Can I open any type of business??

[Beautylushh]

Like..A functioning coffee shop for instance?
Or a restaurant?
EDIT: I only have the base game.

[matrix54]

No. You can make a hangout, and put down coffee machines, but that's about it.

[RedCherries]

No. I think you can with WA though, I believe you can buy a cash register. I'm probably wrong though, so don't trust me.

[Esmeralda]

If you have your base game patched up to date, you'll have a later Community Lot type, 'Hangout', that came with Ambitions. Set a community lot to Hangout and install dining tables and chairs, a refrigerator, coffee machine, sink and trash can, and you'll have a sort of self-serve cafe where sims from around town will autonomously turn up, help themselves to food or coffee, sit at the tables and eat, and clean up after themselves afterwards.

If you have World Adventures, you can use an unlock mod to enable you to buy one of the cash registers that come with WA, the Food register, and if you place the Food register in a community lot, a sim will be chosen by the game to control the register, and your sim can walk up to that sim and order a meal from them, which your sim will then take to a table and eat.

Both of these methods will enable you to have something that looks and functions like a restaurant, so that you're not just stuck with rabbithole restaurants, but it's not something you can run as a business.

[matrix54]

The game handles businesses stupidly. If you WA, AMB, or the Limited Edition PETS DLC, you can place a register down and purchase the shop, but you wont be able to work there, and the place will be replaced with an unemployed person around town. You can also purchase lots around town, but depending on the lot type, you may or may not be able to work there. Like, if you own AMB, you can purchase a Salon and work there, or purchase an art gallery and add you own work there, or buy a hangout and serve prepare coffee for random people, but it's a very hit + miss.