Running business questions I've finally made use of the OFB since I bought it, which was a very long time ago (mainly because my pc had a virus, I think, which made my game crash often) and I had quite some fun starting a business by purchasing a community lot. By far, I've tried every type of business, selling toys, flowers, and robots. However, Im having problems with 2 business types which I need help with. My problems are : 1. Bakery - My sim selects the fridge and it says "make one/make many" but there aren't any deserts in the list. So I tried a way which I think is totally wrong and I doubt anyone does that, I made my sim "have dessert" and he ends up eating the cake!! So what I did was, I canceled the action right after the cake is done so he doesn't eat it, which was sucessful, but if my sim has to do that ALL the time just to open the store ONCE a day it would waste alot of time, and secondly whenever restock is needed, he doesn't have any to restock the cakes I know restocking is done if the item is in the sims inventory, so does that mean I have to make 100 cakes using my super slow way and keep it in his inventory? Im wondering what I have to do to run a bakery, ie; getting the cakes/desserts done, how to restock them etc. 2. Hair salon - I placed the chairs in the shop, hired the hairstylists, customers come, now what? I saw the green thing above their heads, so my sim attends to them, then they just stand there and sometimes the green thing appears again sometime its gone. Yet, they don't get a makeover done. Am I doing anything wrong? And do I need a cash register/cashier for a salon? 3. Restaurant/cafe - How do I run a restaurant? Whom do I hire? Are the waitresses those with the "sales" badges? I only got my sim to be a chef, and got lost after that. This are mainly all the questions I have and sorry if the post was rather long, and I hope Im making sense! Based on my questions, you preety much can tell I'm extremely NEW to this so I really really need help, thanks in advance
1) I don't know why you can't find deserts on the choices ... unless you're looking in the wrong section of the menu. Most, if not all, deserts are cooked up as served meals rather than as individual portions ... try that section 2) Makeover customers have to be sold a makeover. When you see a customer looking at the chair and a buy bar appears over their head then is the time to pounce and do some "sales" actions ... note the chair must keep the stylist during the selling. If you have a stylist sim stop being the stylist to do the "sales" (on the same chair) then the action will fail. 3)To run a restaurant you need a minumum number of staff: (i) chef (ii) maitre d' (iii) waiter (iv) busboy Frankly it's hardly worth the effort and certainly not for beginners ... it's an ideal business for a family of vampires though (but don't try serving all-day breakfasts or lunches )
1. I tried served meal but my sim ended up wanting to eat the food, does that mean I have to keep serving the cakes and quickly place it in the freezer thing before he eats it? That would take alot of time especially in restocking. Is there a correct way to do so? 2. I did have my sim do the sales thing, and all chairs had a stylist assigned to it. But none of the sim sit's down and get a makeover. Did I miss any action to do? 3. My sim is the chef, but the other 3 jobs, how do I find them on the list to hire? Do they have a special badge? I have tons of crazy questions, Im sorry :(
1) No, Jess. The menu is nested thusly: Make Many >> Group Meals or Single Plates (you want group meals) 2) Do you have the patch? Did the buy bar fill up and "ping" over? Have you set the price too high? It'll be something quite silly, I'm sure. Keep trying. 3) No special badges as far as I know. I haven't tried a restaurant to be honest. Juts try hiring any anyone and see what happens ... Come on people, someone must have more help for Jess! :(
Here's what I've learned so far: 1. You don't need to grab the meal. It automatically goes into the lot owner's inventory, except for the last one made, which has to be put in manually. The only way to restock homemade goods (whether robots or pies) is if the lot owner has items in inventory. 2. The makeovers are tricky and give me a headache. You're not doing it wrong, the game's just stubborn. I give free makeovers to sims whose looks I'm sick of, LOL. They're much more likely to accept. I don't rely on it as a means to make a living. My one sim who had a salon gave up and turned it into an art gallery. Much more sane. No, as far as I know, you don't need a cash register for a salon only business. 3. No special badges are given for "host" or "waiter." It helps if the person you hire has some charisma. But anyone can do the job. As for busboy, I've never used 'em. Are you sure you need one, Mirelly? I'm not even sure that's assignable. My servers do that. Here's a tip: Have family members do those jobs. I have a sim who just bought a "Crab shack" and his grandchildren wait tables while his daughter plays host. Works great. It's much easier if you can control everyone.
Actually I got a salon up to 10 stars with little experience just doggedness and luck mostly ... plus a little help from some MATY hacks. I ended up with three chairs running full tilt and three stylists all on gold badges. I closed it down because of the inevitable failures that escaped never to return. My own sims were easy enough to fix up the next time I played them but I had at least a dozen townies wandering around for ages with bizarre face-make up. Goopy still has his ... I can't be bothered to try to catch him and fix his face. I laugh at him every time he appears. If you're not getting a customer to use a chair for a makeover and you're sure that the buy bar is filling up properly then you may need to double check stuff like possible hack conflicts and also be sure you have the latest patches (see FAQs in my signature).
