How to properly "mind the store?"

[starrling]

I'm working the "Have 5 top-rated businesses" LTW (and it sucketh, thankyouverymuch).  So, my first successful business my Sim was able to promote a manager, tell him to mind the store, then check in from home.  The second business, however, I'm having trouble.  Here's my question:

What is the order for setting a manager to mind the store, then leaving?  Is this it:
1- Open business
2- Set manager
3- Tell him/her to "mind the store"
4- go home and let the business close on its own 

        -- or --

4- close business and go home

Or does it even matter? 

I've tried both ways and I can't seem to get it to stick.  My Sim calls from home and gets the message that there isn't any manager.  Yet when I return to the store and view the employees, there is indeed a manager.  Help, please, oh wise and learned ones?  (I did a search and couldn't get my answer so )

Edit:  So, okay, I must be blind (and stupid, JM already determined that hehehe) and just saw a post on the anti-business decay hack that "mind the store" is useless.  So now I'm really lost.   

[Nec]

Mind the store has nothing to do with checking in on a business with a manager. Mind the store simply makes the manager go into tidy mode all the time, reassign employees, ignore customers, and occasionally go back to the register to ring up customers (not entirely sarcasm). Employees always leave when you leave the lot. Closing the store and telling them to go home will not prevent your store from being managed, or disable checking in on it. Just having a manager should enable checking in on a business. Checking in on a cellphone will do no good, you must use a regular phone (landline) in order to do that - in case that is what you are having them use. If that is not working, it must be a bug or something. Try selling the business and then re-hiring if you can't get it to work.

[J. M. Pescado]

I have no problems checking from a cellphone....

[starrling]

I used the land line (had seen the cellphone issue mentioned before).  I'm starting to think it's a bug of some sort but who knows where the root of it lies, you know?  My Sim's first business was fine - still is.  But he had two additional businesses tonight and neither could get the manager to be evident to the game.  So perhaps it's that the first business works like a dream and the next ones suck.  

Whatever it is, I just sold the second two and kept the successful business.  I'll try the re-buy and re-hire thing.  Interesting to know about the "mind the store" though.  I won't use it.  

Thanks so much for coming to my rescue (again)

[jrd]

My Sim calls from home and gets the message that there isn't any manager.

Are you using Squinge's mod to allow anyone to be promoted to manager? That one can cause this behaviour if combined with Pescado's mod that makes only relevant badges count.

[J. M. Pescado]

I don't see how this is related, since the manager doesn't need to satisfy these conditions to REMAIN a manager. I have plenty of managers promoted that don't actually have any badges, through the Motivational Speech trick.

[jrd]

*shrug* All I can tell you is that I only get this problem with the Squinge mod in place.

[J. M. Pescado]

No doubt a side effect of its lack of awesomeness.

[Nec]

I have no problems checking from a cellphone....

Did the patch fixed this? I remember it was a bug at first. The progress bar would not go up on cell phones. I stopped using the cellphone to check in on businesses as a result. I never bothered trying again.

[DrBeast]

Strange...I ALWAYS use cell phones to Check In successfully and I haven't installed p2 yet (only p1).

[Nec]

Maybe it was p1 that fixed it. I remember reading about it somewhere and the landline was the only known fix for it. I didn't install any patches until about a week before I uninstalled OFB.

[DrBeast]

Could be...I installed p1 as soon as I got OFB.

[J. M. Pescado]

THe "progress bar" continues to apparently be defective, but the actual call functions, albeit sans progress bar.

[twooflower]

My Sim calls from home and gets the message that there isn't any manager.  Yet when I return to the store and view the employees, there is indeed a manager.

It happened to me when I tried for the 5 business LTW too.  I finally hired another manager for the lot that supposedly didn't have one, and I think that fixed it, if I remember correctly. 

Edit: the manager that wasn't being recognized as a manager was a teen.  I don't know if that's relevant information or not, but I thought I'd mention it.

[starrling]

Hmmm... I'm going to research some more tonight.  Thanks everyone.  I'll report back later.

