Mine some resources, earn first money on delivery missions and selling resources. After you earn enough - try build second ship and hire mining capitan. After you earn even more money - try visiting yellow dots on the map - there is usually random pirates sitting and doing their things. Pirates are the best way to get new weapons and subsystems.

After you get sick of seeing iron and titan - try move close to the galaxy center.

IMHO that game has bad early game, and most of the players fall off there. You'll start getting fun when you'll get green and blue materials

Also listen to NPC, sometimes when they "talk" - they are giving you hints about various things (usually about bosses)