Please comment what I should do... Im a failure at the moment

Hey guys... as most people know, every business I open it just seems to fail either because Im so low on funds that it just over takes me or I never do get help and my schedule is over taken by the customer service. So this is what Im doing now, and I pray that it doesn't fail.

Starting a mall, once again.

Designs to chose from:

Old themed ( Roman )

Modern Tower


Mansion Themed ( Only one item selling [ Mostly likely mining items ] )




I currently have 289k to do any of these projects, so donations are needed. If you donate you're guarantied to have a spot in the shop/mall and Ill give you 2 DC of a reserved item of choice ( nothing like diamond, emeralds, lapis )

Jobs: Miners: As a miner, you will mine for the whole time period I give you.

Earnings: SC of Stone ( Yes it must be smelted ) : 200r ( 2x if you get DC )
SC of coal : 1k ( 2x if you get DC )
SC of iron ingots: 5k ( 1.5x if you get DC )
SC of Gold Ingots: 6k ( 1.5x for DC )
SC of Lapis: 3k ( 1.5x for DC )
SC of Diamonds: Negotiate
SC of Emeralds: Negotiate

Just comment if you want the job and Ill PM you.

Manager:
When Im not on, you control the workers, very trusted. May not pick you if I don't know you.
Pay: 1k when Im not on

* More to come *

Donators: RunningRhino: 50k

Reserved!

Not looking for a job but I'd like to comment on something related yet totally different. But because you mentioned how some shops failed I figured I might as well...

I don't think the looks will matter all that much (if you want to know then my preference would be Roman, I like things which have a bit of a medieval look to them) but whatever you do: make sure that it will be easy to navigate your mall! I think that's the most important thing.

Even this week did we (Aya and me) stumble upon many shops where we simply couldn't find what we were looking for. We wanted to buy apples and yah... Some malls don't have any sections at all and simply expect you to go over all their floors (not going to happen when I'm specifically looking for something; especially since there are plenty of other malls to chose from), some mislabeled their floors (you expect food stuff and end up with mob drops (for example)); looking around shows that they had 2 sections rolled up in one but only mentioned one of them, and obviously the one you already know: you finally find something and it's out of stock. Then you try to buy something else which is also out of stock. And a third and yah; then you leave

Hinting at: If possible also add some kind of stock indicator or allow us to preview your chests. I think that can also be of great help.

Just my 2 cents here, and I wish you all the best with your upcoming mall!

Some impressive images. I like the modern looking one. Wanted to build something similar. I wanted to talk about some of these prices you are paying. They might discourage people from helping out. A few are well below the normal prices. For example the gold. I understand that funds may be limited but I just find it hard to believe someone would sell a SC of Gold Ingots for 6k when they can easily sell it for 17k. I sell gold ingots 10r per. You're asking about 3.5r per. Unless your buying huge quantities it just might not be worth it. Just is just my thoughts and in no way telling you what you need to do. Just thought you might get more miners is the prices were a little closer to value. But either way good luck on your build.

I don't understand the concept of getting people to sell to you at very low prices when like everyone will pay much more. The fact is, to have a successful megamall that stays stocked, you need one of the following.

- You have tons of time to get everything on your own
- Very fair and competitive buying prices (so a million or two of buffer rupees to buy inventory)
- Pre-existing inventory of everything (2DC+) to stock

Anything else I'd be impressive if you can pull off. Of course, that's only my two cents.

As for the build, I do like the modern one but maybe a bit larger and with more detail. I can potentially expand it for free on my free time if you provide a world download.

Unless you plan to open some of these in the frontier, I think you may need to scale down a bit. (or claim a few plots next to each other)

I am a fan of the Roman themed one. If you don't use it, I will use it for my outpost

Riman or Modern tower. But im leaning on modern tower if you should choose.

I use to run one of the best shops around. So lemme tell you something, looks don't matter, supply does. Set up a simple shop and have some good farms to keep stock.

