Getting Started: Player Dealership

Running a player dealership? You’ve come to the right place. This article will give you the quick rundown of how to hit the ground running. Follow the below guidelines, and remember the key bullet points to help get your wheels turning into a successful business.

1.) Set Your Rates & Lease Settings

In the beginning, everything has been set to default for you. However we advise regularly tuning the settings to suite your business based on customer activity, your licensing, and competitor activity. Under your settings tab you can set several items…

• Markup Rate: This is the rate ABOVE what you pay to a licensor for an inventory item that you charge a customer. Remember that based on your license level, you will not have too much margin which means you can’t set this too high or you’ll charge more than the in-game store!

• Stagnant Inventory Alert: This is a way that the system can notify you about inventory that is slow to move. Use this wisely as it can be a great system to remind you to update your inventory, or send items back from inventory to licensors when they aren’t selling to exchange for other items.

• Lease - Startup Rate: This is the % rate of the new vehicle MSRP you charge to start any lease. Rates can be set anywhere within the thresholds shown.

• Lease - Daily Rate: This is the % rate of the new vehicle MSRP you charge daily on the lease. You can offer the option to charge this daily rate up front, or at the end of the lease.

• Lease - WH Rate. This is the % rate of the new vehicle MSRP you charge for each work hour accrued. The first work hour is paid upfront, but the remaining WH’s are paid at lease end.

• Lease - Buyout Allowed. This is where you set whether or not a lease can be bought out, and what % of lease payments are applied as a markdown from the original selling price.

• Lease - Max Term. This is where you set the maximum amount of days/months you will allow a lease. Remember that the term is in “Months” but that this varies based on servers. A 12 day server month is 1 day. A 24 day server month is 2 days.

2.) Choose Your Starting Licenses

There is no right or wrong here. Everyday the situation changes. You need to think on your feet when making licensing decisions. Big brands may have a lot of potential customers, but are more expensive getting started in. There’s also “Parts” licenses which allows you to resell parts to farmers and mechanic shops, and these licenses are substantially cheaper than equipment licenses. Be sure to look at your local and regional competitors when making your day one choices.

3.) Acquire Starting Inventory

Once you have a license, you can then begin to acquire inventory. Inventory works on a scaled system. The table below gives you the rough estimates. The “CAP” is the maximum $ value of the inventory you have on hand, the Repayment terms is the number of days before an inventory item must be paid in full for, or returned to the licensor.

4.) Market Your Business

Now that you’ve gotten setup, it’s time to start getting customers. Reach out in discord, use the website ads system, and learn all you can about what people are using, what they need, and where they need it.

5.) Balance revenue and expense streams

Running a successful dealership means being on top of your game. Making sure you are moving inventory around, selling, discounting, offering leases, and maintaining an edge. You have to make sure you are generating enough income and keeping your liabilities settled and at bay.