I always start out cheap, or at the most if I am selling varied items have a couple of things set to average.

Won't the food and entertainment cause a disruption to your business?

I guess, there's a distraction component to it. But, it builds clientele, and they come back. The customers will shop, or they'll dance, or whatever, and then they pay for what they bought, and leave. I'm still learning the business process, and maybe I do too much. But, for the most part, at least with the baby/toy store, the customers leave happy.

I'm still learing pricing. And I know no matter how nice my sales people are, there will always be a complaint, by someone. If it's constant, then I'll let that employee go.

Anyways, my major thing is to get the business owner to pay attention. He/she, and if they have a spouse helping. Will want to dance, have pillow fights, or play kicky bag.

Most of the businesses seem kind of the same to me. IMO there is not a great difference between businesses if their stocking method is the same, i.e an electronics, florist, or toy store are a combination of catalogue/inventory stocking so they are quite similar. Likewise, there is little difference difference between a music store or grocery either (which are catalogue stocked only).

I usually set prices to "expensive" unless it's a bargain shop, 'cause my sims have gotta make a profit somehow. I like my sims to have uniforms, but I find it disappointing when a playable sim from a different family goes to a community lot and the owner won't wear their uniform. I like home businesses more than community businesses because I'm lazy when it comes to loading screens. That being said, personally I don't think home businesses are very realistic in sim suburbia, so I tend to only use home businesses for my Victorian 'hood, where the owners live upstairs.

I have the restuarant podium but I dont have the hotel one. or its the same????
I am too confused....................

godspeed, the Hotel Podium works differently than the ordinary one - in an OFB shop. The vanilla behavior of the restaurant podium within the context of OFB is programmed only for a restaurant business. Meaning: as soon as a customer has had a meal, s/he will leave the lot. Obviously, you don't want that in a hotel! So, by use of this hacked podium, you can have a typical restaurant in the hotel (podium+host+servers+chef) and not have it ruin your hotel's function.

Less confused now?

Yipee!!! Thanks Simsica Crystal clear.......

ETA: this post is in response to the above posts dealing with customer complaints.
This is also my first ETA that ended on top of a message. Ah, well - it was bound to happen, with all the ETAs I usually end up doing.

Complaints of any kind simply go away if the person to whom the customer complains has a gold sales badge. Those guys can sell a cat for a kidney, as they say where I come from. And it involves a cat, so how could have I skipped that lovely saying?
Seriously, though. (A mere mention of a cat always distracts me. While I'm at it: I was at a cat show a couple of weeks ago. It was great: cats left and right! Amazing!) Okay - now to the topic. What I was wanting to say is that a good salesperson can make even a complaint into a cause for customer loyalty increase. They usually complain to the owner, or to the manager, if you have one. So make them learn that sales badge and the complaints won't worry you much.

ETA: It just dawned on me that my gameplay depends heavily on the education system I've developed for my YAs - even teens, in high school. Namely, my Sims finish Uni with all the appropriate knowledge for a designated OFB function they will end up performing. In a word: they learn badges too.

So maybe a general word of advice: your business running Sims need to learn the business basics (sales, stocking, register) before starting a business. Yes, that's a good advice. Plenty of things can work out much better if you have a gold sales badge to fall back on.

Also, as the business advances in levels, some things will be more appropriate. For instance, pricing.
If the shop is high level, you can - with minimum fuss - raise your prices to as high as very expensive. A good sales person will make all the "fuss" go away with a little of "dazzle" and/or "hard sales" magic. The fuss? The sales bars raise at a slower rate, customers give up on the purchase, etc. All goes away, effectively, if you have a high level business and a gold sales badge.

There I go again - another ETA.
The badges can be learned from Monique's computer. (For those that don't know: Monique is/was a creator hosted here on MTS - so not difficult to find even without links.)

ETA - last one I promise (crosses her fingers behind her back)
It isn't a cat. I mean, in that saying of my people. It is something entirely else. But I thought a cat would fit in nicely. Since it's a cat. They fit nicely wherever you put them. Cause, you know, they're cats.

Okay, to keep in thread's topic, I'll give you one of snapshots from Penny Wiggins' bookstore in Simville. So, there's a cat in an OFB setting. My talking about cats was totally justified.

Ms. Cat, The Keeper of Penny's Books

Remember, always keep a cat around to keep your store safe!

BTW, this is my fav shop to play lately - Penny's Books Bookstore&More. She's starting a publishing business - novels will be payed by her and printed in her store, to be sold to the readers. Those readers can join a book club there, led by her young employee, another lit buff, Leanne Lewis. She works there in the evenings. Store is open 15:00-23:00. And there's coffee too. And, obviously, cats. (There's a Mr. Cat too, but he's hiding somewhere, probably real close to Penny's feet. Unfortunately, those are not in the picture.)

