The Sims 2 Open For Business - Frequently Asked Questions

[The Star Hermit]

The Sims 2 Open For Business - Frequently Asked Questions

If you want to know what Open For Business is all about or perhaps you need a helping hand installing or playing the game, hopefully you'll find something here to get you started.

Contents

• What is Open For Business?
• What are the Minimum Requirements?
• Is there a patch for Open For Business?
• How can I prepare my PC for installation?
• What happens if I have Custom Content?
  
  
• How do I purchase a community lot?
• Why can't I evict Sims from the new Shopping District?
• A Guide to Talent Badges
• What are the Open For Business cheats?
• Six Quick & Simple Steps to Start your Sims Business
  
  
• What objects do I need?
• How do I manage my stock?
• How do I manage my Employees?
• Keeping your customers happy
• How do I grow my business?
  
  
• How can I place/sell cars on a business lot?
• How do I get a Servo?

Note: Some of the information in this FAQ comes from the EA/Maxis websites and their technical knowledge database.

[The Star Hermit]

What is Open For Business?

(Click images to enlarge)

For the third expansion to The Sims 2, which is due for release in the UK on 3rd March 2006, your sims can run their own business. The type of business they run will be entirely down to you, from bustling bakery stores to high end electronics shops selling the latest range in home help robots, or perhaps you prefer just a small going concern run from your sims' garage. Will your sims run a successful chain of restaurants or will they settle for a quiet toy store or flower shop. The layout and theme of the store will be entirely down to you and just about anything that can be picked up can be sold off for profit, if you want to of course.

As the boss it will be up to you to hire and manage your sim staff effectively, training them to your high (or low) standards and making sure they tend to your customers needs, or will you need to fire those slacker employees that are dragging down your profits. Watch them as you dress them in new outfits and store uniforms including Knights, Ninjas, Gorillas and others.

How you manage your store will be up to you. Will you cater for those occasional browsers or grab them as they are passing and give them the hard sell. Maybe you are interested in only offering the highest quality items, or if you prefer, churn out junk and turn a quick profit, no matter what the consequences. If you prefer you can just let one of your staff manage your business, if they have the skills of course.

New gameplay includes a 'talent' system that rewards your sims with either bronze, silver or gold expertise badges depending on their talent level and opening up new interactions and abilities. There will also be the new ranking system which is based around customer loyalty. Higher loyalty leads to higher ranking and the reward of business perks. Perks include cash bonuses, increased sales effectiveness and the ability to motivate your employees and other sims.

Open for Business will have over 125 new objects (as seems usual for a sims expansion) including a new toy work bench, a floral station, a robot station, a beauty salon chair and for those sims who have just bought out all your stock and are struggling with the stairs, they can take the new lift (elevator) back to the ground floor. This expansion will also see several build mode additions including new roofing options and awnings, and a new business neighbourhood called Bluewater Village.

For more in depth information about Open For Business, have a read through of:

Eurogamer's Preview (13th January 2006)
GameSpot's Preview (24th January 2006)
IGN's Preview (25th January 2006)
1UP's Preview (25th January 2006)

Also see:

T-Mail (9th December 2005)
H-Mail (18th January 2006)
GameSpy's SimPrentice (17th January 2006)
OFB Web Chat Transcript (19th January 200)
Open For Business Classifieds (19th January 2006)
Designer Walkthrough (3rd February 2006)
H-Mail #2 (6th February 2006)
and the latest OFB Videos.

[The Star Hermit]

What are the Minimum Requirements

In order to install and play Open For Business you must have The Sims 2 installed and meet the hardware requirements listed below:

General Hardware Requirements

• 1 GHz processor
• 256 MB RAM
• Windows Vista, Windows XP, Windows ME, Windows 98 or Windows 2000 Operating System
• At least 1.5 GB of additional hard drive space
• DirextX 9.0 compatible Sound Card
• DirectX 9.0c
• A T&L-capable video card with at least 32 MB of video RAM

Note: See Windows Vista FAQ if using that operating system.

