OFB *home* business ideas for the creatively challenged?

[Lion]

I have a couple of farms. Using Echo's crops from MTS2, the husband spends the day tending the crops. The wife bakes and "makes preserves" on alternate days. The other day, she is minding the roadside stand where she sells the cookies, cakes and preserves that she makes. Also, have some farm animals and mark milk cans and baskets of eggs for sale. It doesn't make a lot of money, but enough that the two of them can afford the mortgage on the farm and neither has to get a job off-lot.

Hey simmiecal, I have a farm lot too. I started with a teen girl to harvest crops, and sell chickens, ducks, pigs, and heysacks, etc. I snatched all your farm themed objects in your Matyville neighborhood. And your farmer's market is wonderful, I will have her buy that lot once she makes enough money. But how do you "make preserves"? And where do you get the basket of eggs?

Oh, to add, you could also get a horse from MTS2 as the transportation for your farm sims.

And my ideas for shops:
A daycare service, use Inge's school system to enroll children (works very well), and Inge's teleporter plus to summon infants and toddlers (haven't tried yet). Charge by the time machine, you can have the children sign up one by one, because when you "start school", you have their thumbnails to control. But you can also just "end school", and they are now free customers, and they will think about it and most will sign up on their own, if you have a lot of toys  . Normal townie guests will also come, including some children's parents. It's really fun.

A bed and breakfast, use Squinge's sleep at community and home business hack and charge by the time machine. I only tested for a few hours, and haven't found if guests will actually sleep. You can find out!

Loverat at MTS2 has a residential Mortuary & Funeral Parlour, http://forums.modthesims2.com/showthread.php?t=141414, it looks fun. I downloaded but yet to play. You can play that or just have a look to get some ideas. She/he also has a very nice looking nursery community lot, and a beach. http://forums.modthesims2.com/member.php?u=99

[Renatus]

It can be fun to draw business ideas from other games. I'm looking forward to starting my very own Ninja Burger.

[simmiecal]

 But how do you "make preserves"?  

Creative license with that one. With the farmer's market stuff, there are jars of preserves. I mark those as for sale and then buy wholesale replacements "imagining" that she is making the preserves on the same day that she is doing all the baking.

And where do you get the basket of eggs?

I got them with the farm animals. I think it might have been the animal set at TSR (but it could have been MTS2). I mark the basket and one chicken for sale and then wholesale purchase replacements again "imagining" that some of the eggs hatched to make the replacement chickens.
  

A bed and breakfast, use Squinge's sleep at community and home business hack and charge by the time machine. I only tested for a few hours, and haven't found if guests will actually sleep. You can find out!

I've just started building my hotel. I have Echo's sleep hack in and have no problem with them sleeping on the lots.

I'm also building a hospital. Will probably have the time machine in but will also sell "pills" and little items in the hospital gift shop. Haven't quite worked out the whole thing yet but I'm leaning towards having it be a "home" business with a couple of doctors and nurses "living" on the lot - with break rooms for "naps". I plan on using Inge's teleporter bush to bring certain sims to the lot for story purposes - a sick sim, a pregnant sim, etc.

[cyperangel]

I have been doing a little list of shops i want to try sometime, so I might as well publish it here, and hope it inspires somebody. Some of it has already been mentioned, some of it is pretty stupid, and some I hope will give inspiration.

Lamp shop
Bakery
Internet Café
Restaurant, with themes, such as italian, medievil, breakfast etc.
Bed store
Couch store
Dining  Room Store
Nightclub
Bowling Alley
Gamblinghall (finaly a use for those games)
Makeover with added vanity table
Florist
Toystore
Gaming console store /game store
Clothes shop
Kitchen/bathroom shop
Cardealer
Musicstore Selling the instruments
Pay per hour picknick area
Nursery (the one with plants hehe)
Café
Art GAllery (Selling art)
Art Museum (not selling art)
DIY shop with doors, windows and general build mode items
Rock carving shop, where i will be selling headstones and other stone things, fountains etc.
pay per hour swimming pool area.

[Mizz Rose Bud]

What about a pawnbrooker ?

Rose

[Lion]

[I've just started building my hotel. I have Echo's sleep hack in and have no problem with them sleeping on the lots.

I'm also building a hospital. Will probably have the time machine in but will also sell "pills" and little items in the hospital gift shop. Haven't quite worked out the whole thing yet but I'm leaning towards having it be a "home" business with a couple of doctors and nurses "living" on the lot - with break rooms for "naps". I plan on using Inge's teleporter bush to bring certain sims to the lot for story purposes - a sick sim, a pregnant sim, etc.

I don't remember seeing a basket of eggs. But there is a deco item come with OFB that looks like a dozen eggs on a plate.

You mean with Echo's sleep hack, your guests will sleep on your homebusiness hotel?  Can't wait to see myself.

