I've decided with the addition of a shopping district to my hood to get more into playing businesses, which made me curious about how other people played them? I'm not really looking for mods or anything, as I have seen a couple of YouTubes on that subject, but more just on how businesses fit into your neighborhood, particularly if you play something like a BACC or an integrated neighborhood.

For instance, do you like to have separate shops that sell different types of things, e.g., an appliance store, an electronics store, a car lot, etc.? The first family in my neighborhood to purchase a business were the Grunts, as they are already fairly well-off and are mostly Fortune Sims, so they bought a store where they sell small kitchen appliances and electronics. Right off the bat, this was so successful that they wanted to expand to all appliances and electronics. I guess that could be similar to something like a Best Buy. But now they're thinking about selling cars too, and I thought that would be fun, and they're probably the only ones who could afford to invest in the inventory, but I wondered if it would get to be too much having it all on one lot. Maybe they would just need more salespeople?

Also, do you try to have your Sims buy all the things they need at an owned business? Or is it more symbolic in that, for instance, since you have a furniture shop in the hood, then furniture is available for direct order (from the catalog)? Do you have success at sending your Sims to lots owned by other playables? I've found I sometimes need to take control of the Sim that owns the lot to get them to ring up customers, for instance.

What are the businesses that you most like to play and what are the least? I know restaurants are notoriously difficult, but I thought I might try my hand at a takeaway place. What are your tips? Again, I'm not looking for mods at this time, more just tips and fun ideas.

I try to have people buy what they need from owned businesses, but the problem is, the AI for that is terrible. The owner tends to do everything except go to the register or the stylist's chair, for hours on end, and if there's an employee will do nothing themself but continually change that employee's assignment. If the owner has no employee, the rock that lets you assign a job to the business owner fixes it, more or less; but it stops working once the owner gets an employee. Even if the employee quits, it doesn't start working again. (I should sell the rock and rebuy it, see if that helps.) Managers are even worse, or at least the only time I tried it, they were.

My best results for this have been venue businesses (where it doesn't matter) and for businesses with no employees and the rock. Presumably if you have one employee for each assignable job the owner will do less reassignment, but I've yet to have a business I felt needed or could afford that many employees. Instead when playing the business I've been using family members as unpaid labor.

I understand Joandsarah plays fully integrated neighborhoods where things are bought at businesses or not at all; she'd be the best person to go to for advice in that matter.

One of my routine actions on opening a household, once owned businesses are in the hood, is to open each family member's inventory to see what they've bought. Redundant items like refrigerators that don't represent an upgrade are sold, but everything else is either placed in the home, or put into a teen's inventory as a hope chest, to take to college or to their first apartment when they grow up. I also pay attention to what is bought by whom to see what it implies. Someone who buys new make-up clutter wants to change their look, for example; someone who buys a deco condom box is planning/hoping to use them; someone who buys a hobby item must be thinking about doing the hobby or intend it as a gift to an established hobbyist, etc.

Pescado has mods that prevent that. businessrunsyou lets you assign the owner to do a specific task (stick the hammer-and-sickle somewhere and you can change it while another sim is visiting), and noreassign prevents noncontrollables from reassigning jobs.

jonasn also has two mods that make Sims a bit smarter with their jobs - restock prioritized and cashier on business responsive.

I would keep shops small and focused so that employes don't spend as much time walking from one spot to another. They need valuable items worth over §1000 the inventory to make a profit in addition to cheaper ones. For example, if you want to sell flowers, also stock some of the grow lights. Where space is limited I place the kinds of objects that I tend to buy often. Employees cost too much money. I would rather staff shops with family members who have moved in until there is money to burn. An owner plus an employee is very inefficient because the owner doesn't do any work, and the employee is switched aroud with an interaction. Employees are not good at recharging their motives autonomously.

Those mods allow one person to man a shop at early levels when there is not as much activity, by jumping from one job to another on command. It doesn't improve their smartness to chose those automatically.