Supported Video Cards

• ATI Radeon 8500, All-In-Wonder 8500
• ATI Radeon 9000, 9200, 9500, 9600, 9700, 9800
• ATI Radeon X300, X600, X700, X800, X850
• NVIDIA Quadro, Quadro2, Quadro4
• NVIDIA GeForce 2, 2 GTS
• NVIDIA GeForce 3, 3 Ti
• NVIDIA GeForce 4, 4 Ti, 4200, 4600, 4800
• NVIDIA GeForce MX 420, 440, and 460
• NVIDIA GeForce FX 5200, 5600, 5700, 5800, 5900, 5950
• NVIDIA GeForce PCX 5300, 5900
• NVIDIA GeForce 6200, 6600, 6800

Non T&L Capable Cards/Chips

If you have a 2.4 GHz or faster processor, the game may run with the following video cards:

• Intel Extreme Graphics, 82865, 82915 and above

Note: If you are using a non T&L card you may find some of the display options are disabled. Video card chipsets in laptop systems may work with this expansion, however they are not officially supported by EA.

[The Star Hermit]

How can I prepare my PC for installation?

Backing Up

The first step to take would be to back up your current game files in case of problems during installation of Open For Business To do this, follow the steps listed below:

1. Find the following location on your hard drive: My Documents\EA Games.
2. Right-click on the folder called The Sims 2 and choose the 'copy' option.
3. Close the window.
4. Right-click on your desktop and choose the 'paste' option. This puts a copy of your current The Sims 2 folder on your desktop.
5. Move the copy of your The Sims 2 folder to any location you wish for safe keeping. This could be another folder in My Documents or better still, how about compressing it into a .zip file and put it onto CD/DVD or a flash stick for extra safety.

Graphics Card Drivers

When running The Sims 2 and other games that use the latest version of DirectX, you may need to update the drivers for your video card, especially if you haven't done so in quite a while and as a preventative measure. You can update your graphics drivers for free by downloading them from the website of your graphics card manufacturer. The latest versions for the two most common sets of cards (depending on your operating system) are:

• ATI Radeon Series: Catalyst 7.9 - Released 10th September 2007*
• Nvidia GeForce Series: Version: 162.18 - Released 5th July 2007*

For more information about about checking your card and current drivers, see The Troubleshooting Guide Graphic Cards section.

*Note: Versions correct at time of posting.

Hard Drive Housekeeping & Temp Files

Before installing any new program, it advisable to clean up and organize your hard drive. Sometimes a hard drive can become cluttered with a number of temporary files, or files that are out of order on the hard disk due to uninstalling and reinstalling. It can also suffer losses in integrity that can cause errors. Cleaning up your hard drive will help increase the performance of your game and help prevent problems while installing The Sims 2 University.

For more information on performing these procedures, see The Troubleshooting Guide Hard Drive Housekeeping section.

In addition to using the Disk Cleanup utility to empty temp files as part of your Hard Drive clean up, you can also clean up any temp files/folders manually that the utility has left behind. For more information see The Troubleshooting Guide Temp Files section.

Background Tasks

Almost certainly there are a variety of programs running on your computer, eating up resources, even if you don't know they are there. These tasks can cause conflicts when installing new software and it is advisable to shut them down when you come to install The Sims 2 University. This will include shutting down your anti-virus program (if you have one) as such programs can sometimes cause install conflicts if left running in the background, even on higher end systems.

For more information, see The Troubleshooting Guide Background Tasks section.

[The Star Hermit]

What happens if I have Custom Content?

As with other expansions there is a possibility that any custom content you have in your Downloads folder may interfere with the installation of Open For Business. These problem files may not necessarily be limited to hacked objects but could also include new meshes or even some recolours. Many players find that they have no problem keeping their downloads in place during installation, but to be sure that you are not one of the few that do, it is advisable to completely remove your Downloads folder before you install The Sims 2 Open For Business.

Removing Custom Content/Downloads

To remove your custom content from your game:

• Find the following location on your hard drive: My Documents\EA Games\The Sims 2.
• Left click on the folder called 'Downloads' and drag it completely to your desktop.
• Now install Sims 2 Open For Business.

