Businesses
Businesses on Atharen are an excellent way to increase earning potential for a character. There are two different pathways an aspiring business owner may take: the Artisan path, and the Industrialist path. The Artisan path encompasses most businesses on Atharen, and is virtually any profession that does not specifically involve the mass production of goods. The Industrialist path is something that is -- in the mainstream -- relatively new to Atharen, as the advent of factories occurred little more than a hundred years ago. This path specifically involves building manufacturing centers for the mass production of goods, as well as managing warehouses and the supply lines connecting them.
The Artisan path is, largely, more approachable for the average character and involves significantly less time and oversight both in and out of character. While its earning potential is lesser, it still allows for a considerable escalation to a character's income, and has a much broader focus. The Industrialist path is narrower in focus and requires much more investment and oversight, but overall can lead to the acquisition of unbridled wealth.
An Artisan business can transition into an Industrial one, even relatively unexpected business models. An individual who makes lacquered chairs may begin mass producing furniture. A doctor can go from running a clinic to building an early pharmaceutical production center, exporting rudimentary or experimental medicines across their nation. While not all professions are suitable for industry, many are. If you are uncertain as to whether your business model might work for mass production, please contact a moderator or submit a Support Forum ticket; if it is not suitable, you may also change your model to suit mass production. World Magics and their goods are not mass producible, and must fall under the Artisan path.
All businesses require Support Forum approval, with the request linking to the Business Sheet required of all new businesses. You cannot own, run or gain revenue from more than one business at a time.
Contents
Common Bonuses
| Title | Bonus |
|---|---|
| 10 df (Please see here for the Business Sheets forum, where you may submit your business for approval.) | |
| 5 df (Every season a business owner works and receives wages, they will receive a cumulative bonus of 5 df per season. This bonus travels with them if they change jobs. It caps out at 50 df. You do not receive the regular Seasonal Bonus if you receive this one, but pick up at your highest Seasonal Bonus number once you start receiving it.) | |
| 5 df (This bonus is acquired for every Player Character employed by the business. It can reach up to 20 df, capping out at four Player Character employees. In order to be eligible for the bonus from that employee, they must have completed at least one thread that season.) |
Artisan Bonuses
| Title | Bonus | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
All patrons require Support Forum approval. Players should submit a plot thread where the prize is patronage with an existing NPC, or a new NPC also created by the player with staff approval. Patronage must start at the lowest tier, gradually working up to the highest. A patron must be maintained for at least one season before a player may apply for another patron, and their application should include how they are getting rid of their current patron without ruffling feathers (or what consequences they will suffer for trading up).
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| Up to 10 df (Please apply in the Support Forum with a request upon submitting your business. You may suggest or have a moderator suggest your luxury bonus. Most artisan businesses should at least receive 1 or 2 df as a bonus, while more skillful and experienced craftsmen can receive up to 10 if approved.) | |||||
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Legacy Businesses are those that have become iconic to a particular brand, community or industry, enough so that they tend to attract more customers, as well as being able to charge more due to the prestige of their business. This bonus may be obtained not only by maintaining a long-lived business (such as a family-run brand or store) but also by acquiring or merging businesses. An example of the former is a character from the Miller family running Miller's Paints, a 56 year old family business. An example of the latter is a new entrepreneur with the surname Berkeley acquiring a famous, 102 year old law firm known as Welles Law and merging it with their own business, making it Berkeley & Welles Law. Like with any business, a Legacy business or merger will require Support Forum approval.
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| Our character, William Wilhelm, is a Jewelsmith. William begins with a base wage of 12 df/day. William has discovered a new way to use his pliers to cut and extract jewels. As a result, William gains an innovation bonus of 5 df/day, bringing his wage to 17 df/day. William is a Master in Jewelsmithing, increasing his wages by another 40 df/day, therefore bringing his wage to 57 df/day. William has run the family business Die Goldene Spindel for eight seasons, and the business is a legacy business that has operated for 46 years.
His seasonal bonuses will bring his wages to 97 df/day, and the prestige of his family's business will bring his wages to 102 df/day. Will has recently gained the attention of a high-ranking military official who purchases earrings from his store. This patronage further increases his wages to 112 df/day. Will Wilhelm is submitting wages for the Season of Searing, which is 91 days long. This means Will's seasonal income is 10192 df. Will loses 40% to taxes and lifestyle expenses as a part of his Royal class, reducing his wages to 6115 df. Math: 12+5+40+40+5+10 = 112 x 91 = 10192 x .6 = 6115 df | |||||
Industrialist Bonuses
| Skill Tier | Bonus | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
The price for constructing one of these mass production facilities is listed under Housing in the Price List. You may also acquire any of these mass production focused buildings for less money with an approved Support Forum plot. This may, for example, require the restoration of an abandoned Unbroken Empire factory, or the clearing out of an occupied factory of dangerous pests. If taking this route, the difficulty and scale of the plot should also scale with the production capabilities of the building in question.
