What is the intended way to make money in the game? I am at the point where I make $15/day from the rooms and can take pictures with the four main cast but the pictures have depreciating value so they only make $5-$10/pic even with the outfits. It's excruciatingly slow.
Personally I've played this game three times and I've always had trouble with money after a certain character has an accident and you need to pay $2000 I believe to fix them. Because also around that time (or at least around the time in my playthrough) you're given the opportunity to buy a really expensive elf, and losing $2000 makes it so much harder. I upgraded the bar to the max and it still took a long time to make enough money to buy that elf.
I had the same problem in my first playthrough. Second time, after following the advice I got to focus on the bar as early as I could, I got closer but still ended up being in debt after the aforementioned accident. Third time, I found that the best way is - combined with the general advice about the bar - to simply limit yourself to interacting with just one of the girls per day once all of them have moved in. Sure, the plot may move forward a lot more slowly but I managed to make just enough money when it came to buying the elf in question.
Ah, so you're right at the start, no worries. Save up enough for the bar, maybe an upgrade or two if you've got the dough. Use the subsequent new revenue to upgrade the bar further, throw in any of the three tiers of advertisement - I usually go middle tier. That'll be all you need, but if you want you can splurge for the sports day stuff added in the v0.11, that'll get you rich pretty quick.