Although it is possible to disable individual files with the Content Manager Tool, or even all your downloads during start up if you have later expansions already, the files will still be in the Downloads folder and there still remains a possibility that they could interfere with the installation process, therefore removing the Downloads folder first is probably the best way to be 100% sure that they cannot interfere.

Returning Custom Content After Install

Once Open For Business is installed, I'd recommend that you start it up before you return your Downloads folder, just to be sure that everything went ok during install. If your game seems alright you can shut it down again ready to return your downloads. To return your downloads:

• Find the following location on your hard drive: My Documents\EA Games\The Sims 2 and keep the window open.
• Find your Downloads folder on your desktop.
• Left click on your Downloads folder and drag it into your My Documents\EA Games\The Sims 2 folder.
• Restart The Sims 2.

If your game won't start up now, problems occur when loading a neighbourhood, problems occur when loading a lot or you have loaded a lot and have noticed problems with it that were not there before installing Open for Business, you may have something in your Downloads folder that is now incompatible with the Open For Business expansion.

The first step to try is using the Content Manager Tool to disable or delete the more obvious target files as they will appear in red, then restart the game again and check if the problem has been resolved, if it has then you will need to reactivate each of the disabled files one by one, restarting the game in between until you find the problem file and remove it. If disabling the more obvious targets didn't solve the problem then you will need to disable all the files and repeat the procedure until you find the problem files, which may take quite a while if you have lots of them.

If you prefer or if you have trouble running the Content Manager Tool, you can search for the problem files manually. The first step is to shut down your game and remove your Downloads folder again (see Custom Content/Downloads section above). After this create yourself a new Downloads folder and start returning your files one by one. If you know the names of the hacks or new mesh files then you could start with these as they are more likely to be the problem, restarting the game again to check if the problem has been resolved.

It's probably unlikely that you will have to perform this time consuming procedure as most files should be compatible with open For Business, but if you are unlucky enough to experience this then it may be the only way of finding the problem files.

[The Star Hermit]

How do I purchase a community lot?

You can purchase an existing community lot using a phone or computer.

To purchase using a phone

• Click on the phone and choose Real Estate.
• Choose Purchase Community Lot.
• Choose the neighbourhood (whether it's your normal neighbourhood, Downtown, a Shopping District, etc.) that the lot you want to purchase is in from the list on the left.
• Choose the name of the lot you'd like to purchase from the list on the right.
• If you can afford the lot and decide to purchase it a deed will be placed in that Sim's inventory.

To purchase using a computer

• Click on the computer and choose Real Estate.
• Choose Purchase Community Lot.
• Choose the neighbourhood (whether it's your normal neighbourhood, Downtown, a Shopping District, etc.) that the lot you want to purchase is in from the list on the left.
• Choose the name of the lot from the list on the right.
• If you can afford the lot and decide to purchase it a deed will be placed in that Sim's inventory.

You can keep the Deed in your inventory or display it proudly in your home or business.

[The Star Hermit]

Why can't I evict Sims from the new Shopping District?

If you decide to use the default Bluewater Village Shopping District that comes with the expansion, there will already be shops and Sims living there. If you want to evict any of these pre-made sims from their lot in the neighbourhood view, you will need to enter and save that sims' lot at least once before you will have the option to evict them from their lot.

[The Star Hermit]

Guide to Talent Badges

General Information

Talent badges, first introduced with the Open For Business expansion pack, control your sims' efficiency at certain tasks, in much the same manner as the current skills do. Talent badges are primarily aimed at the various tasks that make up the running of a sim owned business, either for your own sims or their employees; however there are some which can be used on a normal residential (non business) lot.

As with most of the normal skills, talent badges are earned by doing the tasks associated with them. However, unlike the normal skills there are only three levels associated with each; bronze, silver and gold. Each higher level increases your sims' ability at the tasks at hand, be it selling an item or building it; where your employees are concerned, the higher their badges the more likely they will do as you ask (and the higher wages they demand too).

Townies are randomly assigned talent badges (including those in any sub-neighbourhoods attached with an expansion), however your playable sims must earn all of them from scratch.

What Are The Badges

These badges are available with the Open for Business expansion.

