I am having a blast with this game. I have a 4.5 star restaurant. But I am losing money. It's bad...my Sims are working like 12 hour days & not making a profit. I haven't figured out the formula yet. I think I need to use a higher markup. My chef is level 6. I have the ingredients perk and I really don't understand it. I'm spending a fortune on ingredients. I'm using the one that's Fresh Organic. Maybe I should keep at Standard. I guess it's a balancing at.
I'm curious to know how everyone else is doing with their restaurants and if they're making money? If so, do you have any tips? I need all the help I can get lol.
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Don't keep your restaurant open for so long. You have to pay your staff by the hour and long hours add up, plus they get tired and their work will suffer and your ratings will decay. Stop buying expensive ingredients. A happy, well rested chef will cook good meals with good ingredients.
Hello
If there are not many or no customers at all coming to your restaurant, there are a few things to try doing.
Try reducing the markup on your food and see if that help.
Try paying for the advertising packages and see if that helps to bring in more customers.
Try opening the restaurant at different hours to your current opening hours. Some hours through the day/evening are better than others. Simmers have found that the best time to be open is berween 11am and 9 p.m.
http://forums.thesims.com/en_US/discussion/817478/hello-come-and-introduce-yourself
http://tinyurl.com/OneRoomOneWeek
http://tinyurl.com/rosemow
My Showcase thread https://forums.thesims.com/en_US/discussion/948861/rosemow-s-rooms-showcase
You should be able to achieve five stars and a positive income within the range of 1000 to 3000 simoleons per day within one to two sim weeks depending on failure rates and waiter performance.
My mark up was %250.
I didn't us any advertising (I never have.).
• Start off small - I had 5 tables with 2-4 seats per table up until very recently when I noticed lots of Sims waiting round to be seated. Even now I only added 3 more tables.
• Pay for staff training at the end of every shift until they reach full skills. DON'T PROMOTE THEM!
• Only promote staff when they become "Unsatisfied" - you can check this in your staff settings. My staff are all neutral, don't focus on making them happy. My max skilled chef is on level 4. More pay = more wages to deduct from profits!
• I used the Chef's Kitchen trait from City Living which means all food comes out excellent quality.
• At the beginning I used 200% markup and only had food within my chef's skill range.
• Now he is at max skill the food is 5 difficulty (and earning more money!), price markup is 300% and I use fresh organic ingredients.
• NEVER ADVERTISE. I never have or needed to. Get plenty of Sims coming through each day.
• I unlocked these perks in this order:
1) Patient patrons
2) Inspirational speech (I deliver this to each member of staff every day)
3) Ingredients discount small, then large
4) Well funded foodies
5) Tidy tippers
• Only serve one round of customers then close. My restaurant is never open more than 8 hours, you'll lose money.
Hope this helps someone as I spent a few hours on forums at the beginning, frustrated that my restaurant wasn't turning a profit!
Raise your prices? And maybe don't pay your employees so much. I have never used the ingredient perk and before a bug of DO it was easy to maintain a 4.5-5 star restaurant and make a profit.
The key is perks! I have the Tidy tippers, patient patrons, fast eaters, well funded foodies, small ingredient discount.
I am struggling to make a decent profit when the sim isn't there, which is a shame. She has an aspiration to be a great chef and the game did say you could have a business AND a career. I thought she coukd have a restaurant and be a prized Chef. Perhaps even cook herself. It was my first restaurant so I was a bit niave! I'm saving up for the well managed perk to see if this helps. If anyone has cracked this let me know!
I find that low paid staff leave if you arnt constantly praising them or giving speeches. They get good then leave, which means hiring new staff who dont know what they are doing, which lowers ratings and eventually...profits! Also (in my game) constantly stopping to talk to them leads to glitches, and also takes time away from my sim welcoming and checking up on customers for those extra perk points.
I praise my staff once every few sim days and I don't even check the management panel. They all seem pretty content and keep the customers happy with me doing very little. Just waiting for the new guy to drop his first plate! Haven't had that happen on a long while...