Gah.. I'm so frustrated right now (lol over a game!). Anywho, I am trying to run a business in my game. I had the Burb wife buy the Bluewater spa and makeover place and I just can't get the hang of it. It seems like every time I try to run a business my employee's quit, not enough people come, and it just gets really frustrating. Even when I have low prices! Anyone else find the EP particularly hard? I really want to do the makeover stuff but I just can't get the hang of it. I didn't see a sticky for this so if anyone can give me any advice or explain the businesses to me more, PLEASE do.

I have some advice. Do you're employeese have a Badge in Makeover (Forgot the name)? Does your Sim have a Gold Badge? Does your Sim have a Badge at all? And, you need to get some Customer Loyalty Stars, maybe a few Perks, THEN you get workers.

OFB is my fav expansion pack, and I dont find the businesses hard

I've bought and played that Spa once, and it was one of the most popular businesses, especially the fact that they have a hottub in there! (I always get stars if the customers are chatting away while in the hottub) I forgot how I started that business exactly, but I remember I had my sim and 2 employees. One advice is to not use an employee to do be the sale person, even if they have a gold badge. Because they will spam sales on the same customers, and if theres one customer thats not happy, the employees not gonna care and continue bugging him till a star is lost. That is why I always make my controllable sim to do the sales, since you can tell which customers should be left alone.

I dont know exactly why employees will quit, but I always give them breaks when their sphere turns dark orange. If you really want to see how business works, I suggesting playing a household of just 1 sim that is outgoing and trying a self business with no employees for a while. Being a barber is easy to do with one person. Once you gain a few levels, like level 3-4, you can start having employees since theres going to be more people comming to your business.

thanks for the advice both of you. I have another question. I think I figured out what's going on. I wasn't under the impression at first that you needed skill points to run a business. I have a bronze badge and am trying to run the business with just Jennifer Burb at the moment. I got a few customers but she keeps messing up and the rank keeps going down. Can anyone tell me what skills I should have her work on to improve her business and to get more badges?

When I run business I've found that starting small is the best thing. My most recent Sim business was a literal 'Ma and Pa' grocery run by a retired couple that started by selling buyable produce and basic grocery items for reasonable prices. It's been a huge success, and actually made money, despite the fact that I spent quite a bit of their retirement savings to build it. I had him do all the selling while she alternated between cashiering and being the barrista for the coffee bar. (No maxis 'buy grocery' items.)

This format works well for small bakeries and similar, especially if you have the modular automatic buffet table from Simwardrobe.com, which can be set to sell single serving desserts to go with coffee. Or a bookstore with a coffee shop- there are lots of possibilities.

Oh, and ETA since we cross posted- neither Ma nor Pa had any skill badges to start with. They both have good charisma and logic, though.

Yes it is a challenge but that's what makes it so fun, try starting small as suggested. Build a tiny place and hire 1 or no employees. Or start off wih a home business. As you get the hang of it try getting bigger. OFB is my favorite EP. For me it never gets old

My first business in any neighborhood is always a robotics shop. I will explain why in a moment.
I take or create a single knowledge Sim and put them in a very cheap house. They have no job and the only real work they do is studying and working on the robot station. I get them all the way up on the robot station but they do not start building robots till I max out all their skills. With all their skills maxed all their robots will have maxed skills also. Once they build their first maxed robot I can get that robot's abilities on the robot station maxed and then I can either get rid of the Sim or do whatever I want with them. They can either keep building robots, die or go be a regular Sim if I prefer. Actually I usually just move them to the Sim bin and let the robot run the business but that is personal. Once the robot has sales and cash register badges it usually has already built a helper for the shop and then I start creating the people for the neighborhood. I create my own neighborhoods but would do the same thing in a regular neighborhood. Note: although a robot built by someone with maxed skills will also have maxed skills badges are random. Once the shop is open I cheat some. If I wanted someone to open a salon then there would be one on display with a cleaning badge and I would know which one it was and have my Sim buy that one since cleaning helps getting the badge for the Salon chair. If I wanted a Sim to open a store and use the robot as a cashier then a mechanical badge is necessary, and so forth. Back to the Sim who wants to run a Salon, the first thing she would do, before buying the servo is buy a Salon chair at home and then offer everyone that comes by free makeovers until she has at least a silver badge because a lot of makeovers will fail at first. If you are charging for them the customers will tend to get irate and your business score will take a dive. At that point she has a silver badge she can open a home based business and start charging. Then she can buy the servo to help her. Once she and her servo are gold then they can buy a business, or I usually buy a vacant business lot and have them build it as the business grows because the prebuilt ones are too big and cost to much for a level one business. Most of the time I can run the business with just she and her servo because the servo needs breaks only to recharge and fun or social. I might hire a cashier to come in for a few hours to sell some stuff on the side but I rarely use them for anything else. If I want some more help I buy/train another servo. Conversely if I want to use Sims for positions I play/train them for the position. Make sure they meet/make friends with the shop owner and then have the shop owner offer them the position rather than chose the ones for the list. That way I can play them and make sure their bars are full when it is time for them to go to work and they make better employees. Since they are already friends with the shop owner they are much less likely to quit.