• Sales:
  Earn badges by using the Sales option on customers.
  Badges unlock Offer at Cheap, Hard Sell, and Dazzle sales options.
  
  
• Flower Arranging:
  Earn badges by making flower arrangements at the Floral Arrangement object.
  Badges unlock more flower arrangements that you can make.
  
  
• Robotics:
  Earn badges by making robots at the Robot Crafting Station object.
  Badges unlock different types of robots that you can make.
  
  
• Toy Making:
  Earn badges by making toys at the Toybench object.
  Badges unlock new toys that you can make.
  
  
• Restocking:
  Earn badges by restocking the store.
  Badges lower restocking time.
  
  
• Register:
  Earn badges by ringing up customers.
  Badges increase your speed in ringing up customers.
  
  
• Cosmetology:
  Earn badges by giving makeovers.
  Badges increase your chances of a good makeover.

These badges are available with the Seasons expansion.

• Gardening:
  Earn badges by fertilizing, watering, spraying, tending, harvesting, planting.
  Badges unlock more varieties of produce, increase the quality of produce, reduce the need for weeding and unlock the ability to talk to plants and trees.
  
  
• Fishing:
  Earn badges by fishing in a residential or community lot pond.
  Badges unlock more lures which increase the chances of catching more varieties of fish, and reduce the chances of catching nothing.

Skill Acceleration

Each of the talent badges is associated with one of the normal skills, this allows your sims to earn their badges at faster rates; the higher the related skill, the faster they get their badge. Because certain personality traits are also related to certain skills, having the right personality means you can increase the speed that the skill is achieved too.

The associated skills and personality traits with each badge are listed below:

Talent Badge - Associated Skill - Personality

Sales - Charisma - Outgoing
Flower Arranging - Creativity - Playful
Robotery - Mechanical - None
Toy Building - Mechanical - None
Restocking - Body - Active
Cashier - Logic - Serious
Cosmetology - Cleaning - Neat
Gardening - Charisma - Outgoing

If your sim has no skills in the related badge, the time it takes your sim to earn that badge is listed below:

• No badge to Bronze badge = 12 hours
• Bronze badge to Silver badge = 24 hours
• Silver badge to Gold badge - 48 hours

This means that your sim would go from, no badge to Gold badge in 84 hours. If your sim has maxed out their skills in the related badge, this halves the time it takes to achieve the badges:

• No badge to Bronze badge = 6 hours
• Bronze badge to Silver badge = 12 hours
• Silver badge to Gold badge = 24 hours

This means that your sim would go from no badge to Gold badge in just 42 hours; this shows that it's worth getting your sims their skills first, or choosing badges for your sims to wok on based on the skills they have already.

Note: If you have the Sims 2 Seasons expansion installed, you can further increase the speed of learning a badge during the Autumn season

Miscellaneous

There are several other aspects of the different levels which are not specific to an individual badge. They are listed below:

• The more badges your employees have and the higher their levels, the greater the increase to the financial worth of your business
• If a single employee achieves at least 5 points worth of badges, they can be promoted to a manager of that business*
• Employees with higher badge levels will demand higher levels of wages, but they are more likely to stay at their posts when their needs diminish

*Note: For the purposes of appointing managers, the badges are worth:

• Bronze: 1 point
• Silver: 2 points
• Gold: 3 points

[The Star Hermit]

Six Quick & Simple Steps to Start your Sims Business

1. Work From Home

The easiest way to go into business is to purchase an Electrono Ticket Machine for an existing residential lot. If your Sim's home is a favourite stop on the neighbourhood circuit, reap a financial benefit by charging folks for the privilege of visiting. Use a phone or computer and choose START A HOME BUSINESS. Begin by setting the ticket price low and concentrate on gaining Customer Loyalty and Business Perks. Your Sim won't make a lot of money, but the loyalty and perks will pay off as the business grows.

2. Polish Your Talents

Gaining talent levels can take some time. Purchase a crafting station (flowers, robots, or toys) for your Sim's home lot and start crafting. To help fund their new hobby, set up a cash register in the driveway and sell the fruits of their labours. This has a greater benefit than selling directly to the catalogue because it helps your Sim build Customer Loyalty and earn Business Perks.

