How to Start a Business in The Sims 2

If you’re tired of your Sims just working for someone else, why not have them go into business for themselves? The Open for Business expansion pack allows your Sims the opportunity to own and operate a whole range of businesses from robot shops to hair salons. If you’re up for a challenge, pick up the phone or turn your computer on and get started!

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Things You’ll Need:

• The Sims 2
• The Sims 2: Open for Business Expansion

1. Choose your venue. Once you’ve got your Open for Business expansion installed, choose the Sim you want to start a business for. Have them pick up a phone or turn on a computer and look for the Business tab. If you’d like to have your Sim work from home, choose the “Start Home Business” tab. If you’d like them to purchase a store and commute to work, choose the “Buy Community Lot” option, then pick a store you’d like to work with. “The Corner Store” is a good starting place, since it is very flexible, relatively cheap and will work for just about anything with the right furnishings. Community Lots start at around 30,000 Simoleans, so your Sim may need to do some saving.
2. Decide what you’d like to sell. Are you interested in starting a hair salon? A dance club? A restaurant? A store of some kind? Your can sell anything from the Buy menu, as well as haircuts, food and some items you craft yourself such as robots, toys and custom flower arrangements. Once you figure out what you’d like to offer, then you’ll know what you need to start stocking.
3. Get the essentials. If your store doesn’t already come with these items, you will need to purchase: a Cash Register (or ticket machine if you plan to charge for time spent in your establishment), an Open Sign and any product you plan on stocking.
4. Find some employees. Running a store with a single Sim is possible, but quite taxing. In order to help you run things, you can either hire people your Sim knows, or you can choose from a selection of Sims for hire. If you’re going to hire your Sim’s friends, talk to them, then look for the “Hire” option when you click on them. If you’d like to choose workers, pick up a phone, select the “Business” tab, then “Hire new Employees.” Look for the talent badges next to potential employees; these mean that your potential hire has skill in a certain area of expertise needed to run your business. Make sure you look for badges that are pertinent to your business; good hairdressers will probably make for poor salespeople.
5. Open the doors! Customers won’t start arriving until you turn your Open Sign from closed to open. Once you do, customers will begin to trickle in and your business will get going. Be aware that when you’re first starting out, you won’t get many customers; you have to build your reputation.

Tips & Warnings

• Turn the Sims Tips on to get more helpful hints about running your business.