Yes Simsica is totally right, Opening a business without have required skills will only create fuss. Important things to note are having atleast bronze badge in register skills, Because if your sim is in a cash register and dont have atleast Bronze Badge in register Funtions, then the customer will get annoyed by taking too much time for serving single customer. Some of the customers in the line sometimes end up throwing the bags in the floor and leave the building.

Now, see, I can't agree with that. In none of my three businesses did anybody involved have badges to start out. They learned on the job. And yes, Lily and Esteban lost some business as people threw their bags to the ground and stalked away - Luz never has, because Luz has a bandatron business. And I've not had a single customer complaint so far. Not one. At least, not that I recognized, and you'd think it'd be pretty easy. It should look like neighbors complaining in apartments, right - they queue stomp all the things you're doing to rectify the situation in order to get in your face? LIly, Esteban, Luz, Ruby, and their families have all been learning badges on the job and they're doing very well. Ruby's only been working at Lily's for three rotations and she has bronze register and stocking badges, because of all the visits my playables make between rotations. Lily has a gold sales badge and bronze and silver badges in the other skills. Luz has a gold sales badge and nothing else, but she doesn't need anything else because it's a bandatron business. (Why is there no bartending badge?) I don't remember what badges Esteban has, but he has more than one and I don't go to Casa de los Widgets nearly as often as to the beauty store or the night club.

I suspect that the small size of the businesses is a major factor in customer satisfaction. There simply isn't room to find much in the way of problems, and my playable visits to the retail establishments don't allow a lot of inconveniences to pile up because they're so short. It can be a bit hard to move around in Lily's sometimes, especially when the line gets long, but that doesn't seem to be one of the things that generates complaints. Each lot is only one-by-three, so the owner can easily keep it clean. And register and sales badges build relatively quickly compared to, say, florist and pottery and fishing badges.

So I would say that your starter business, like your starter house, should be small and unambitious. If you want future business owners to start bigger, hire them as employees at established small businesses first and have your other playables patronize them a lot, so as to build up the essential badges before they launch their own enterprises.

Thats what I am talking about, With no badges how can we set up a large scale business. First we have start from small scale, like small home business. I hope many of us would start the way of small to big, or use cheats instead...

Mostly my business start from scratch as in a small piece of bare land with a cash register, a shelf with something like fish or cheap deco items and if they are lucky a tent, grill and toilet on it. No badges of any kind. Normally I'll have a couple run it with one restocking, doing sales as well as distracting customers in that long line while the other is on the till. Tell a waiting customer a joke and they forget they are waiting an age for someone with no cash register badge. The only times I have someone with a badge is if the townie they married comes with one.

Well, it seemed to me that the above posts about complaints and prices and stuff were a tad on the irritated side - irritated by the inner workings of the EP. Meaning they were in need of certain info about the OFB's inherent workings - badges, business levels, prices, etc. Not everyone appreciates or even understands the OFB's mechanics - it has to be learned. Being the staunch admirer, I simply tried to offer alternatives, shortcuts.
It seemed to me that this process of running a store obviously presented an issue they are avoiding, and that as a result they don't play as much OFB as they could. And since they own it, it's a waste.

On the other hand, someone like me has a situation where they adore the EP, can play it with the eyes closed in most of the situations, but still play in a way that reduces the initial stress of running a shop with no earned badges yet.
Namely, as I said, I have schools. It's a good method for giving the Sims badges, in the sense that it is not cheating - they study for them and work in shops while doing it too. This also gives you something relevant and important to do in a school. For me, in the end the fact that a Sim has a degree from Business Management (focused on the OFB's basic business badges) is simply an advantage of an integrated community - something like the effect of a civilization on an individual's life.

But even someone who plays quite differently can use Monique's comps to study badges prior to running a shop. For instance, if the effects of not having those badges stand in their way of using the EP they own, and they don't like to cheat, this is the perfect solution.

My hope is that maybe then they'll be inspired to give the EP a more deserving try-out, in a proper way. Who knows? Maybe a future OFB aficionado is in there somewhere. Just trying to spread the joy, I guess.

I agree with Simsica. opening up a school to teach the sims various skills wouldn't be called cheating even if it uses hacks because it makes things much more realistic. In real life people learn skills in schools and colleges. Similarly opening up a school and teaching sims would also earn simoleans, there is download available in the web, its called Vocational Training Controller where you can choose students and instructer. Teach the students required skills like Cosmetology, Cash Register, Sales, Cleaning and many more, but the instructor must possess a Gold Badge in the skill he/she wants to teach. You can even charge for teaching the sims. Here is the link Vocational Training Controller

I think setting up a school to teach badges is just as fair as sims going to uni- if they have to take out a decent amount of time. People do take horticultural classes as adults among other things (I've taken one) Unless they learn a badge in about a minute of game time I wouldn't see it as cheating. People can cheat if they want, but I think that is rather boring and pointless myself unless there is a spisific reason to set a character up with certain skills or badges.

