OFB *home* business ideas for the creatively challenged?

[Ambular]

What about home selling parties?  Look around for stuff like canister sets and bowls and have Tupperware parties, or use a clothing rack and download some racy lingerie.  Have an Avon lady go around giving people makeovers or throw a Mary Kay party (maybe someone's got a Cadillac that you could recolor pink!)  XD  Heck, an Amway representative can sell darn near anything.  You could build a multi-level marketing empire in your hood.  XD

[Jysudo]

When you sell pink cadillacs, rem to play that song by the same name as well to match the theme of the shop 

[Meska]

ok. I'm going to risk public humiliation here... but I just started my first attempt at running a home business. My sim set up a little game room with the pool table and poker table. I threw in a few snapdragons and a couple espresso machines and a couple bathrooms. So far it seems to be going pretty well, loyalty stars popping up all over the place. The problem is hardly anyone touches the espresso or uses the bathroom. They just leave with the bathroom desperation thought bubble over their head. I'd think there was something blocking the bathrooms altogether if it wasn't for the very rare occurance when someone actually uses one. So what am I missing? Its probably something simple.

I think my next attempt is going to be a brothal. That story about the local preacher coming to call was rather amusing. Thanks for the ideas.

[vcline]

I don't know if this would work, but how about a home-based wedding chapel?  You could teleport in the bride and groom, marry them, give a party.  Not sure how you would charge, maybe the ticket seller.

[Ellatrue]

I was going to make an old timey themed, evil magic and mysterious knick-knack shop

[pioupiou]

SimmieCal thank you so much for showing echo's crops : it is what I missed the most from the sims 1 (makin' magic). I have a lot of fun with all these plants right now. Thank you so much  .
Pioupiou

[J. M. Pescado]

Me, I have NINJA BURGER!


You may or may not care to try to run one at home.

[cwykes]

Thanks for all the great ideas.  I'm trying to make some cheap business lots that my sims can afford to buy.  If they work out I'll upload to TSR with the rest of my Willow Walk lots.  I'm having big problems keeping the cost down.  So far anything nice looking with my water and willows theme comes in at over 40,000 - the health spa was 127,000! and nothing even remotely nice costs less than 25,000.  Suggestions welcome for nice looking business on a budget!

So far I am making a farmer's market (outdoor - food and plants), local swimming pool, local dive, cheaper health spa and a couple of small shops.  Maxis only content.  The theme is ready made starter businesses for people with slow PCs. (no fences!) Later I thought I'd do a 4esf furniture store to showcase and use all my great furniture downloads from 4esf.

Does the price get calculated properly on a community lot when you mess around with building and changing your mind?  One problem I spotted - the old base game food bins on my lot sold for 5000$, but the new OFB versions cost much less (1500?)  Have to watch for that on other community lot items. 

[simmiecal]

SimmieCal thank you so much for showing echo's crops : it is what I missed the most from the sims 1 (makin' magic). I have a lot of fun with all these plants right now. Thank you so much  .
Pioupiou

You're welcome.

In case you're not aware, there are "recolors" of Echo's farm stuff - more crops and some fruit trees - which can be found:

Teresa has made some at Insim:
http://www.insimenator.net/forumdisplay.php?f=46

Simaddict99 at TSR:
http://www.thesimsresource.com/artists/Simaddict99

[simmiecal]

Does the price get calculated properly on a community lot when you mess around with building and changing your mind?  One problem I spotted - the old base game food bins on my lot sold for 5000$, but the new OFB versions cost much less (1500?)  Have to watch for that on other community lot items. 

Not sure if you know this, but now you can keep track of the cost of the lot as you are building.

When you are in buy/build mode, to the upper left is a little icon




If you click on the icon this is the info you will see :
You get a running total of the cost of the lot as you build it:

[shanpooter]

I don't know if this would work, but how about a home-based wedding chapel?  You could teleport in the bride and groom, marry them, give a party.  Not sure how you would charge, maybe the ticket seller.

