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How the heck do you make a profit?
KatsKats
Posts: 976 Member
I've tried. I have a 5-star restaurant, Hogan's Burger's. I figured I'd start there with something simple. I have my staff of three at level 5, boosted prices a bit to 175%, figuring it's a burger joint, not a high end place where you charge a lot. My Sim owner is constantly schmoozing and rarely does she have the need to comp anything. I think maybe she gave some free drinks and desserts early on because of wait times. I've spent perks on everything I can to maximize profit and minimize costs.
Customers have all positive remarks. And still, at the end of the day if I'm lucky I wind up with a net profit of maybe 25 simoleons. I keep advertising down to the silver most of the time because the place tends to be crowded. I do get my tables all filled during traditional meal times with a line waiting to get in.
I'm a bad business person/restauranteur. My starting money-15K is down to 1K. One big problem is, even with the fast eaters perk, Sims will just sit there talking or wandering around and I can't turn the tables fast enough to get those waiting seated at a reasonable time.
So for those whose Sims make a living at this: how do you do it? What steps do you take? Do you close during the slow times between lunch and dinner so you aren't paying high salaries when there's no one there? How do you get diners to leave after they've eaten instead of sitting there chatting with each other and people at neighboring tables? How are you making money from this?
Is there an optimal time to promote people? If you hold off on promotions, it affects quality all the way around and people get ticked off.
I checked Carl's guide and there aren't a lot of specifics there, but I do everything he suggests.
Customers have all positive remarks. And still, at the end of the day if I'm lucky I wind up with a net profit of maybe 25 simoleons. I keep advertising down to the silver most of the time because the place tends to be crowded. I do get my tables all filled during traditional meal times with a line waiting to get in.
I'm a bad business person/restauranteur. My starting money-15K is down to 1K. One big problem is, even with the fast eaters perk, Sims will just sit there talking or wandering around and I can't turn the tables fast enough to get those waiting seated at a reasonable time.
So for those whose Sims make a living at this: how do you do it? What steps do you take? Do you close during the slow times between lunch and dinner so you aren't paying high salaries when there's no one there? How do you get diners to leave after they've eaten instead of sitting there chatting with each other and people at neighboring tables? How are you making money from this?
Is there an optimal time to promote people? If you hold off on promotions, it affects quality all the way around and people get ticked off.
I checked Carl's guide and there aren't a lot of specifics there, but I do everything he suggests.
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Comments
Definitely add more tables. I have over 30 tables in my restaurant, and more customers = more profit.
Ideas on how to improve babies.
I wonder how to lol!
I think I see about 50 sims on that
Woah. I have the Sim cap remover and I only get about 1/3 of that. @elelunicy do you use the more customer mod?
64-bit version with a good video card can handle about anything in this game. I can get 20-30 sims packed into a little area before I start getting issues.
Lawd! I'm getting stressed out just by looking at the picture. How can you manage such a busy restaurant?
Ideas on how to improve babies.
An Nurodirvgent player from the land downunder.
I make 1200 a day with only 4 star restaurant, I don't get all the perks, if you watch the twitch stream they said be careful when you do the perks they can be bad the same as they can be could so some can couterreact what u r doing from what i have seen anyway.
I have 1 chef, 1 waitress, 1 hostess, the upgraded ingredients, and i only advertise once until it gets slow again. The times to stay open do matter, if it is slow yes close because you are losing money paying people to stand around. As far as people standing around i have found they are still wanting something generally so i will comp the table drinks b/c it is the cheapest and generally they leave after drinking them.
As far as your Advertising goes turn it off if it is staying busy only use it when you see it slow down! Good luck hope you get it right.
I only have 4 booths and two tables inside btw and 1 6 seat table outside!
My prices are 200%, my ingredients are the super cheap one (-10%), and I have to waiters, one chef and one host. I feel like I should be making money, especially because I have a steady stream of customers.
I did raise my prices to 200% and that helped a lot. I have 3 employees, added a couple of tables and did take off advertising because from noon to 7pm, when I start disallowing, there is a constant stream of customers. I disallow at 7 because it doesn't seem to actually work since people keep coming in until well after 10pm, so I close around midnight.
I am careful about which perks I am using. I don't have them all and I don't always use all the temporary ones, either.
The price raise helped and two more tables seemed to have done the trick.
Open like 8am to 10pm.
oh another thing, I never waste My money on the advertising, I get a lot of people as is without it.