All good ideas; about the money situation I'll tell you what worked for me. The key is to keep everything barebones until you hit the fifth single; only use 2-star staff, only use the digital single, take contracts where you can, but remember that the yield from using a break room in conjunction with the daily performance activities is actually probably higher. Use your first loan to get the break room, it really lets you do a lot in the early game without worrying about your idols stamina tanking, it'll pay off many times over compared to other expenses like hiring more staff. You can always take loans, in fact you'll probably have to, but you shouldn't need to take out more than about ten million before you reach the point where you make more than you lose each month. You can save some money by using the same girl as a perma-centre early on, idols that have less than 1 star fame will only ever ask for a negligible wage, so they'll be virtually free for a few singles. Your big money earner early on will be the concert, when you can get that things will start to change, just make sure you keep using the promotion activities to have enough fans to fill out the concert hall. And don't forget to jack up the price too, the game will tell you how much of the hall you can fill, so keep jacking it up until the projected income starts to fall. Also don't forget that you can make a few million by touring Korea in the early game, this is really good money, so use it when you're in a pinch because overseas tours are on a timer and you only get 2 a year.
Edit: By the way, using the choreographer and vocal trainer as your first hires is much better if you only hire 2-star staff imo, through the course of the game they'll pick up enough experience to remain useful training your new members, the 2-star production staff won't be any use when you get bigger