My B&B is up if anyone wants it. Simsica's hotel idea inspired it.

I like the bakery, it'sa little bit more of a challenge, You have to teach them how to cook. Very fun

I am interested in your B&B, jo. But please let a read me file inside with a instructions so for a NOOB like me it would be helpful to run that business.

I haven't done it before myself godspeed, I'm going by what Simsica said. I think the main thing was set it up as a ticket buisness and once they buy a ticket make them selectable. Once I test it out I'll add some instructions if you like. I can't today as I got a virus and I'm now having to scan my entire computer and it takes hours.

Maybe someone would find this interesting too, as a OFB idea. Plasticbox once described how she played motels.

In short: she'd have a Sim reside in a building resembling a motel - there's one in Elsewhere, too - and then have some townies move in temporarily - by use of any hack that allows you to move Sims between families. They all have jobs - during the day, they'd naturally, go to work - an action Plasticbox considered to be equivalent to "going to tours" or something. She'd keep their wages for their stay there, and then after some time, she'd move them out (back into the townie pool) and move another batch in.

I'm planning doing something similar in Elsewhere - the only difference is that the Sims moved in the motel will be the ones that will, one day, buy a house in Elsewhere. They will mostly be new single Sims employed by the budding local businesses, with the view to introduce them into the population in the end.

ETA: I inspired a building? I hope you enjoy playing it. If there's issues with the gameplay mechanics, I'll be glad to help.

Its allright Jo, and I know that you c an do that very well. Please notify whenever you have finished. I am very excited to test your B&B.
And By the way, Simsica, that means we have to make a sim selectable to make them stay in our hotel?? or opening up a hotel with hacks will automatically make the sims stay in the hotel??

It's simply a home buisness and once they have bought a ticket you make them selectable, after that Simsica said they will continue to pay. Another way I can see would be not to open it as a home buisness at all but just transport the guests via the transporter mirror which makes them a member of the family, give them a holiday (of course if they have regular jobs you must stop them leaving for work) and at the end of it transport them back and the couple could give the B & B owner a gift for the stay. There would have to be someone else living at their real home while they were away though as the mirror moves them in. I am trying with playables not townies, townies might be easier, but mine is a romantic B & B.

Simsica, your idea inspired it. I said on the upload. http://www.modthesims.info/d/491465

Also sorry for any spelling mistakes, while my computer is scanning it won't even allow me to open my spell check. <_<

You don't need to select anyone - but to make it more like a hotel - an establishment that offers lodging for cash - you'd want to, probably.
See, this is how it works in an usual, vanilla OFB shop: a customer gets the service, then goes away. there are some motives checks involved - any of them can push your customer to leave. Now, on higher job levels, they will even stay on their own, if there's means to satisfy those failing motives. *Some of them* will stay, that is - if certain other conditions are met: primarily the customer loyalty.
But - you are playing a hotel from the very start, and for it to be a hotel, and not a simple bandatron business, you need your sleep-overs. By selecting some of them, you are effectively making them your "lodgers", i.e. hotel's guests, well before the time when your business will reach the level at which some of them would stay for the sleepover on their own.

Another thing. If the Sims you've selected have jobs, they will go to work. Your job is to keep them from it. To solve any such issues forever, put an Institutional Sign from Inge on the lot - to stop the carpool from coming. Or make them unemployed by use of any hack that lets you do that (I use InSim's Career Adjustor).
Of course, any resident Sims on any sort of out-of-the-house-job will have to get there by other means - walk, drive, etc. - if there's Inge's Sign there.

ETA: joandsarah77 - it's a lovely B&B. I love that garden!

Well Jo I think most of are well impressed by your work with the B&B. and thanks to Simsica for the inspiration. Since I am still trying to make a farming business but haven't found the right downloads since I haven't installed Seasons for the time being. And therefore game help also didn't helped with my issue. So I am asking favor about the farming sets. I have got 1 Echos farmer set but can I have some more!!!!

I just tested what happens if a selected Sim leaves for work.
A townie customer was given a career by Career Adjustor and then sent to work mid-shift, by the "Walk To Work" command. She returned on the hour, in a carpool. She payed the bandatron service the entire time.
I've sent them to hikes and jogs too, before. So I should have known that the "go to work" will work too - these are the same types of events.

However, driving to a com lot in a family car didn't work, since the Sim didn't have the proper family ID for the return trip. Big surprise there. But I had to try.

Interesting. I think seeing the sim/s in question are meant to be on holidays/vacation, that I would use the simlogical sign to stop the car pool.