(wiped out from job interviews AND we chose today to completely rearrange our office here at home...ugh - we now have three comps and three desks in one teeny room)

Edit:  Okay, I have no Squinge manager mod, I have no teen managers and I still can't check in with more than one business.  Oh well.  I'll keep trying different ways and all.  I'm not one to give up.  Or... I'll just sell all but the most successful business once my Sim gets his LTW.   

[J. M. Pescado]

Don't sell the businesses, they're needed as evidence. Firstly, you're certain you DO, indeed, have a manager, that the manager is selectable and functions as a manager when you're on the lot, and that he is in the correct career track when you select him and view his stats, right?

[starrling]

yessir

[J. M. Pescado]

The unrecognized manager bug should be stompinated. See the Firing Range.

[starrling]

Downloading now - will report back. 

* starrling salutes

Edit:  Wow, it works!  Now I have to buy all his other businesses back (he was up to four but sold three).  This is my first Own 5 Top Rated Businesses LTW.  And I'm so glad it's over LOL.

Thanks JM!

[vcline]

Is the Own 5 Top Rated Businesses LTW only satisfied if you own them all at once, or can you sell a top one, raise another to the top, sell, and keep going?  I don't know how you can get enough money to buy 5 businesses at once without selling some.

[jsalemi]

Is the Own 5 Top Rated Businesses LTW only satisfied if you own them all at once, or can you sell a top one, raise another to the top, sell, and keep going?  I don't know how you can get enough money to buy 5 businesses at once without selling some.

The latter -- it's total owned during the lifetime, not at once.

[starrling]

The only way my poor simguy could make the LTW is by selling off one or two now and then for the simoleons.  I haven't been using any cheats lately  .

[J. M. Pescado]

The 5 businesses LTW is also subject to massive double-counting at times. Businesses often fluctuate when gaining a rank, gaining then losing, then gaining it back again a few times in succession due to loyalty fluctuations near the edges of a star, and thus you get a new Reached Level 10 memory if it wobbles on level 9->10. There is no real way to prevent the wobble, so you benefit from it even if don't try to cause it deliberately.

[Orikes]

I have to confess my total OFB Business Owning knowledge. I've got a few sims with that LTW and I've really got no clue how to fulfill it. Does anyone know of a good tutorial type thing that outlines how to actually run a successful business and not turn the game into a Tycoon game?

[cwykes]

You don't have to own 5 at once.  Ajay got his LTW with his first business.  He hired a cosmetologist to promote to manager and she did so many bad makeovers gaining her gold badge that the businesse went from 10 to 9 and back about 6 times.  He got 10,000(?) aspiration points for level 10 and lost 2,500 for losing a star when he went back to level 9, so he made his LTW and a massive number of aspiration points from the yo-yo effect. 

You don't have to make lots of money to fill the want.  Business stars are about pleasing customers.  The easiest ones to run are the ticket machine lots.  Ajay's Wilderness started as a hottub in the middle of the desert with BBQ, toilet and a chess board. sims sit in the hottub and stars just happen.  I added a few things when I had more money but kept the price right down and it got to level 10 - no problem and no skills needed.  You can learn sales by practising on people thinking about paying, but if you keep the price down they come in anyway.  Ajay made a lot of friends, but a knowledge sim could sit there with a cleaning book.

Ajay's swimming pool had a pool and BBQ plus an aspiration lovetub to start with and a toilet.   Ajay's hairdresser started as a makeoverchair in the open air with a toilet, swing, flamingo, expresso and seating.  He took a few things from home like the energiser, a comfy chair and some food.  That got to level 10.   Shops selling things are harder to manage.  Start with one that sells things from the catalogue as crafting is more work.  Ajay's bedding plants sold pansies/tulips etc which are all really cheap.  Doesn't make a lot of money, but it racks up the business points without much effort.  Stuff sells itself if you keep it cheap.  If you happen to have an expensive sculpture lying around the house, take it over to the business and sell it to a townie at an expensive price.