I always play owned businesses on community lots as opposed to home businesses. Craftables are the things I really love to sell, so that my sims can have crafted teddies and vases and clothes and flower arrangements and, of course- bots!
To make the crafting businesses profitable, I always have my sims make the majority of the crafted items at home, so that they will have a stock in their inventories to sell when the business is open. That way they need fewer employees. I also have them sell catalog items (robot shops will also stock computers and TVs; art shops will also stock sculptures and wallhangings), as these items make the real money. For example, having a 5000 simoleon statue on sale for average will get you a much higher profit than a crafted pot holder at expensive.
Once I had a charity shop where sims would donate old furniture to the shop owner, and he would sell it for a profit. Sims would also donate expensive items to him when they became wealthy (one of the ways I had of keeping sims from all becoming too rich). The charity shop owner purchased empty lots in the town with his profits, and then made them into nice parks, which he then donated to the community. So the town was made nicer by this business!
I also had a pawn shop business in the same town, where hard-up sims could sell their valuables for a pittance, and the shop keeper would hold them for a while then sell for a profit. Quite a few over ambitious fortune sims lost their new cars this way!
I can never manage to make owned restaurants profitable though, they take too many staff members and make too little money. Restaurants are usually for very wealthy sims who don't mind losing a bit of money (just for the play value of having one, as they are fun and you can customise the menu- grilled cheese restaurant! ), and bakeries usually need some more expensive items on sale to make a reasonable profit also.

These are all great tips!

The only kind of home business I've tried that I really liked is a yard sale, which is where they just open the business in the morning, put everything they want to sell out in the yard, and lock the house. Then they close the business and shut it down once they've sold everything. Brandi Broke made enough money that way to keep from having to get a job so soon, but granted, she already had a bunch of useless stuff in her house! I'm pretty sure I originally stole this idea from someone's post on this forum.

I know some people love it, but I don't bother with integrated hood/everyone buys something intentionally stuff. I have sims run businesses because it gives them something to do that I think would be fun for me and good for them, but the thought of putting every single item in the buy catalog in a business is too much.

My sims run the businesses and when I play the customers' households, I usually delete much of the stuff in their inventory unless it's useful (like groceries) or there's a way to include it in their existing household. I have one home business that restores cars and so many sims who live in apartments and can't afford homes with driveway space buy cars. I'm not going to reject a willing customer at my business lot just because my omniscient powers let me know this sim doesn't have a place for the car at home.

How do I play owned businesses?

The short answer is not very well! My Sims tend to do nearly as badly at running businesses as I did when I tried to run a real life craft, gift and bookshop. (On my last day I took less than £2 for a full day's trading, and it was a Saturday too, normally my busiest day. I reluctantly decided I'd be better looking for a job!) My most successful Sims business to date is a nightclub run by two teenage boys in New Desconia. I think it's at level 5. It's called "Anything Goes", which gives you some sort of idea what sort of club it is. So definitely no pictures on a PG13 website! Even there I find that the game fails to pay them everything they're due. It debits them all their expenses -- in their case mainly wages, but it fails to pay them much of the revenue they are due. I wrote a little spreadsheet to help me work out how much extra I need to pay them, just to put them where they would have been if the game had done its sums right! Doing manual bookkeeping for my Sims' businesses is really not my idea of fun!

I find the Bluewater businesses all badly under capitalised. It seems to me that they all live in over-furnished mansions, paid for with the cash that should have been invested in their businesses. Sometimes I wish that Maxis had included at least one high-ranking successful business in Bluewater, if only to show to the rest of us that success is possible. Instead they're all struggling without the cash-on-hand needed to expand. Sometimes I think they should sell the family furniture to raise a little cash for investment. Or even sell the mansion and buy a cottage. The last time I played Malcolm Landgraab at Club Dante, it was beginning to turn a profit, but only by charging an eye-watering §36 an hour for admission. Frankly this is well beyond the means of most denizens of Veronaville. Why would they pay that when all the downtown nightclubs are free? Moreover, Malcolm ran a Black Friday event last year at the Electronics Supercenter. This certainly made the shop busy, but a lot of stock was sold below cost, and now Malcolm hasn't got the working capital to restock. I'm beginning to think that his best option is to sell Club Dante back to the community, and to invest the proceeds in developing the Electronics Supercenter. IMAO Club Dante is far too big for a successful private nightclub. Compare and contrast the intimacy of "Anything Goes" in New Desconia. It's on a 1x2 lot. Originally it was 1x1, and it was enlarged with the Lot Adjuster.

For new businesses I start really small -- typically 1x1, but sometimes 2x1 or 1x2. I use MaryLou's Mini Community Lots. At the very bottom end the pricing of empty lots gets weird: the game actually pays you §400 to take on a 1x1 lot. That makes the first few wall sections for your business premises effectively free. In Bluewater the Larson siblings found they didn't have enough money to start a business, so they took jobs in the politics career. Politics because politicians could be helpful contacts later in business. Now they've saved enough money to buy a 2x1 lot across the road from Club Dante. They intend to start trading there shortly as the "Klondyke Bazaar". Initially they'll be running the shop on their rest days, but they hope it will indeed prove to be a goldmine for them, and they'll be able to give up their day jobs.

