What this is. A five-year simulation of running Love Organics — importing oils, bottling in MIRON glass, advertising, and selling through retail (D2C), wholesale shops and distributors. Make decisions each month for 60 months and build the most valuable, solvent business you can.

The goal — by month 60, without ever running out of cash:

• Repay the owners' $400,000 loan (split Pete 68% / Tim 32%).
• Pay the owners $350,000 in salary ($35k each per year, split equally).
• Maximise the final business valuation.

If cash ever drops below zero you're bankrupt. Survival comes first.

The single most important thing. At your starting (pre-rebrand) prices the business loses money — about $5–6k/month — and no amount of advertising fixes that; the margins can't cover the $10k/month overheads. This is true to life: it's why the real business rebranded. So the game is a race: survive long enough to launch the rebrand, which lifts prices to profitable levels. You start with a full year of stock already paid for — that's your runway.

The monthly levers.

• Order stock: 70% paid on order, 30% at bottling. Sea freight ~5 months, air ~1 month (+20%), then ~2 months bottling — so sea stock isn't sellable for ~7 months. 3-year shelf life on reorders; your opening stock lasts only 2 years. Most products order in 1,000s; Black Seed in 10,000s.
• Digital ads → retail. Google ~4.4× (best; tapers smoothly as you scale), Instagram ~2.7× (builds repeat customers), Facebook ~2.2×, TikTok ~1.4× (rare viral upside). These drive D2C retail and only nudge wholesale ~10%.
• Trade magazine → wholesale & distributors. This is the lever that grows the trade channel — trade press opens distributor doors digital can't.
• Prices: −30% to +50%. Higher price = better margin, lower volume (~12% fewer sales per +10%).
• Distributor share: splits wholesale between distributors (volume, deep discount, widest reach) and direct shops (better margin). Distributors pay 2 months after the sale.
• Cash: loan repayment, owner salary, Profit First buckets, and a $150k bank facility (10% interest) to bridge gaps.

Repeat customers are built mainly by Instagram (~1 per $110) and a little by Facebook — they're cumulative and pay off as standing demand, higher satisfaction, and a higher valuation (bump at 120+, bigger at 300+).

The rebrand & capsules. Launch rebrand ($10k) moves to new pricing (~+40%) and lower costs — it's what makes you profitable, so do it early. Capsules ($20k, after rebrand) add a high-margin product.

Dashboards. The Break-even meter shows if you cleared break-even; the Cashflow forecast projects 6 months ahead and warns of a cash-out; Satisfaction and Brand (top stats row) reflect operational health and both feed your valuation.

How you go bankrupt: over-ordering early, over-spending on ads while still pre-rebrand, never rebranding, drawing salary/repaying the loan too soon, stocking out, or letting opening stock expire. Avoid these and the game is very winnable.

A step-by-step plan for the standard game, built from an actual winning run. In one sentence: rebrand immediately, sit on your year of stock while the rebrand makes you profitable, reorder before you run dry, then pour profit into the loan first and salary second.

Phase 1 — Rebrand & survive (months 1–2)

• Month 1: launch the rebrand straight away ($10k). Most important move in the game. Cash will dip to ~$6k — that's fine.
• Set Google low (~$800–1,200). Don't order stock — live off your year of inventory. SEO trickle, trade magazine ~$1,000.
• Month 2: the rebrand kicks in, revenue jumps to ~$30k+, you turn a small profit. Still lean, still no reorder.

Phase 2 — Build the engine (months 3–8)

• Scale Google to ~$2.5–3.5k and add Instagram ~$1–1.5k (repeat customers). Fund the trade magazine ~$1.5k for wholesale.
• Start reordering around month 6 — the pipeline is ~7 months, so order before you run dry. Keep ~12 months' cover. Black Seed orders in 10,000s (~$70k deposit) — time it for when cash allows or use the bank.
• If something's about to run out, switch that order to air freight.
• ~Month 7: launch capsules ($20k) once cash is comfortably above ~$45k.
• Begin token loan repayments (~$6–8k/mo) once reliably profitable.

Phase 3 — Pay down the loan (months 9–36)

• Hold ads steady (don't over-scale — returns diminish). Reorder steadily; never stock out.
• Repay the loan aggressively ($8–12k/mo) whenever cash is above ~$45k.
• Start drawing salary (~$5–8k/mo) — but loan stays the priority.
• Keep a $25–30k cash buffer. Sell through opening stock before it expires at month 24.
• Target by month 36: loan ~half gone (~$175k), ~$140k salary paid.

Phase 4 — Finish the loan (months 36–57)

• Keep the machine running; throw spare cash ($10k+/mo) at the loan until it hits $0 around month 57. Keep drawing salary alongside.

Phase 5 — Bank the salary (months 57–60)

• Loan gone — pour everything into owner salary (up to $20k/mo) to reach the $350k target. Cross month 60 with loan repaid and salary paid: you've won.

Golden rules: rebrand turn 1 · never stock out (use air to bridge) · don't over-order/over-spend early · loan first, salary second · keep a ~$25–30k buffer · sell opening stock before month 24 · act early when the cashflow forecast warns.

Each month, glance at: 1) Cashflow forecast — trouble ahead? 2) Stock — anything about to run dry? 3) Break-even meter — above the line? 4) Ads — Google+Instagram for retail, trade magazine for wholesale. 5) Capital — loan first, then salary, keep the buffer.

Tuned for "Business as Usual." Boom is more forgiving; Recession is brutal — leaner ads, bigger buffer.

Playing manually. On the Play tab, set your levers each month — stock orders, ad spend, prices, channel mix, loan repayment, owner salary — then tap Run month. You're steering BBLO across 5 years (60 months), trying to clear the owners' $400k loan (split Pete 68% / Tim 32%), pay $350k in salary, and build the biggest business valuation without running out of cash. See the Guide and Playbook tabs for the full strategy.

The 5 phases.

• Year 1 — Survival: test pricing, find demand, guard cash.
• Year 2 — Growth: build brand, raise stock, hire carefully, grow repeat customers.
• Year 3 — Expansion: wholesale opportunities, rising ad costs, more competition.
• Year 4 — Pressure: higher fixed costs, supply risk, defend margins.
• Year 5 — Maturity: stabilise, maximise valuation, profit, brand and satisfaction.

Running AI simulations. On the AI Tester tab, choose 100 / 1,000 / 10,000. Each strategy plays full 60-month games on the same engine and the averages land in the Results tab. Monte Carlo looks ahead each month (slower); Evolve breeds and mutates settings over generations to discover a tuned policy.

Reading the results. Avg score is valuation minus penalties (bankruptcy, stockouts, loss months, low satisfaction, excess debt). Win rate = finished solvent with the owners' loan cleared. Bankruptcy rate shows how often the strategy ran out of cash. Compare avg valuation, profit and risk to see the trade-offs.

Why results move. Every month adds seeded market randomness — viral TikToks, port delays, COGS creep, algorithm dips. More simulations average that luck out, so a 10,000-run result is a steadier read on a strategy's true quality than 100.