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This is a bonus that is applied based on how many warehouses your industrial business owns, particularly in adjacent or distant regions, so as to increase the flow of product into adjoining areas. Warehouses require an initial investment to acquire. This initial investment is based on the number of warehouses you currently own, as this decreases the centralization of the business. You do not need a warehouse to supply goods to the region where your mass production center is located.
Economic Regions
Citizenship: In order to host a warehouse or begin a factory in Lorien or Grisic, the character must be a citizen of that country. Citizenry may be acquired through large economic donations to that country (with Support Forum approval), or through other means typically outlined in the lore of each country. To circumvent either option, the character may instead take on a native business partner who can represent the company's interests as a subsidiary. This will require an approved NPC via the Support Forum. | |||||
| Distribution between warehouses and production centers comes with an associated cost. This is because the business owner must pay for shipping, loss of goods, lack of oversight, tariffs and supply line management, like with freight trains.
For your first three warehouses, this distribution cost will be a hundred df per season, per warehouse, which will be removed from your pre-tax wages. For the second three, the cost will increase to two hundred df per season, per warehouse, following the same rule. This increases by 100 df per season for every three warehouses you run. | |||||
Industrialists may choose to put forth an advertising campaign. The costs scale per region. At first, there is no benefit, only a cost, as advertising takes time to work. Advertising campaigns can last for 3 to 6 seasons.
This cost is sustained for at least 3 seasons and up to 6. Advertising income is doubled starting on season 2. In the last season of the campaign, there is no cost, and only the profit remains. Advertisement Examples Example 1: 3 Season Advertisement in Great Commonwealth -- Great Commonwealth: 20 df regional value, therefore 5 df in advertisement cost.
Example 2: 6 Season Advertisement in Van Der Graaf -- Van Der Graaf: 14 df regional value, therefore 4 df in advertisement cost.
You must own a warehouse in an economic region to advertise in it, and may only run one advertisement campaign at a time. This advertisement campaign may affect up to three economic regions, which all must be in the same country. | |||||
| Our character, Gowan Smith, is the son of a Griscian nobleman who wants to open up a factory in his hometown of Praetoria making tin pots. He purchases a factory and has the equipment set up for pouring tin molds, shaping them, and applying rivets for the lid. Using the remainder of his family's savings, he sets up fours warehouses in the following regions: Great Commonwealth and the New Modernity regions of Grisic and the Revenant Sea and Raven's Crest Regions of Lorien. Gowan begins with a base wage of 10 df/day from the businessman profession. As a Journeyman in the Business skill, he gains 20 df/day from that, bringing his wage to 30 df/day. Gowan then accrues an additional 30 df/day from his factory. This brings his cumulative wages to 60 df/day. His warehouses in the other regions allows for him to take in the daily income of those regions as well: he gets 20 df from the Great Commonwealth, 16 df from New Modernity, and 16 df from his home region of the Griscian Promenade, for a subtotal of 52 df and a running total of 112 df/day. In order to sell in to Lorien, he needs to take on a "business partner" to allow for him to sell into the country, who takes 10% of his Rien profits, meaning that his 32 df gross subtotal (18 from the Revenant Sea, 14 from Raven's Crest) is reduced to 28 df/day (32 - 3.2 = 28.8 rounded up to the nearest whole number of 29). This means his total gross income is 141 df/day.
Now, Gowan must calculate his seasonal costs. As he has 4 warehouses, he must pay a fee of 100 each for the first 3 and 200 for his last, for a total penalty of 500 to his pre-tax seasonal income. Then, he must apply his seasonal taxes and lifestyle costs of 40%. This means that in the season of Searing, Gowan's net income would be: 141 x 91 = 12831 - 500 = 12331 x .6 = 7399 df in profit for the season. Math: 10 + 20 + 30 + (16 + 16 +20) + .9(18 + 14) = 141 x 91 = 12831 - 500 = 12331 x .6 = 7399 df | |||||
Requirements
All businesses have a few, baseline requirements.
- Your business building value must be 5,000 df or greater to be approved in the Business Sheets. This cannot include the value of any starting housing.
- You must be a Journeyman in the skill you are operating with in order to open a business. For Industrialist businesses, this skill is the "Business" skill itself.
- Your Business Sheet must be approved via the SF before you can utilize it in-character, or receive business wages.