Hairdressers are a bit of a special case. They tend to start as home businesses, and don't start charging customers until they have at least a bronze Cosmetology badge. Then, as soon as they can afford to, they buy separate premises, which they set up as small salons. Esmeralda Garvie has already done this in Baldrair Bluffs, and Miriam Hunter intends to do the same soon in Bluewater, but at the moment she has barely §600 in cash reserves, so she's still running her business from her home at 22 Toboggan Way (across the road from the Larsons' house. She may borrow some money to finance the move from Julian Moltke-Jones, who already lent her the money to buy the chair. Julian, being Julian, may never ask for the money back, and is most unlikely to ask for any interest. Sometimes Andrew comes close to despair over his husband's good nature! Julian also runs a "business" of his own, "The Water Hole", a swimming pool for children and teens in Monopolis, but Julian runs it more to provide somewhere safe for the youth of Monopolis to go to, rather than as a real business. The §3 an hour admission charge will never repay all the money Julian has spent on this project, but he still worries that it might be too dear for some of the kids. Julian may not have much business acumen, but his heart is definitely in the right place.

Don't Andrew and Julian have like a real estate business in Monopolis? Although I suppose that doesn't count if it's not an OFB business.

Yes, Andrew and Julian are the directors of Jones & Moltke Construction (Veronaville) Limited, normally just called Jones & Moltke. Note that the company was formed before they married, so it uses their original pre-marriage names. It's not an OFB business. It was formed in 2016 to participate in d_dgjdhh's Monopoly Game Town Contest. Soon after I joined the contest, and named Andrew and Julian as the owners of the company, I decided to incorporate the contest into my game. So I downloaded the empty version of d_dgjdhh's Monopoly Game Town, and attached it to Veronaville as a shopping district, allowing all my contest entries to be built in situ in Monopoly Game Town (or Monopolis as I renamed it). I became in effect Jones & Moltke's architect so I had many long imaginary conversations with Andrew, the company's Managing Director about the details of each build. He became in effect my boss which brought a new and novel aspect to game play. On the whole it brought Andrew and me closer to each other.

At the end of the contest I divided the company's closing balance between Andrew and Julian, giving them almost a quarter of a million Simoleons each. This of course completely transformed the finances of both of their families. Although the contest was over, Monopolis was still there, with lots of space for new building, and I kept making new Sims in CAS, who all needed somewhere to live. So it made sense for Jones & Moltke to continue in business building houses for all the new arrivals. Most of the new build houses are in a style that Andrew calls Veronavillesque. Basically they are modern new-build houses with a mock Tudor facade to the street. I pay Andrew and Julian a share of the price of each new house their company builds. Nearly all the houses they build are in Monopolis, and the company has a site office there. The site office contains a flat where Keith Cormier and Mallory Mace live. Originally Veronaville townies, these two teens are Jones & Moltke's permanent reps in Monopolis. Andrew and Julian visit them frequently.

I have taken new pictures of the site office, and some of the newer builds and I intend to post them in the pictures subforum, but honestly I feel too tired tonight. I'll post them soon.

I like the idea that all my shops are owned by different sims and they buy everything they need from each other. But in reality it's easier to buy their stuff from buy mode plus I think it's more fun to run shops than to shop in them.
I have just started a project to see how many different types of stores I can build without cc. Maybe it's something for you if you enjoy building?

After playing a bit, I agree about the shopping. I think I'm going to treat the shops symbolically, so if there is a pet shop in the neighborhood, then they can buy pet supplies from the catalog, and I'll pretend they went to the pet shop. I do like seeing what my other playables bring home in their inventory after I've run a shop for a day or two.

What unusual types of stores have you come up with for your project? I have a list of shops I'm thinking of building if I have a playable who seems right to own it. Right now, I think the necessary shops are grocery, clothing, a place for takeaway (since my Sims bring home pizza all the time), baby supplies, toys and children's furniture, pet supplies, furniture, appliances, electronics, home decor, and cars. Maybe plants and landscaping. Musical instruments at some point. I also want to have some entertainment venues, but those can come later, I think.

I found this video by Tea Addict to be very helpful for tips and mods by the way.

Unusual or not; I've built a pottery barn, a christmas decoration store, a lamp shop and a second hand store (I've not decided if it's gonna be a thift shop with the prices set low or a vintage boutique with prices set high). I also started to build IKEA, but made it too big and have to start over.
I'm thinking of building a candle shop since there is a suprising amount of candles in the game. Maybe a wedding boutique with a salon, maybe a shop that is only selling chairs so I can call it a "chairty shop" (maybe I should go to bed now).


Does anyone know if someone have compiled a list of different stores you can have in the game?