3. Buy in Bluewater Village

If you'd like to own one of the brand-new Bluewater Village businesses right away, choose one of the new Sim families that come with The Sims 2 Open for Business. These families are already on solid financial footing, which will allow you to purchase a pre-established community business lot without any undue economic hardship.

4. From Rags to Riches

When you purchase a community business lot with a newly-created Sim, you start off with only 20,000 Simoleons to spend on setting up shop and putting a roof over your Sim's head. To make the most out of your Simoleons, create the cheapest possible home, so there's enough money left over to buy a community lot. With a little frugality and lot of hard work, your Sim will be on their way to becoming a self-made millionaire in no time!

5. There's Real Money in Real Estate

Once a community lot has been purchased, the owner can put the deed up for sale. If your Sim has enough capital, they can buy a cheap business, concentrate on improving its value, and then sell it for a tidy profit after a couple of days. Buy low, sell high!

6. Final Tip

When running a business, it's easier to sell cheaper items, but you have to sell a lot more to generate profit to live on. This creates a bigger burden on restocking and register. Selling expensive stuff, on the other hand, takes longer for each sale. A key strategy here is to sell cheap stuff to build up your sales badge and business perks, than switch to expensive stuff later.

[The Star Hermit]

What objects do I need?

Specific business types use different objects but in this section you'll find an overview of basic business objects, what they are for, and where to find them.

Open/Closed Sign

• This sign is used to tell customers when your store is open or closed, and call in or send home employees. All businesses can use this sign.
• You can buy this on a business lot by going to Decorative/Miscellaneous in the catalogue.

Cash Registers

• They must be placed in any lot where a Sim can purchase an object or item that would go into their inventory. This is how you finalize a sale in a store or shop. They are unnecessary if your business sells a service such as a salon, restaurant, or gym unless you are also selling objects.
• You can buy one on a business lot in the Electronics/Miscellaneous section of the catalogue (Shopping / Electronics if you are using Community Sort).
• There are two types of cash registers but they perform the same function. The different models are just for different looks.

Shelves and Displays

• These are used to display items for sale in an attractive and space-saving manner. The size of the item determines how many fit on a shelf, but you can fit more inventory on a shelf than on a countertop. These are not necessary (you can typically place inventory on the floor as well), but they help save space and make your products more visible (and they are much more attractive).
• There are three main types of displays: Shelving (for items), Refrigerated Displays (for food), and Floor Displays (for cars).
• You can purchase these on a business lot from Surfaces/Shelving (for shelves and refrigerated displays) and Surfaces/Miscellaneous (for car displays) in the catalogue.

Crafting Stations

• Crafting stations allow you or an employee to create items to be sold. There are three crafting stations: the Floral Workstation (for flower arrangements), Toybench (for toys), and Robot Crafting Station (for robots). A corresponding Talent Badge gives you more crafting options for that crafting station.
• Use the Make One option to create a single item of your choosing. You can then drag this item from the bench to a shelf and mark it for sale, or into the owner's inventory for use in restocking. Use the Make Many option to create a number of a type of item until you cancel that action. Using Make Many will automatically place the items in the shop owner's inventory where they can be used for restocking or dragged onto a shelf and set for sale.
• You can only restock a crafted item with the same type of crafted item; the item must be in the owner's inventory in order to restock it.
• Purchase one in the Hobbies/Miscellaneous section of the catalogue.

Ug-No-More Makeover Station

• These are the only object required for running a salon although they look much better with decor such as mirrors, and sinks to complement them. These allow you to give makeovers and sell makeovers to customers.
• The corresponding Talent Badges increase your chance of a good makeover.
• Purchase these in Comfort/Miscellaneous in the catalogue.

Electrono-Ticket Machine

• Electrono-Ticket Machines are a way to make money based on Sims spending time on your lot. You can use it to make money off a lot like a Gym or Library (where nothing is for sale) or use it if you have a store that also includes mood, motive, social, or skill affecting objects for Sims to use.
• Use the Set Price option to choose how much a Sim has to spend to visit your lot (base the price on how much fun or useful your lot is to a Sim's mood and needs). Use the Start/Stop Charging Customers option to turn the Ticket Machine on or off.
• You can find this object in the Electronics/Miscellaneous section of the catalogue.