OK, so spill. What hacks? My game is properly patched and I do wait until it's nice and filled, loik, and sometimes I gets customers to sit and sometimes I doesn't. I suppose once I got past level 2 they might sit down more willingly? Poor little Lyndsay Travers has no hair. Not a good look for a female teen. And my pajama guy's a clown. Like you, can't be bothered to fix that ...
Urr ... I meant I just used the basic Pescado director's cut. My salon owner had a gold sales badge and mercilessly pressed anyone browsing a chair. Often each chair had a sim being "done" and another waiting while a third was browsing. To be honest it was a pain in the neck Too much like real work. The salon owner had maxed out his motivational rewards so I used rally forth a lot (he was a perma-plat so he was able to rebuild his own motives by leaping into the energiser bucket at any convenient time) I also had an espresso bar in a corner of the salon and employed a barista and another on permanent clean-up duty. To be honest I don't know exactly why it was so successful. I built it up one chair at a time ... it all seems so long ago ... almost like it all happened three months ago ... "loik"? How's that new medication, by the way ... <snicker> (must go to bed ... )
Ok Ive read all replies and I'll give the group meals thing a try now. On the other hand, another few dumb questions, sorry Makeover shop - What patch were you reffering too Mirelly? And what bar needs to be filled and whats a 'ping' over? And thanks surprised by witches for clearing up with me bout the cash reigster Restaurant - So basicly, if I had my sim be the chef, and all I have to do is hire anyone, and when they arrive, I have an option to select them to be a waiter or host? And do I need to hire anyone with a 'sales' badge to do any sales talking to get them to eat at my restaurant? I'm sorry for the questions, I'm totally clueless on this :(
It helps if you hire people with sales points, yes, and that's exactly how it works (assigning people to jobs, I mean). You can't assign a salesperson per se but the host and the servers can "sell" tables to people. Like I said, I normally use controllable sims, and haven't attempted a restaurant with employees yet. I think Mirelly just means, have you downloaded all patches for your version of the game. They're available on the Sims 2 official site.
Oh, yes I just downloaded the OFB patch, sorry bout that, I hope after the patch things will work out? And 'controlable' sims, do you mean if I hire a family member to work at my sim's shop, I can control them as long as they are a family member?
No, I mean sims from the same household. Hiring family members from other lots doesn't mean you can control them at the site. But sims that live with the business owning sim are controllable if they accompany them to the site. Try to avoid bringing more people than you need, though. I had 8 adults on a site once and they just milled around and got in each others' way. I only needed 2 to run the business. Sometimes the game makes me take everyone. Other times I can pick who goes along. The safest bet is to form a casual group of the people you want. Teens and up can help with the business. I make sure there's stuff to do if younger children come along. I also make a family break room that's locked to anyone else, where there's a small kitchen area, bath with shower, and a sofa, TV and bookshelf, at a minimum. I'm not sure why there isn't a server or host badge. At least, I don't think there is. I've only seen cosmetology, cash register, sales, flower arranging, robotery and toymaking. Does anyone know of others you can earn? Edited to say: I should add that you don't need to hire same-lot sims. They work for you automatically if they come to the site, as long as you give them something to do. You don't have to pay them, either! A nice little bonus.
Do you mean that when you want to send your sim to his/her shop using the car/taxi, you select multiple sims and bring them all together? Or do you mean that you can hire them all from the list? How do you make an employees only room? I did make a break room, and every customer went in to dance to the stereo ANd I forgotten to add this, all the business my sims run are at community lots and not from the sim house. Im not sure if its related to any issues but I thought I just add this information in, in case its related to anything
Use the locking option to make a break room. As for the first question. Family are never -- don't need to be -- hired because they are controllable (so you, the player, can make them do what you want anyway). Taking them to the business lot is not so easy if you only want some of the family to go. If you use a car you have only two options one sim or everyone ... unless you use the casual group option ... except that will produce an instant outing meter which only complicates things. If you want to take only part of the family to work and leave, say, baby and a sitter at home, then use a taxi and use the multiple sims option and you will then be asked if each individual sim is going.
Ok I've tried all 3 business by the tips given by both of you and I realised that not hiring other sims is a good thing! Its good being able to control the sims and Im happy suprisedbywitches pointed that out to me thanks! But I was wondering how do we see the chart where it shows our revenue and expenses? I cant tell what each bar means, and I find that when I hire one sim (non controlable sim/non same lot sim) and the bar goes WAYY below the line and is red, wherelse when its only my sim family working, the bar maintains a nice green bar. Can anyone tell me what each bar means? There's 5 bars I think. And I have a problem where sims come to my shop and then they start to talk to other customers and ended up argueing, next day they come back again, and they start fighting AGAIN and other issues I face is the customers whom eventually became friends with my sims, always like to play 'kicky bag' or 'pillow fight' in the middle of my shop thats already an extremely tiny size! In the end, some sims get stuck and it gets annoying sometimes, because once I had about 5 sims in my store, 2 we're argueing, the remaining we're playing 'kicky bag' and it gets annoying, I was hoping there was a hack to disable all play things
There are a number of hacks at MATY that can be trusted so long as you mix them with hacks from other other sources. Just search through the FFS Hacks and Support sections for nopillowfighting (except in bedrooms) and Pescado's assorted business hacks.
