How to create and run a small business in The Sims 4 Businesses and Hobbies

With The Sims 4 Businesses and Hobbies Expansion Pack, you finally have the ability to create and run an endlessly customizable small business. From cat cafes, to candy shops, and even tattoo parlors, there’s a lot of versatility and options for your little start-up.

Besides the long-awaited burglar update, Sims players have been waiting for unique business options and even just the tattooing skill for a long time. This pack even brought along pottery, if that’s the sort of business you’re looking to create. But before you can start raking in the cash, you need to know how to create and successfully run your small business in The Sims 4 Businesses and Hobbies.

How to create a small business

The first step to getting your little business idea up off the ground is actually creating it, which you can easily do right after creating a new sim and jumping into the game for the first time.

Step 1: Select the cash register icon in Live Mode at the bottom right-hand corner of your screen. Depending on which packs you have, you may see a few different options, but you’ll want to be under the Small Business tab. Then select the Register Small Business option that’ll cost you 750 Simoleons.

Step 2: Now you can decide on the fine-tune details of your business. Write the name, description, and choose the icon that best suits your business.

Step 3: Next, on the left-hand side you can choose specific Business Activities. You get a choice of five, and if you don’t want to choose them yourself you can choose a preset.

As a reminder, these aren’t activities for your employees to do, these are what your customers will do. So if you have a coffee shop, have your customers drink coffee and eat, not create any of the drinks themselves.

Step 4: On the right-hand side you can then decide if you want your business to be on a separate lot or the same lot. Yes, you can finally live on the lot where your business is!

If you choose that option, just make sure in Build Mode to section off rooms as either Residential, Public, or Employee. You can do this by selecting the room and choosing the option from the drop-down menu. You don’t want any customers roaming around your living space.

Step 5: Lastly, you can decide on if you want any entrance fees and what your price modifier is. This can be altered after you create your business.

Then you can choose target customers, but this is optional. It can help if you want to only accept certain types of customers to your business, like a certain age group or Sims with a certain skill set.

Step 6: Now that you’ve created your business, you should first edit your employee tasks before opening up shop. Select the Manage Employee Tasks button in the Small Business menu and you can decide which tasks each employee should be doing.

Step 7: You also have the option to Manage Employees altogether, which allows you to hire new employees and set their pay. As a reminder, your Sim can only hire other Sims that they know, so if they have no contacts you’ve got to get them socializing.

Step 8: Once you’ve created your small business area or lot, you can open up shop (which costs 75 Simoleons) and watch the customers roll in. Although I don’t know if this is optional or not, it’s best to have a Kiosk set up in your business. Not only does it allow Sims to pay the entrance fee, but you can use it to change your prices, open up shop, or sell your business.

How to successfully run a small business

Step 1: The first step to running a successful business in The Sims 4 Businesses and Hobbies is to unlock Small Business Perks. To purchase them, you need Perk Points, which you can earn through many means:

• Sell products
• Employees perform their tasks
• Interact with customers through Small Business interactions

Although we’ll dive deeper into how you can perform these three things, you should make sure to spend those Perk Points whenever you can. Once you gain enough Business Renown, you can purchase them, and all the options can help boost your business in different ways. Some allow you to have a tip jar, another lets you invest in SimoCoin, or you can be shady like make fake payments.

Step 2: Selling products and services is the easiest way to grow renown in your business. If these products are related to a skill, like creating candy or pottery, the higher the skill, the more expensive that product can be. Your skill will grow as you continue to perform it, so just keep at it.

You should also make sure you’re not scamming your customers by making your products and services too expensive. On the flip side, don’t make everything super cheap either. You should sometimes run sales, and when you know you’ve made a good product, heighten your price modifier.

Step 3: Make sure your employees are performing their tasks correctly. For a balanced business, have each employee focus on one thing like cleaning up or working behind the counter. Also, it’s important to not underpay them or else they won’t be a happy worker, but overpaying them can lower your daily profit big time.

Step 4: When interacting with customers while working, you’ll have a few different options. If it’s a new customer, you’ll have a Welcome to Business interaction.

Once you meet them, you have a few different options like sharing small business tips or spreading a small business rumor. If they’re an unruly customer, you also have the option to kick them out. Chatting with customers will help raise your renown, so don’t be shy.

Step 5: There are a ton of more underrated ways to keep your business reviews positive. If your retail displays are looking empty, it’s a bad look, so always have them stocked. Speaking of how things look, you want your business space to both be decorated and tidy. Create a nice environment with decorations and create ambiance with music. Customers will also be happier if you provide them with a variety of business activities, so try to get creative with what things your customers can do while at your business.

On another note, perhaps you can spice up your business through different packs and mods. If you play on PC, try looking for mods to add to your game that can enhance your experience with this pack. Also, there’s a ton of cross-pack functionality with small businesses, such as being able to create a cat cafe with the Cats and Dogs pack or a University Commons with Discover University.