Podium

• Restaurants require a podium. This is where Sims go to be seated by the host and their restaurant experience can begin.
• Placing the podium near the entrance of the restaurant area helps Sims get to it without cluttering the eating area.
• You can find both podium styles in the Miscellaneous/Miscellaneous section of the catalogue.

Other Objects

• Stores can benefit from a number of items (even if they aren't related to the business). Think about the need based on your business and your customers or employees.
• If customers and employees have places to keep their mood up, they will stay longer and be happier with your store. Bathrooms are a very basic but important addition to keep Sims from leaving when they have to answer the call of their bladders. Chairs for comfort, a chess table for fun, and other non-business items can keep everyone on the lot happy and refreshed without the need to leave.
• Make sure the items you might use anyway are the best you can afford. This will help make Sims happier while they are doing whatever you designed the lot for anyway. A restaurant with very comfortable chairs, or a store with very nice decor, doesn't change your layout, but it does change the perception of your lot.

[The Star Hermit]

How do I manage my stock?

If you want to sell items in your business you need Stock. Stock may just be another word for 'stuff on the shelf' but knowing what to stock and how to restock it will keep you in business. There are two types of items that you can sell: wholesale, and crafted.

Selling wholesale items means that you are buying a pre-made item at a wholesale price and then marking that price up so that when you sell it, you make a profit. When you restock wholesale items, you just buy that object again at wholesale price. Selling crafted items means you paid for materials, created a unique item, and then set a price for it. When you restock crafted items, you must have the same type of crafted item in the shop owner's inventory in order to replace it. You can sell any combination of wholesale and crafted items.

The first step is to place the initial stock in your store (this is how you set what you want to sell and the price at which it sells).

To stock wholesale items

• Click on the Business Build Tools button on the Business Menu at the top right of the screen.
• Choose a price to place the objects for sale (the prices are marked as a percentage over what you pay for them).
• Click on the Wholesale Mode Toggle button to change the catalogue to wholesale mode (items that can be sold will be highlighted in yellow).
• Click on an item you'd like to sell and place it in your store (just like buying from the catalogue normally).
• The item is now set for sale at the price range you chose.

To stock crafted items

• Use a crafting station (or kitchen objects for making food) to create an item.
• Drag the item from the owner's inventory or the station to a shelf where you would like it to be displayed.
• Click on the Business Build Tools button.
• Choose a price range for the item from the Place Objects for Sale At section.
• Click on the For Sale Tool button and then click on the object to set for sale.
• The item is now set for sale at the price range you chose.

Restocking

Now that your stock is setup, you need to restock it when Sims buy things. You can restock an item by clicking on the Out of Stock sign and choosing Restock, or by assigning an employee to Restock. When you restock a wholesale item, you will be charged the wholesale price and the item will be replaced with a new one.

When you restock a crafted item, however, it will be replaced with the same type of item from the shop owner's inventory. If the shop owner does not have that type of item in their inventory, the item cannot be restocked. Keep the following in mind when selling crafted items:

• You only need the same type of item in the shop owner's inventory to restock. A white Daisy Bouquet in a blue vase can be used to restock any color combination of the Daisy Bouquet object.
• If you choose the Make Many option, any items completed are automatically put in the owner's inventory.
• If you choose the Make One option, or Resume, the finished product will stay on the crafting station surface or counter. You must place the item into the owner's inventory manually if you want to use it for restocking. To do so, click on the owner's Inventory icon, click on the crafted item, and then click in the inventory to place it there.

[The Star Hermit]

How do I manage my Employees?

First, know that not all businesses need employees. Most small businesses and social-type lots can go quite awhile without the need for any employees (besides the lot owner of course), but as your business grows, or you want to take a break from doing everything yourself, you may want to hire others to carry some of the burden.

Employees can clean, make items or food, sell items, restock items, tend a bar or espresso machine, wait on customers, give makeovers, and ring up customers. This means they can be very useful, but not all employees are equal! Sims have different skills, talents, and personalities. It's a good idea to hire a Sim with good skills and Talent Badges, but you'll have to pay them much more than an unskilled Sim. Conversely, a Sim who slacks off despite your attempts to make them happy may need to be fired and replaced.

