now, before you go all gung-ho and mad crazy for Financial Allies (the most obvious choice for gaining fiscal support) you should know that, dependant on your business, you can in fact find other ways that may be better for your particular business.
Atlanta Society Allies Business Support
Naturally, these are really only good for businesses that would fit into the “entertainment” or “society” aspect of things.
Arrange for Investors (Level 3) – This is your standard-fare Investment Group. (See Financial Allies Business Support for the system) Influence over the distribution of charitable funds (Level 3) – This allows a character to find 5% of any amount for a business, assuming it’s not a low-brow and controversial establishment (jewelry store = yes, head shop = no). Set minor trends in local mortal society. (Level 4) – For a clothing store business, this can be fantastic! Your character gains enough of a local following for the business idea to get 10% of any amount for a clothing business. Church Allies Business Support
These are best used for Church-based businesses or businesses that rely on the “moral” denizens of the World of Darkness.
Influence the distribution of church-sponsored charitable funds. (Level 2) – This allows a character to find 5% of any amount for a business, assuming it’s not “questionable” and could easily be talked about as a new place for any age-group of church goer. Allow for access to church-sponsored charitable funds. (Level 4) – This goes a bit further than the level 2 version and allows for 10% of a business to be called for. Naturally, this doesn’t stack. Computer Allies Business Support
Naturally, computers and electronics-based businesses are really the only type that can benefit from these allies uses.
Get sponsorship from a minor computer company. (Level 2) – This could be used to get 5% of a Minor business paid for from a small Atlanta-based IT firm, naturally, you’d be expected to carry their products or use their staffing! But... that’s not the least of your concern, huh? Financial Allies Business Support
Get a better loan rate. (Level 1) – This isn’t directly helpful for getting cash for a business, but it does allow you to get 1% deducted off of the Investors or Bank Support Loan payback per success (The minimum that may be dropped to is 5%).
Arrange for investors. (Level 3) – Standard-fare Investors. Investors give 100k per success to a business. Whatever money is used from Investors has to be paid back plus 20% extra. Obtain bank support for the purchase of a minor business ($50,000 and below). (Level 3) – Okay, these are a little different than Investors because banks generally just want a set amount back. This just requires that you pay back 10% extra on your loan for 50k. Also, you’re not subjected to the success-based money that Investors do. Obtain bank support for the purchase of a major business ($500,000 and below). (Level 4) – Yep, see above. Obtain bank support for the purchase a expansive company ($5,000,000 and below). (Level 5) – Same as the Level 3/4 versions. Media Allies Business Support
Arrange for enough equipment at cost to make an independent film. (Level 3) – Naturally this sort of thing only applies for an independent film business, but it allows for the business costs to be cut by 5%.
Transportation Allies Business Support
Smuggle goods through customs with ease. (Level 4) – This allows street-based (read: illegal) businesses to get their work done without the extra stops to avoid the feds, which means less money paid out to middle men. 10% can be knocked off the cost of the business.
Smuggle with impunity. (Level 5) – Like the Level 4 version, this allows a business owner to cut out some middlemen for this type of business. This allows 15% off the cost of the business start up. This cannot be stacked with the level 4 version. University Allies Business Support
Naturally, these allies uses are generally only for businesses that deal directly with the school systems and Academia in general.
Influence the hiring of faculty. (Level 2) – Since you’re able to get who you want on staff, the prices you’re charged for your business are a bit less. 5% of the cost of your business can be knocked off. Call in faculty favors. (Level 3) – Favors can be helpful in a business that’s starting up to involve the faculty and schools themselves. You can find 5% of the cash necessary for a business by taking donations from faculty and staff favors. Third, now that we’ve got the money for start-up, you’ve got to start thinking about where you’re going to keep all your goods, or have a storefront. Every business has to have some sort of a storage warehouse, or storefront, otherwise it’s not even a business. There’s not a whole lot of ways to do this, unlike the arranging for business moneys, but there are some options. Business Buildings and Cost Options
The most basic way people are going to get their building business is to just buy a place out-right. These are just the “base” costs, a more expensive operation might have a larger building than others’.
