Yeah, it is tough in the beginning.

Hire two stars only (1 seems ineffective, and 3 is too expensive). Always hire for personality match. Beware that they'll initially suck at their jobs and potentially lose you stars rather than gain them. Take contracts every now and then to keep your stars up.

I'm always excited to see marketing deals. They're generally profitable. Problem is they don't last long, so it can be hard to keep your markers busy when there's a lull, and early on bored employees ask for punishing raises. Support is nice in that they last for several years, and the call rate drops over time so it just becomes passive revenue.

Be choosy about your support deals. I always look at the user count and sales, and accept contracts for shitty products first. That's basically free money as the call rates are low. Then accept deals for increasingly popular products until you overwhelm your support or you fall into the red. Stay away from supporting operating systems until it's obvious that your team is underworked (as they train up to 3 stars, this eventually happens). Accept one OS. Monitor their load. Accept another one. And so on.

Again, you're not looking for profit... just to float around in the black while you build a 3 star team and gain rep for that breakout hit.

And of course do all the right passive things to keep satisfaction up. High satisfaction means high effectiveness and low risk of insane raise demands which helps keep the deals viable. * Keep teams separate and in separate rooms. * Spam satisfaction and effectiveness items like crazy (desk accessory item, plants, bookcases, pictures). * Assign leaders. * Set their working hours so that they go home just before/as they burnout. * If you can tolerate some early game micro, send individuals home aggressively to avoid them threatening to quit and asking for ridiculous raises. Just keep the employee screen up sorted by effectiveness. When someone falls too low, send 'em home. Not much fun, but helps. * Fire anyone who doesn't fit in to the team. Hire a replacement with better team compatibility.