I am planning a RL wedding right now, and everything has to be paid for up front.  So I figure for a wedding chapel in the sims, I will use the money order thingy to send money to the owner of the lot before the wedding.  Then my guests don't have to pay to attend, and I can set what ever price I feel is needed for the type of wedding - formal, semi-formal, casual, etc.  There can still be  small items for sale, a working pay-bar, and other money making things.

[straycat]

Started a dance studio last night. Ceiling-to-floor mirrors and bright lights and, oh, snapdragons to keep everyone in a good mood. Business has been very good. Once they start smustling, they can't seem to stop. 

[cwykes]

Thanks Simmiecal - That's a useful little button.  It's good if you're building from scratch on a budget, but it doesn't help me figure out why an existing community lot costs as much as it does. 

Simaddict has some recolours of echo's crops on MTS2 as well, but they have tweaked stats. Simaddict said it was too hard to make a living with Echo's stats.  I found the tweaked ones too easy - farming is supposed to be hard!  Here are some stats for one of the tweaked trees. 

Harvestable Orange Tree
Re-growth every 36 hrs, harvest value $20.-
This is the highest poly file, but still fine at 1742
Found under: Build mode> Plants>Trees
SA99-harvestOrangeTree

I haven't played them much but I do remember that some were in buy and some were in build and even the ones in build don't satisfy the want to buy a plant/shrub/tree - minor annoyances

[Regina]

I haven't yet read everyone else's ideas but wanted to add on the businesses I've got or had going.

My sim-self had an in-home store where she sold basically 'collectibles'.  These included things like tea sets (downloaded from Dincer and a couple of other places), music boxes (found them at MTS2), rugs, and various decorative items including potted plants.  Her hubby also made robots which they sold in the store, and they sold their kids' paintings.  As the store expanded, I started making little sections.  One corner had Japanese-themed things, like saki sets, cushions, and whatever else fit in.  This has been one of my favorite businesses so far, but probably because this is the kind of business that appeals to me--I like dealing in bric-a-brac.

Another sim and his wife own the local garden shop and nursery.  They started their first business at home selling yard things so they could earn enough to buy a community lot (they've never had jobs, just have been in business since Day 1).  It's a simple lot with just a small building for their needs (food, bathroom, etc.), where they sell things like trees, shrubs, fountains and other yard ornaments.

They also own the local internet cafe (not my idea--have to give credit for that one to someone else here).  There's a visitor-enabled computer at MTS2 that I use on that lot.  The business consists of ticket machine, 4 tables with computers, chess table and chairs, a buffet & eating area and restrooms.  It so far isn't hugely profitable but I've been tweaking the prices on the ticket machine to see how much sims will pay to get in.  The sim who owns it doesn't care much about profit, though.  She's a popularity sim and it's a perfect business for her as she ends up spending the bulk of her time socializing.  She also helps her hubby who is a money sim, run the garden shop.

Another of my sims is working toward opening an art gallery.  She just got married and wants to start a family, though, so I'll wait until her little one is school age before she actually opens the business.  This will also give her time to paint so she has some of her own work for her gallery.

I was thinking of having another sim of mine own the community park.  I figured he could also have a booth there where he sells toys, sort of an 'art in the park' kind of thing.

I've ended up re-starting my neighborhood a couple of times since OFB, so although I did re-create an entire family of sims, most of it's still in the planning stages because they're basically just getting going.

I know, though, the possibilities for the various businesses are practically endless.  I try to look at my sim and think about their personality and aspiration and come up with a business to suit them.

Edited to add because I completely forgot about this idea!  In my TS1 game I had a Downtown lot that was basically an Egyptian museum with a restaurant.  This is something I've been wanting to recreate for TS2 and have been collecting the themed objects I'll need for a long time, and now I will actually be able to have one of my sims own the lot the idea is just that much more attractive.  It will be a museum with a restaurant and a gift shop.