A Minor business’ building costs $50,000 – or conversely you can pay $5,000 for rent, taxes and utilities per business year. You may also choose to purchase a Haven Size 3 for your business (this may not be refunded so long as the business is in-game) instead of paying liquid cash. A Major business’ building costs $200,000 – or you may choose to pay $20,000 for rent, taxes and utilities per business year. You may also choose to purchase a Haven Size 4 for your business (this may not be refunded so long as the business is in-game) instead of paying liquid cash. An Expansive business’ building(s) cost $1,000,000 – or you may choose to pay $100,000 for rent, taxes and utilities per business year. You may not purchase Haven Size for an expansive business. If an individual wishes to build their own buildings, rather than use existing ones, they have to get building permits from the city, because city bureaucrats suck. Now, you can use Bureaucratic Allies Level 2 for "Falsify building permits" - but this is ILLEGAL. The price for a legal building permit is generally 10% of the cost for the building. Finally, if a character wants to place Haven Accessories onto a business building, they can, it costs the normal amount. There’s also Business Insurance that a character can look into purchasing as well from the Cost Charts. Fourth, and finally, now that you’ve gotten your money for the start-up of the business and the building or warehouse your items are going to be sold from or shipped from, you’ve got to meet or cheat those pesky building codes and other general permits. Businessing Permits
Every business has to have Health Inspector clearance. There’s a Level 2 Bureaucratic Allies use for “Handling Code Compliances” which works the trick. Conversely, you can attempt to bribe a politician in office with a standard politics-based bribery roll (Manipulation + Politics, using the Contacts’ modifiers) to see if they can’t handle it for you as a “favor”.
Bars and Clubs need Alcohol Licenses. This can only be done with a usage of Atlanta Society Allies Level 1 for "Get a liquor or entertainment building permit". Also, this would be how you get a food/beverage permit as well, for restaurant type businesses. Okay, so we might have lied, there's actually more like Five steps. Now you’ve got all your business money gotten, your building for your stuff and you’ve got the okay from the city government to go ahead. What’s missing? Oh right, people you need to actually run your businesses! The Staff merit, which may only be purchased by a Retainer, is your best bet here. Generally, a Minor business only needs 1 or 2 dots of staff for it, while a Major business generally needs 2 or 3 dots and an Expansive business could need up to five. It really depends on what your business is. Herd can be used, as well, but a minimum of Herd 3 is required, and it’s only allowed to staff a Minor business. That’s it! Other Information Now you’re asking yourself, what’s the point of having a business? Well, for starters, like was said above – it’s not necessarily tied to your Resources rating, which means you can have extra cash coming in from a business payout every business year in-game (which is 2 RL months). There’s different amounts of payouts you get every year in game, dependent on what type of business you have. Minor businesses pay out 40% base of the money invested into them. Major businesses pay out 50% of their worth. Expansive businesses pay out 70% base. Now, you should be aware if you’ve looked at the Allies charts that there’s way to increase the base payouts for businesses, and we encourage players to get creative with them. Of course, there’s also ways to force business losses, too! The last couple things you should know about businesses are about selling them off or giving them (or having them taken-over by) to others. If you sell off a business you’re generally assumed to be “bought out” by a larger conglomerate company, but, you only get 50% of the worth of the business – but only if there’s no outstanding loans or investments unpaid on the business. This can be done at any time. The last bit of information is how takeovers and business grants work. It’s a little complex, so we’ll try to explain it out as best as possible. First off, the person who’s taking over the business is only going to get 75% of the profits it would normally get for awhile. The remaining 25% that was cut out of the normal profits is put into a cache for retaining customers and employees and the like. This continues until the 25% that’s cut out reaches half the business’ worth, then profits resume as normal. This can be handled quickly by paying half the business cost up-front, if desired, by the new owners. |
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