I also have a collection of hospital stuff. Need to get more outfits, then I will start one. Can you make sims sick with some hack? i wish sick sim will like to sit down or relax. But not Maxis sims.   

[idtaminger]

I've got a sim who I'd intended to be a hardknock single mother prostituting herself for the sake of her teenaged son. She, of course, is going to have a "brothel".

Darren Dreamer I had open a private art gallery to sell his paintings. He was painting way too slowly though, to the pt where I couldn't keep 2 paintings on the walls for a freaking day, so I had to augment the operation with catalog paintings.

Dina Lothario (nee Caliente) was a business tycoon in my game, and I had it in mind for her to be the head of a cosmetics empire. To that end, I'm going to build her a shop where I sell "cosmetics" objects - essentially CC in the form of beauty products. I'm not sure how profitable selling CC is going to be though, so she might branch out into clothing eventually, depending upon the success of the makeup operation.

For my various other sims, I've got lined up - hotelier, restauranteur, retail empire (That's going to be Morty Goth, who's not dead yet cuz I haven't played him much), casino chains, and possibly an elite private school, w/ the help of Inge's school objects.

I rarely get my sim-kids to skill at home, and the school is a godsend for skilling, as well as for your simkids to meet friends in class. I just let them run amok, and whoever they end up socializing with the most is going to be their friends. And only the passable townies are enrolled, so no chance of fugly friends with mouths the size of their head. 

I do have a problem with the controller not auto-teleporting the students in at the start of class, though. I have to do it manually. Is there anything I'm missing in order to get the school controller to work?

[Lion]

I do have a problem with the controller not auto-teleporting the students in at the start of class, though. I have to do it manually. Is there anything I'm missing in order to get the school controller to work?

It works in my game, and I have TONS of hacks, both from here and MTS2. You first use "pupil token" to enroll students, and then use "school bell" to start school, and all the students will be teleported at once. You don't even need any other controllers, such as classroom controller, crowd controller, if you just let them run around, like me. I don't think you even need to assign a principal.

[JadeEliott]

A Christian Church.

You're selling salvation? 
Or you got a little something going on in the church basement? 

*rolls on the floor laughing* *wipes tears from eyes*

I love this thread. Now to think of something to contribute...'

*edit* Okay, thought of something...I am thinking to make empty residential lots into commercial lots temprorarily so that they can be bought by the real estate office, which is run by one of my sims, and each sims coming into my hood or who is moiving out to buy his/her own place will need to buy from the Real Estate office. Once they buy it, I convert it to resi again, and they move in. Not sure if it will work, gotta try it out.

Like someone mentioned above, I am trying to create an economy in my town. So that to buy what you need you need to get it from a store, not the  catalogue.

So I want a cheapo furniture shop, that can supply the new sim with all they need for their starter home.

[idtaminger]

It works in my game, and I have TONS of hacks, both from here and MTS2. You first use "pupil token" to enroll students, and then use "school bell" to start school, and all the students will be teleported at once. You don't even need any other controllers, such as classroom controller, crowd controller, if you just let them run around, like me. I don't think you even need to assign a principal.

But it's supposed to be manual? B/c I thought they were supposed to auto-teleport in.

[Lion]

You just click once on "start school", and all the students would be teleported.

[skandelouslala]

I'm *not* creative at all!
Someone at N99 thought of creating a brothel with the ticketing machine and the "Waterbed of Love" from MTS2.
From what she stated, it was dong very well.

I've been debating using that waterbed for evil purposes...hmmm maybe I should
I like my CAS sims too much to turn them into whores...maybe that's a good job for the townies haha

I haven't started too many businesses in my 'hoods yet.

I made a night club...that I haven't played yet to see how it works.
I have a car dealership... a shop that sells nothing but Asian decor
A robot shop
Flower shop
Salon..but that got boring pretty fast
Bakery

That's a bit it for now..so yeah I've been pretty non creative with my businesses as well.

[Liss]

thanks for the ideas, guys!  I did come up with one myself (wow!) that i'm using on my current lot.  It's a baby store.  All it sells is cribs, highchairs, etc and toddler toys.  I might put in some teddy bears and stuff for good measure.

[simmiecal]

I'm *not* creative at all!
Someone at N99 thought of creating a brothel with the ticketing machine and the "Waterbed of Love" from MTS2.
From what she stated, it was dong very well.

I've been debating using that waterbed for evil purposes...hmmm maybe I should
I like my CAS sims too much to turn them into whores...maybe that's a good job for the townies haha

I have a naval base in my hood. The naval base is in the downtown / run-down area of town where all shipyards are. Well, across the street from the naval base in a run-down trailer is a woman who "entertains" customers on her lot. Not only does she have the waterbed but also the "special" chair and rug from MTS2. So far, she has met six of the sailors and three of them seem to be forever hanging around the lot.    My favorite picture from that lot is when the town preacher decided to make a "social" call. She might turn that picture over to the town newspaper if he doesn't come up with the hush money. 

