So for me I always start with the following so I can "start a town" before the ai takes the good spots.

Worker: because it leads to taskmaster.

Taskmaster: because it's a second tier Perk costs 2x the skill and gold right now it's free

Chopper: because I get a steel axe (you can't get this except by trading or crafting after
the start of the game) and can collect wood at a faster rate.
so that's my big three.

My days I set for an hour and settlers arrive every 10
hours( will probably make that every 12 next time I start a new game).

after landing i still need Scholar its a first level perk. I have the gold but not the skill points so i save and check the rest of the settlers till i find a scholar. if there isn't one I reload and try again. keep him in sight and chop trees you will need to fell 5 of them and chop them up. then get the scholar Perk .

The placement of the well founding your town:
the important thing to note here is that your town can be anywhere. and your buildings
can be up to 500 m from your well. So on the shoreline will lose a lot of usable space to
the ocean. place your well and message board (set taxes and laws you can find specific
towns people through the board later on by clicking them and walking to the green marker.


With these Perks I have my town started before nightfall the first day. this includes well, board,
common house, and city hall building. I also build up to 10 stone based houses for 10
wood each. before any AI established settlements.
by the time you are done with these tasks you will have gained a couple levels but won't
have any gold. time to explore.

making money early comes down to the following

Ruins:
find and enter, explore if you find gold great if not re enter and try again sure it's an exploit
but right now it helps. You also pick up some Iron ore for later at the same time.

Bandits or settlers:
killing bandits is a sure fire way to make money and hopefully gain better armor increase
your fame and global reputation. killing settlers hurt your global rep . either gives you
armor and 200 gold. you don't get their weapons.

Selling houses and businesses:
any building you build can be sold by clicking the the Posted message on the building.

starting out you will gain 25 gold for each structure you sell. this will increase to 50g and
100g I think they increase when the size of your town reaches a certain level, 25 and 50
settlers but I may be wrong. Each settler will purchase a house and may purchase a
business or build their own if you allow them to.

once you have the money, find someone with the trader perk learn it build 2 small trading posts in your settlement one for your over flow of items. placed into the storage container in the back of your store. a bit of gold may help also. do not sell the building with the stock filled or you will lose it all.
the other one is for someone in the settlement. click the poster on the back of the building by the door. After its bought you will be able to sell directly to that trader. and they will start with around 1k to 2k gold. leave them a few hundred. remember when selling that raw goods sell well, armor, clothes, and weapons do not.

food:
rabbits and foxes are kill-able they tend to run slowly and toward you at times they don't take damage very well.
Deer and bison runaway and they are fast and take a lot of damage to kill. not worth chasing

The aggressive animals will attack the others and you can get meat etc when they kill something. I wouldn't spend perks on bows at this stage of the game.
When you get decent armor and some medicinal herbs you can take out wolves and bears for now avoid them. I once had to kill a settler because my settlement was over run with wolves. if you get in that predicament find someone with at least knights armor the white with the red cross

veggies are your main way of not starving to death, which is a possibility. Peppers usually grow on beaches in pretty big clusters add your gardening perk line and you get a lot of food from each plant in the wild. cabbages are the most filling I believe and take away 20 hunger points. berries are the worst at 3. wheat will allow you to make bread and pies when you get the gardening skill up and running you need a mill to make flour. flour to make bread and pies. a farm house to craft seeds and fields to plant them doesn't hurt. note plants in your fields only produce 1 item plants in the wild increase with Gardening line perk's
if you see a green or blue bar pop up, You are hungry or exhausted. exhausted means you need sleep.

Remember your unarmored but have a steel axe(beginning chopper perk). wild animals wolves and bears will kill you in no time. people you have a good chance against. if you can't run you are screwed. 1 hour sleep will refill your energy but you can sleep till dawn 4 am in the spring (not sure on other settings)is a good waking time.

after that I go for gardener/ herbalist, so I can get more from each plant and heal from fights

don't freak out if the first couple of ship landings, doesn't bring you any settlers in your town there seem to be about 5 landing points and the settlers will roam around. it may be a couple days till a ship lands close to you. don't over tax it may keep people from coming ???

Scholar:
its a first level perk that is attainable after chopping up 5 trees (w/ Chopper Perk) gives no
starting bonus items and gives 1 extra exp. point per wood extracted from each log
from each tree you fell. since chopper gives you 2 logs to get 10 wood from it a
way better choice (Chopper) 20 x 5 = 100 exp and you collect it 2x as fast
(Scholar) 10 x 6 = 60 exp
scholar perk is easily and quickly achieved with chopper perk. not needed to start
see Trader for more negatives

Trader:
(1000 gold can build a shop and small tavern)
this could be a interesting choice you get more money to start and would have the ability to to
make a shop (access to more gold) earlier the trade off is needing to drop Chopper or
taskmaster.

To get "taskmaster" means you pretty much lose the 500 extra gold you started with. and
will cost all your skill points for that first level up. not worth it for a 1st level perk you really don't
need at the start.
dropping "chopper" means no steel axe and slower chopping and less logs from each tree.
and you lose a good weapon besides.

Traveler:
this perk at character creation gives you a saddle to start. a horse at your call.
since my goal is founding a settlement I really don't need it right now. 1 ruin is all I need. as
they are randomly generated when you enter them. bandit lairs are few and far between early
in the game

Gardening:
The benefits you get to build a farm and yielding more from each plant. The downfalls are the
same as trader and just not worth it if you want to start a town fast. Probably the most
important line of advancement after getting your town up and running but not needed at start

Archer, Sergeant,
not really working as of this time and not worth the losses at start anyway

butcher, digger, novice swordsman, no real gain for what you lose.