I've just posted an online sales brochure showing recent Jones & Moltke new-builds in Monopolis.

I have done, I have also had an island where sims barter instead, and an Uber hood where I allow *le gasp* rabbit hole jobs and the game nanny.




I have done. I have a few separate Sims 2 folders and hoods including historic ones and use different rules for different ones.
One large island integrated hood has separate stores, but not completely separate to start with. I often start with a general store so it has a range of basic items but later I will add a plumbing store, a furniture store, a car lot etc.
Not that I sell everything to start with, they don't have the cash to open a 2 story super store right away, but will start with a tiny 1 by 1 or 1 by 2 shack. The plumbing store at this stage would sell 1 shower and that represents all the showers. If a sim buys a shower I will switch it out for the shower I think they would have bought. I don't yet have a kitchen store in this hood so I have those items in my furniture store. I allow a money perk every second perk. But I have or had other hoods with different rules on gaining money. What rules you set for earning cash, if they pay higher or no bills, tax, townies, will decide how fast or slow your hood grows.




What I do now is use the lot adjuster to increase the size of the lot. I use to sell it and buy bigger but your sim starts back at rank 0. I saw Beth/TeaAddict do this is stream and I thought it was a great idea. You can charge them or not for the new land. Then just build onto the store they already have. You have to weigh up how much your owner will lose by hiring staff. I try to hire as little as possible, making businesses more a family thing.



There is a mod that looks like a rock to keep the sim at the till. https://hypersaline.tumblr.com/post...-owner-assigner

That depends. I guess I am someone who gets bored doing things the same way, so yes I have done that but not in every hood.
One of my current integrated hoods is on an island cut off from the main land by the bridge being destroyed in a storm. (I do rather like islands with beaches) and the goal was to get an easy way to and from the mainland other than the speed boat that I had parked next to the dock. I found in RL there is an inflatable ferry which can literally carry a vehicle across water. For $20,000 I had the town 'buy one' with tax money that allowed them to bring across larger items like cars. I have a downloaded golf wagon, motorbikes and bicycles which seem to be more suitable for an island than many larger vehicles.
In reality they might still have a hard time getting things like a double bed over there before the ferry, but I waved that since they have to have double beds.
I also do yard sales, where they can sell off things like the crib their child just grew out of. Regular beds and even toddler beds can be glitchy after sims have used them so I would delete not resell those.



I prefer retail stores over venues. I find venues very slow to get going so I tend to sell items first to rank it up before switching over to it being a venue.
Even though I love the traditional restaurant, the only way to make a profit is to either have all family members run it or use mods. I have had a level 10 restaurant all set on expensive with 1 cook and 2 servers and it made no money.
http://www.insimenator.org/index.php/topic,7674.0.html I think there are other mods around now.
I also like running a cafe. Again I use quite a few mods. One being to sell coffee, another is a desert cart that charges per plate. I also have my sim cook and sell plates off food that go into inventory.

Cafe pictures: Then and now.

I like the idea of playing themed businesses. I had Gvaudoin Curious open a furniture store that only sells Asian-themed decor. I think a Christmas store would be fun, as well as a party store.

As for venues, I don't know if they can easily be made profitable, so I may restrict them to my families that have money to burn. But I like that the ticket machine enables you to turn almost anything into a business. This morning, I set up the Beaker Science Lab, which Ailfrid Beaker started as a memorial to his parents. I put all the equipment from the Beakers' home lab there, plus some other fun sciencey-looking things, and Ailfrid can also give lessons. (It's necessary to have a mod that allows skilling on community lots.) To make extra money, he may eventually sell robots there. One great mod I found through Tea Addict's video allows you to increase the number of allowed customers on the lot, which really makes the venue more lively.

I would say that one thing I've learned is that a break room is not really necessary and can be a distraction, as my Sims will go make food when they're not even that hungry and then there are the dirty plates to deal with. It seems that if their needs are in the green when you send them to the business, they can go for quite a while without eating, and then just close up when they get too far in the yellow.

Now all my businesses are in community lot because years ago I had problem shutting down business in home lot. There is three owned business lot in my favourite hood (and there is 20+ families so not every sim runs business in my game.) One is a flower shop, other is a grilled cheese shop and third is a robot shop. The newest one is a barber shop. My sims usually sells crafted items or use special objects for money. In the flower shop there is no plants you can buy on your home lot. That is why I want give sims an oppoturnity to buy something special. (Althougth the charity shop sounds good idea to try!) Okay, then there is grilled cheese shop but the owners aspirations are first fortune and secondly grilled cheese... I would like make it to restaurant but maybe it is not possible. Usually I try to manage without cheats while I play business. I want make the owners really support themselves. (And sometime they need also a job beside the business running.)

