Albeit I am only LVL 4 but I can barely make enough money to actually buy stuff.
The only money I get is from mish completion.
Is there any other way?

Somehow the gold farmers have found a way.
I get drops very rarely and when I do I sell them to the seller but it's for very little "energy" (I think that's the term).

Any tips?

Play the game more. Energy is not an issue at all by the time you reach Lt. Cmdr... all the way to Admiral. Even by Lt 6-7 I had everything I needed (Mk II stuff for myself, all by BOs, and my ship) and still had 5,000 energy.

Also, loot drops can be sold to your ship replicator for 40% or so if it's listed value.. Or you can sell it at a base for a little more. I personally just drop everything in the replicator.

Edit In - Gold Farmers will not be needed at all in STO.. As I said.. you will have no issues with Energy, and that is the only tradeable currency. Crafting is too minor for any data samples to have any real value.. and gear is easy to get through PvP or PvE. Those gold farmers will starve on STO.

Farm fleet actions for a while. You start rolling in energy after level 6 or so. In OB by the time I got to Lt.C I had a redonkulous amount of energy credits.

I am just wondering what you need money for? I am level 11 and the only thing I have bought with energy credits is one weapon and a bridge officer I wanted. Granted I don't have a fully decked out ship with the best equipment because components don't seem to be dropping as much. The exploration missions give you credits to use towards personal equipment from the people on Sol station. The other missions give you rewards to fill in the gaps.

Really I haven't found much to spend money on yet and I still only have a few thousand credits from selling junk I don't use and so far I am not selling much unless I have to. Bank and Inventory space in this game is a joke considering I have a 5 man away team and entire space ship cargo bay. There is no mission that was too hard because I didn't have MK II parts in my ship or on my away team. I am more concerned about having money to upgrade my ships later when I won't grow out of it so fast.

The overall answer to your question would be the same place you get it in any other game. By selling stuff you don't want or use and by running missions.

i haven't gotten any EC from running missions yet.

and i think i am fairly lucky with loot drops as i've made 10k EC so far after buying a few ground upgrades.

you do get merit from missions, but you can only use merit for a few specific things, such as purchasing BOFFs.

You dont need to buy anything at low levels. It's simply not required.
Im lt cmd 2 and I have 40k+ energy credits, theres nothing useful to buy at low levels just save it.

Wrong. I'm Lt. lvl 5. I have a mission to bring 10 provisions to a planet. 1 provion costs 100 EC - and I have only 124 EC. So I need 900 EC - and I don't know where I can get that amount of money...

cu

If you are buying stuff at the beginning of the game and not out leveling up to get your items then you are either not a very good player or you are too casual to care to play to the end. Either way dont waste your money and go earn your items! You'll value them more and you may actually learn how to play better by using different types of equipment as you level up.