[cwykes]

I know, though, the possibilities for the various businesses are practically endless.  I try to look at my sim and think about their personality and aspiration and come up with a business to suit them.

I've been thinking along the same lines.  I'm going to build some starter businesses for upload to TSR and I was thinking it would be useful to design them to suit different kinds of Sim.  Some will be better at crafting than others, so that part of the design is easy, but they've got to be personality and aspiration related too.  Fortune sims will have continual business wants and knowledge sims get skilling wants so they are easier to keep gold or platinum than other sims who mix a few business wants with lots of social wants.  Personality type matters though, some sims will be happy doing all the work themselves, but others won't.  Regardless of personality type, a shop for a playful sim has to make enough money that they can hire an employee and have time for some fun.  Not got any further than that yet though. 

I also have a Farmer's market - sells food and plants.  I think the food makes more money.  All maxis stuff for know.  I'm not building cool lots until the game has settled down and major bugs are ID'd and fixed.  If I lose a lot, I don't want to get too upset.

An Egyptian museum sounds great!  You might even let your Sims keep something they bought from it!

[SimSherry]

Or a yard sale selling all the raggedy stuff from Uni, Heh heh.

Oh yeah, that's fun.  I've got "Stinky Pete's Big Stinkin' Deals" on my SimPage right now.  He's an old fella living out of a very tacky trailer and selling moldy gross toilets, broken bathtubs, smashed dollhouses, and other useless or ugly goodies.  He got a "best of the best" award with his first visit from the shop critic.  lol

[JadeEliott]

That reminds me. I am thinking about making a repair shop, a playable sim who has a repair shop in his garage...When something breaks in any other playable sim's house, I can take the broken item to the repair shop and the sim owner would fix it...I would probably have to use the teleporter to make it work...but it could...

*ponders*

[MissDoh]

Well so far I created a few template businesses that are not to expensive so my starting Sims can eventually buy them.

A carpet store called "static guard carpet store"
A mirror store calle "my reflexion"
An appliances & furniture store called "Maison Ethier"
A decoration store called "Decor away"
A discount store were everything is the cheapest or your money back (read our policy on returns)
A small Makeover store called "Hairstyle, etc."
A small painting & sculpture store called "From Picasso to Renoir"
A discotheque with dancesphere called:  "Hop-La"
A karaoke bar called "Second chance"

I am having more fun right now in creating businesses than playing with my Sims.  Of course, I package the lots I created so I won't have to do them over and over again if I want to use them in other hoods.

[cwykes]

I just made a mirror business!  It's making loads of money for a couple of romance sims!  They are just starting out so it's a home business - they are actually using the bedroom as the showroom as there is more space in there for browsing sims.  There is a mirror on every free wall and floor tile!  I expect teens would enjoy a mirror business - they always want to gussy up etc etc.

Yup - mirrors all over the bedroom!

[MissDoh]

Cwykes mirror all over the bedroom makes me think of cheap motel rooms.  I wonder if there is a way to put one on the ceiling    Maybe you could add a hot tub in that room for "reality" purposes. 

[cwykes]

With the money they are making selling mirrors, they'll soon be able to afford a larger bedroom and a real hottub, not just the aspiration award.  That's in the garden. 

yup definitely needs a ceiling mirror!

[simmiecal]

http://www.thesimsresource.com/artists/Bitzybus/downloads/sims2/search_mirror

Here is a mirror floor by Bitzybus. I KNOW I have seen a mirror ceiling, but I can't find it right now.

[BeckerCheez]

Speaking of ninjas, my boyfriend convinced me to make a Dr. McNinja Sim, so I did in Body Shop.  Maybe I'll make a "doctor's office" featuring a gorilla receptionist and a ninja doctor.  Whee! 

[BlueSoup]

Hehe, I modified one of the Maxis dorms into a Ninja dorm.  Although there's nothing "ninja" about it except the ginormous statue. 

[Jysudo]

Have ur sims wear the ninja outfits so that it will look more ninja-ish