Thank you for your feedback!
That seems to be most people's experience so far. The next update (0.0.7.0) will include a formal tutorial.
In the mean time, if you need to give yourself some breathing room, you can build some wind or solar power plants to increase your income. (Just be careful as there are upper limits to what the governments will buy from you.)
Also, if you check out the contracts>objectives menu, that will give you some rewards for exploring the UI, and building.