To hire employees over the phone:

1. Click on a phone and choose Business and then Hire Employees.
2. From the list you can check the available Sims, their current job, their skills, their badges, and their required starting pay.
3. Choose the Sim you want to hire and click the Hire Sim button.
4. When you can done this for each Sim you want to hire, click the check mark button.

You can also hire Sims off the street by clicking on them and choosing the Hire option. You may first want to talk to them, assess their personality and use the Ask option to check their skills. You can interact with an employee by clicking on them and choosing one of the many options (most business options are under Manage ).

Once you have employees there are a few things to keep in mind:

1. Employees that gain skill or Talent Badges should be given raises to keep them happy and reward their work.
2. Employees have a circle above their head to show their mood. They usually start green (happy) but as their needs wear down they will turn yellow (or worse).
3. Give your employees breaks when they need them. Breaks are only productive if there are objects on the lot they can use to replenish their mood. If an employee is really worn down, send them home for the day.
4. Once employees work a shift, you cannot call them baclalalalail they have had at least six hours of rest.
5. Employees are more productive if they have an assignment. Click on an employee and choose Manage and then Assign to give them an assignment.

You can check on your employees by clicking on the Employee Information button in the Business Menu.

[The Star Hermit]

Keeping your customers happy

Your business wouldn't gain rank, make a single Simoleon or you wouldn't gain perks without customers, so you need to keep them happy, and you need to keep them coming back. A customer's desires are simple. They want quality goods, a nice lot, and good service. Although you'll develop your own strategy based on your business needs over time, here are some things to keep in mind when it comes to customer service:

• A customer's mood makes a big difference. Some Sims will come to your lot and they'll be unhappy. They'll resist your sale pitch, dislike something, and just be angry. You can't always fix this, but having good decor, a variety of products and prices, and objects they can use to keep their mood up will help warm them up to your business.
• An employee's mood makes a big difference, too. A customer will not like dealing with you or your employee's if you are in a bad mood. Keep everyone in the green!
• A customer who takes notes is a secret shopper! They write a review of your store that affects whether or not Sims want to shop there. Give them your best and you may boost your business.
• Watch what your customers buy, what they look at, and what their thought bubbles tell you. You can update your store (or employees) based on what they like.

You can check on what your customers think of your business by clicking on the Customer Loyalty button in you Business Menu.

[The Star Hermit]

How do I grow my business?

Once all the basics are in place the point is to make money, grow, and thrive. You'll learn how to do this through experience but there are some basic things to help you on the way.

Cash Flow

The point of a business is to make money, but it's harder than it seems. You have to keep a close eye on prices, inventory, and customer happiness to make adjustments for profit, but you can use the Cash Tracker button (to show money spent versus money earned) and Business Information button (to show your lot's overall value) in the Business Menu for more information.

Perks

As your business gains Rank, you will be able to unlock Perks. You can access the Perks menu by clicking on the Business Perks button in the middle of the Business Menu. Perks come in five categories and each category has five Perks that get better the farther they are up the list. Some Perks allow for cash bonuses, wholesale discounts, or special abilities to use on other Sims. These can be very useful, but be careful of Perks that you can use on other Sims if your aspiration and mood are not high enough!

Managers

A Sim who gains enough skill and Talent Badges can be promoted to a Manager. A manager can open the store and assign tasks without you being on the lot. If you've created a successful business, a manager can allow you to move on to managing multiple lots with minimal interaction. Don't lose touch, though! Use a phone to check on your business and visit every once in a while to make sure everything is in order. The income you receive from these 'remote' businesses will deteriorate over time even when checking in every day, so you'll still need to visit each business every few days to keep the income rolling in.

To promote an employee to manager, that employee needs to have amassed five points' worth of talent badges under the following scale:

• Bronze: 1 point
• Silver: 2 points
• Gold: 3 points

An employee with three bronze and one Silver or an employee with one Gold and one Silver, for example, would both qualify for promotion.