i use the maxmotives cheat to keep my employees meters high. you can tell when they need something by the thing above their head. sorry i dont remember if its a normal plumbbob or like a star but whatever it is it will change colors from green to red. also helps with the customers to keep their moods up as well to gain more stars.

This, honestly. Once you've got the hang of running a business it's a piece of cake, but you make things much easier for yourself if you start out small and gradually make the business bigger. If you go about it this way you won't need to hire any staff until you expand the business, and you won't get overwhelmed and end up neglecting customers which gives the place a name. Good customer service earns the business stars, the more stars you have, the higher your business ranks, and the more customers you'll get.

Start out small, please the customers, get stars, gain more customers, expand.

Running a business in the game can definitely be challenging! It sounds like you're experiencing the classic management hurdles that real businesses face too—keeping employees happy, attracting customers, and setting the right prices. In real-world business, this is where tools like an ERP program , specifically something like Odoo software , can make a huge difference by helping to manage everything from employee schedules and inventory to customer engagement. Odoo software, for instance, allows you to track employee performance, customer satisfaction, and financials all in one place. For your game, maybe start with fewer employees and simpler services, then gradually build up as you get more comfortable. And if all else fails, just try to enjoy the process—you’ve got this!

Well, it is supposed to be hard. It is very hard in real life to run a successful business too, especially a small one. Patience and resilience are needed. It is completely possible to run successful business in Sims 2 without cheats too!

Here are my tips:

1. Charisma is handy, it helps when talking to customers and employees.
2. The business (especially the first one) needs to be small and offer one product or service, eg. a grocery sells groceries.
3. No need to be open for more than 2 to 3 hours at a time. Everyone just gets exhausted. Rather open for 2 hours in the morning, and 2 at night again. Owner cleans and restocks before and after hours.
4. Only hire essential staff. A grocery only needs the owner, even if he struggles to get that cash register working (he will get his badge soon enough) and sells as well (he will get his badge soon enough).
5. Business should be small, the lot should be small, and there should not be all kinds of entertainment around. The client should turn up, buy what he needs, get his hair cut, whatever - and then leave, because other clients need to turn up.
6. If you run a hair salon, hire a townie with a badge. (I need to tell this story here: long ago, one of my sims had Ivy Copur sat down for a makeover. My sim had no badge, and completely destroyed poor Ivy's looks. After some time, my sim had all the badges and ran her tiny salon, but Ivy Copur (the senior one) absolutely refused to sit down in that chair again )
7. I think running that spa is hard, because clients don't go home soon enough, preventing others from turning up. And the spa itself can handle only so many sims inside. Personally, that is not a business I would start with.
8. I would advise a small shop selling stuff for a new business owner. I had tremendous success with a shop selling lights. It seems as if every townie needs a light in his life It also looked quite nice, with all the lights hanging from the ceiling, lamps on the counters, did not need any decor at all! You only need to make sure there is enough space for the customers to get in and out (and quickly too).

Have fun.

Ah, gotta love spambots.