[magic cookie]

A funerarium selling coffins, flowers (and tombstones? gotta try this) is fun!

Lilith Pleasant also has a goth salon, so that I don't even have to change anything to the guys who get a suposedly "bad" makeover and end up looking like Robert Smith!

Selling flat screens to those moronic townies is also a very nice and easy way to get money.

My plan is to build some sort of laboratory where the townies would pay (ticket machine business) to be tortured, with cowplants, electrocution ect. Now THAT would be lovely .

[Lion]

I have a naval base in my hood. The naval base is in the downtown / run-down area of town where all shipyards are. Well, across the street from the naval base in a run-down trailer is a woman who "entertains" customers on her lot. Not only does she have the waterbed but also the "special" chair and rug from MTS2. So far, she has met six of the sailors and three of them seem to be forever hanging around the lot.    My favorite picture from that lot is when the town preacher decided to make a "social" call. She might turn that picture over to the town newspaper if he doesn't come up with the hush money. 

That's very fun story. What are the "special" chair and rug from MTS2?  I only know of the waterbed.

[simmiecal]

That's very fun story. What are the "special" chair and rug from MTS2?  I only know of the waterbed.

http://www.modthesims2.com/showthread.php?t=138897

http://www.modthesims2.com/showthread.php?t=138902

Be sure to get Crammyboy's cock mod if you're going to use these.
http://www.modthesims2.com/showthread.php?t=65376

[flowerchile]

I've seen the "special" chair....I nearly wet myself laughing as I had only just stumbled upon the AO section at MTS2.   

[simmiecal]

Here are some pictures of one of the family farms with a home business. It is set-up using Echo's farming items and using the home business to sell some items like pies and preserves, chicken eggs, etc. 

Abe and Francine Darshun own this farm - with the help of one of Inge's §10,000 mortgage shrubs.

Here are a couple of shots of the farm:








Abe's full time job is working the farm. Even spending all day in the yard, he can't get to all the crops in one day.






Francine, who has pretty decent cooking skills, makes strawberry cheesecake with the strawberries that Abe just harvested. She only has one cheesecake in the display case as she is trying to build up an inventory of bakery items. Better to have one item in the display case than a bunch of re-stock signs. She also has baskets of berries that Abe harvested, couple of baskets of eggs, a container of goat milk, a couple of chickens and some baby chicks available for sale. So far, people only seem to be interested in the berries.







Now that Francine is expecting their first baby, it has become difficult for her to spend much time baking or tending the home business. Abe, as usual, steps in to help with the business and cleaning chores around the house.






We'll see how they manage once the baby comes along. They get by ok with the farm income, but they probably won't be able to pay off the mortgage if Francine's little business doesn't start generating some better income. Unfortunately, with the business being in a barn - and being decorated (or lack of decoration) as a barn and with few items on display, she got a bad review. Not sure yet how the bad review will effect them.

[Sleepycat]

SimmieCal, That is an awesome Lot!

and it reminds me that the new Harvest Moon for the GameCube is coming out in the "spring" of this year.

Havest Moon: Magical Melody (they finally got smart and you can play as a boy or a girl - with 10 possible marriage partners)

I also read that there will be a "Havest Moon DS"

[liegenschonheit]

How about an adoption agency? You can start off making an "orphanage" with a few adult sims to run it, and then use Inge's Teleporter to teleport in unwanted offspring from unwed teenage mothers or family sims that want to have ten of the brats. Then have the prospective parents come and meet the children, and see which one they get along with the best. Then sell them something like an "adoption certificate" (recoloured painting maybe) for a few hundred simoleons and send them home. Then load up their lot and teleport the kid to them, then add them to the family.

I havent tried it out yet, but I've been kicking around the idea for a little while now.

[Zoltan]

wow

that farm looks way cooler than my home porno shop 

 

[Hairfish]

Hey, Z. Missed ya!

Santa's Toyshop in Strange Town employs a staff of vampires who make toys all night.

That's getting a little boring, so I'm thinking of adding the hacked Slacker Hydroponic Garden so Santa can deal herb and bongs (psyckotic's hacked bubble-blower), too. (Goodies from MTS2.)

[Renatus]

and it reminds me that the new Harvest Moon for the GameCube is coming out in the "spring" of this year.

Havest Moon: Magical Melody (they finally got smart and you can play as a boy or a girl - with 10 possible marriage partners)

I also read that there will be a "Havest Moon DS"

Wah! I wish console games weren't so damned expensive here.  I love Harvest Moon.

[JadeEliott]

liegenschonheit, I really like the idea.