[The Star Hermit]

How can I place cars on a business lot?

Note: Cars were introduced with the Nightlife expansion, if you don't have that expansion installed, you won't have the option to place cars on business lots.

Placing The Display Pedestal

You can enter your chosen community lot in build mode before starting a business, in order set up the lot and place the display pedestals that will be used to sell your cars later on. You can of course still take your sim to the lot once they have bought it and enter the buy mode to place the pedestal if you wish.

The display pedestal is called Show My Ride Display by Exotremo Cars, it can be found by selecting Community Sort, then select Shopping, then select Surfaces. You can also find it by selecting Community Sort, then select Miscellaneous, then select Surfaces. Alternatively it can be found by using the Open For Business Buy Mode collections folder.

If you now try to select a car from the buy catalogue to place on the pedestal, you will find that the cars icon is greyed out and unselectable, as demonstrated below:

(Click images to enlarge)

Buying And Placing The Cars

One solution to the problem of the cars icon being unselectable, is to have your sims buy cars on their residential lots and place them in their inventory, however there is another method which can be used from within the business lot.

Take your sim to their business lot if they are not on it already, once there click on the bottom button of the business tracker to open up the Business Build Tools. Click on the Wholesale Mode Toggle button to close the padlock, this puts your buy catalogue into Wholesale Mode and opens the buy catalogue.

If you check the cars icon in the catalogue again, you will find it that it is now selectable and you can buy and place cars for sale on the display pedestals.

(Click images to enlarge)

That's the easy part over with, now you've got to sell thos e cars to your customers!

(Click images to enlarge)

Good Luck!

[The Star Hermit]

How do I get a Servo?

Note: Servo was introduced with the Open For Business expansion pack, if you don't have that installed you won't be able to get a Servo!

Building Your Servo

Unlike the original sims game Servo cannot be bought in the buy mode, it cannot be bought on a community lot in the traditional manner either, instead you will need to direct one of your sims to build the robot using a workbench called The "Non-Deadly" Robot Crafting Station from 'Craftin' It! Industries.

(Click images to enlarge)

The workbench can be found under the Hobbies/Miscellaneous section of the buy mode, alternatively find it listed in the Business collections folder.

In order to build your Servo robot, your sim will need to have reached the Gold Robotery Talent Badge, the option will be unavailable when clicking the workbench until your sim has achieved it.

For more information on Talent Badges and how to achieve them, see Guide to Talent Badges

Mechanics of Servo

Once your sim has completed building the Servo, it will be sitting on the workbench doing nothing. If you click on the servo now you will get the option to sell your servo for $6,000; since it only cost $3,000 to build you can double your money, however if you want to use it as a robot you need to go into the buy mode and use the hand tool to remove it from the workbench and place it on the floor.

(Click images to enlarge)

Click on the Servo and you will get the option to Initialize the Servo, as either male or female; it's up to you which you choose, the only differences are longer eye lashes on the female Servo and the gender preferences of your other sims and Servos (use your imagination as to what that means).

(Click images to enlarge)

The Servo will take on the aspiration and the personality of the sim who initializes it, therefore pay close attention to which sim you choose to use the 'Initialize As' interaction to start the Servo.

Once you select the initialize option, you will get the opportunity to name your new Servo; choose your name wisely as the Servo becomes a member of the family and takes up one sim slot, also Servos don't age so yours could be around for a long time.

As you can see from the image above, Servos have their own set of needs:

• Power - Send your Servo out in the sun to recharge, however they can still sleep to replenish energy if you wish; since Servos don't age, you can use the Elixir of Life aspiration reward to recharge you servo instead
• Fun - As normal sims
• Social - As normal sims
• Environment - As normal sims

Servos are initialized with full cooking, mechanical and cleaning skills; additionally they cannot die of old age, burn to death, starve to death or get sick; they can however die of other means so they are not completely immortal.

Tip: If you have one of your sims buy a community lot as a business, you can sell Servos to your other playable sims in the neighbourhood; just go into your other sims' lot and take them to your sims' business to buy a Servo, this way you don't need all your sims families to make their own and saves them having to earn the Gold Talent Badge.