List in no particular order:

You take advantage of the high population cap.   More population=more raw production=more income.

Also you can strip mine for quick cash too.  The production overflow can be accumulated, until you can build items that require a lot of production in 1 or 2 turns.

Don't bother buying starbase modules early except for mining modules and production modules on homeworld planet(s)

Buy asteroids as first priority. 

Don't bother with too much military until invasion tech is researched by you or AI.

Assign one shipyard to money missions.

Don't colonize with more than 0.5 population (Homeworld should have most of population in early game)

Tip:  Scavenger trait is great for synthetics.  A synthetic Privateer can "acquire" colony ships, constructors,  freighters, and AI ships (decommission for cash or use military power rating)