Also expecting people to sell you items or work for you dirt cheap wont work. some one is always willing to pay more.

As the others have said what matters more is accessability to items, good prices and stock. Stock is probably the hardest as most of your time will then be devoted to stocking the shop if it is popular. You can hope people will sell to your shop signs, but you can't depend on it. People also realize they can make more r if they go about things on their own, rather than supplying you making it hard to get workers. I would suggest getting a ton of stock before opening the mall giving you time to see what you need to get a ton more of/farm more of compared to what is barely sold(such as vines). Just my input... I haven't written this much in a while

If you want to pull off a business from little funds there is no other way then to work hard. That's like this IRL as well as Minecraft.

As an example, I ordered 2dc of red sandstone on a bulk supply thread. After the supplier agreed to deliver, it was OK for me to wait a while. After a week nothing had been gathered, so I went down to a SC of the resource. Still haven't heard anything back from that. It is a matter of 2hrs for one person maybe less to gather that, yet the supplier prefered to wait for help that never arrived. In the meantime he lost a deal, because now after about 2 weeks I don't need it anymore.

I get the prices are low, I just don't know the prices for this month. They always go up or down. Send me a PM and Ill fix the prices.

I normally sell Iron 2.5r per ingot & gold 10r per ingot. The rest I don't normally sell so not sure of their price.

i donated 50k, good luck i would say do the roman one

Why start so large? If you've tried it before and it hasn't panned out, I'd suggest scaling it down to essentials (based on your SMP's trending needs). When I first joined EMC, I did so with absolutely no intention of ever selling anything. I just wanted to have fun building stuff with a friend of mine, who suggest EMC as a place to play. After a few weeks, I realized I had more supply than I really needed for certain things (mostly farm related) and noticed there was a lot people asking for it in chat, so I sold it. Whenever someone asked for something in chat, that I had a surplus of, I'd chime in. Eventually, people just started asking me if I sold certain things, directly. If I didn't have what they wanted, I'd take a mental note it and if it was easy for me to gather during my natural playing routine, I'd start to sell that, too. So, I went from not having any intentions of running a store, to having a shop I need to restock daily. People have asked me why I don't open a mall, but I don't really have a need, or want, to. I've leveled off at a point where I can personally sustain what I'm selling, while making a profit. If I start to branch out any further, I'd need to worry about hiring people and smp jumping to shop around, so I could fill everything. Instead, I just pay attention to the other people on the server who sell what I don't and point people to their shops instead. It helps spread the wealth and brings customers back, knowing that I'm willing to help in one way or another.

I would work on your large project before moving to another or is this a part of it?

If you're going by outside looks here's a few tips:

Pay to have sidewalk looks removed (remove grass, trees, lightpoles)
...anything that will be an obstruction to your looks and view ... remove it

Location*
If you have neighbors who have skyscrapers, mansions, 255 high dirt walls, floating islands ...etc
They can subtract from your whole picture ... so try to avoid them.

Pick an un-populated area or an open area if you want to have your outside view look nice and unobstructed ...

If you're wanting to focus on inside theme, then location won't matter...

But another sell point is residence number... if you have a repeating number, a pattern number, or a number with a lot of 0's, individuals will be more likely to return and spread word... as they'll remember it easier.

ie) 2000 , 3456 , 1111

Not saying that's a must, but it does help

If you think it will fail, it will fail. There is no reason to start a mall if you aren't committed. If you just want to be able to say you have a mall, then it isn't worth your time. Malls are a pain I'm the butt to keep stocked and if you are out of stock for a little while you earn a reputation that is difficult to shake. Knowing prices is important as if you are too low you will run out immediately and if you are too high you wont sell much. Sales is what keeps a mall going. From your op my advice: don't even start on it. If you NEED a shop find a niche. Its much easier to keep a dozen things stocked than 200.

BUMP, this is just a plan may I remind. Will start a small shop by request and work to make it a mall in the future.

BUMP. Donations needed more than ever