The flower shop is a family business and father passed it to his fortune son last time I played with them. When children were toddlers I planned to get a mod which allows them to stay in business lots back room playing but somehow I never did. Now they are all adult. Two of five siblings are working there also. Their lifetime wants are get all skills full so this is good career for them.


I like building business lots. It is fun to make shops. I hope there is fix that allows use work clothes without the problem. They would be nice addition to the atmosphere

And I do not have Bluewater village in my hood. I could not decice should I control those households or not while playing rotationally and I am not sure do I really need it so have not add the village yet.

I just wanted to add--and I don't know if this is game mechanics or just coincidence--but since some of my Sims started businesses, more of my Sims seem to be getting the want to purchase a community lot, which is a want I usually see only rarely. I opened up the Goth household this morning, and Bella Goth had the want! (I'll have to think of an appropriate business for her--hmmm.) Anyway, if it's game mechanics that make them see other Sims starting a business and want to start one too, that is an awesome feature, I have to say.

How do I play owned businesses?

With patience, more patience, and some coffee breaks in between

I have some rules for myself:

1. Businesses must be on the smaller side, but not so small that sims customers keep bumping into each other.
2. Owned businesses must have a purpose and stick to it - if a business sells vegetables it sells vegetables, it is not a playground or fun-for-all center. Customers must be in and out quickly, if they hang around playing darts, they just prevent new customers turning up.
3. Sims go to their businesses for 3 to 4 hours at a time, no need for them to be there all day/night long and pass out from hunger or something. That also prevent the staff to get exhausted.
4. Owners treat their workers well, promote them when they deserve it.
5. A social life is needed for business owners too, so I have them going to "business lunches", using the phone group outing function. Sims who are outgoing are often in a very good mood after such a lunch and it improves their business running experience.

Of course, that is just my way of playing and other players may have better ideas, but perhaps some of you may want to experiment with these

That is not coincidence. You will find if a sim gets abducted others will get that want, or a hobby badge if another sim has taken up pottery or sewing etc. I rather like that they have a sense for what is going on and want to join in.

Personally, I have a bit of a rule that if a specific item is available for purchase at an owned lot, Sims can't buy it from the catalog. (With a few exceptions such as pregnant Sims who can't leave the lot.)

Retail businesses in my hood:

Subatomic (Robert Kim) - premade meals (sub sandwiches), stockable fridge groceries
Turn It Up! (Jodie Larson) - Musical instruments and some related deco.
Here or Else Grocery (Jason Larson) - Premade meals (dinners), stockable fridge groceries, small appliances
Electronics Supercenter (Malcolm Landgraab) - Electronics. (Were you expecting something else?)
J'Adore Bakery (Gilbert Jacquet) - Premade meals (desserts), birthday/wedding cakes, stockable fridge groceries.
Inner Child Toys and Gifts (Stephen Tinker) - Various toys and some related deco.
Ramirez's Fine Furniture (Checo Ramirez) - Furniture, mostly the themed sets like Atomic and Surfer.
Just Flowers and More (Florence Delarosa) - Flowers (and other various related deco), seeds, and a few dwarf fruit trees.

For the ones selling expensive items (instruments, electronics, and furniture), I use gummilutt's Simulated Sales to avoid accidental bankruptcy. But I love opening up a Sim's inventory and finding what they've bought from the others. (Well, unless it's six birthday cakes.)

Wait, pregnant sims can't leave the lot?

In a vanilla game, Sims in their third trimester can't leave the lot. I think Chris's global overrides removes the restriction, but since I use community lot time I prefer to keep them home to prevent accidental sidewalk births.

Tate Traveller runs a coffee shop in Strangetown, and he just got it up to Level 5! I haven't had a lot of luck making businesses successful, so this is exciting for me. I credit two mods for his success: one is the one that enables me to set a higher customer limit, and the other is this one by jonasn that actually makes the espresso machine work and customers autonomously buy coffees. I really love that mod! It works so well. For this business, I use the ticket machine as well as selling espressos. There is also a guitar that customers can play for tips (like an open mic), a big TV, and some board games to play. Food is provided in the form of hot dogs, hamburgers, and chef salads. Tate is a werewolf, so that means he can run the shop all night as long as he has something to eat. And I figured out that he can clean up faster after customers by licking the plates clean, which is not something I think I've ever directed my Sims to do. But it works very well because it saves having to walk back and forth to the sink.

The Food Safety Officer would like to talk to you lol.