Changing Business Cash Level?
 

Is there a way to add/remove money from the "Cash Tracker" thing on owned OFB businesses?

To clarify, I would like to do some minor adjustments (like buy a @#$% Open/Closed sign!) to an owned business lot & then be able to "reset" the Cash Tracker to it's original level. I hate having a business start a few thousand bucks in the hole just because I had to to some minor stuff to make it usable (by my standards, not Maxis's) in the first place. This is a real pain-in-the-rear with home based businesses. Adding even a light fixture to the house is instantly counted as a business debit in the Cash Tracker, which is annoying when I just want to set the lot up to be "playable".

So far the only money cheats I know of (kaching, motherlode & InSim's Budget Adjuster) will adjust the total funds, but will not let me set the Cash Tracker to an acceptable starting debt level.

Any thoughts?

-ZW

As much as possible, buy/make things at home and bring them to the business. I had a very profitable business with the daughter selling the mother's homemade cheesecakes!

I hadn't noticed that! I s'pose it makes sense because the game doesn't know how to distinguish between private property and business property, so anything you buy for the household will be counted against the business.

I don't recall ever seeing a hack that let's you adjust the business but I have a vague recollection of seeing some business toys in the Insimenator. I'll snoop around the next time I start my game.

Hadn't thought of that route! It would certainly cut down on the "overhead" costs, especially with a brand new business.

My biggest "difficultly" right now is setting up the default Bluewater Village owned businesses without running them waaaaaay in the red to start with. This wouldn't be a problem if I could stand the way Maxis designed most of the default businesses, but I can't. I've debated having the Sims who own businesses sell them so I could go in & do some basic tweaking before having them buy back their now-nicer-designed businesses, but I kind of hate to lose the customers/reputations they start with.

I suppose the smart thing to do is get them to turn enough profit that I can tweak them without issue, but I'm really doing a "get things ready for Free Time" set up rather than "actually" playing right now...

-ZW

This is actually beginning to sound kind of realistic. Most businesses do start up way in the red and take years to get to break-even. In the meat world, the trick is to either somehow gather a lot of capital or start out with a business that doesn't need much captial to get going. :thinking:

I'm wondering if it would be possible to pick some sims you don't like and have them over-expand their business, establishing the necessary infrastructure but going bankrupt in the process. Then have some sims you do like buy up the remnant for pennies on the dollar.

Hmmmm.

Now that would be interesting! I could have a designated "hard luck" family in each Hood, who's sole "job" is to spend their time & money building up a business that could then be sold to a "real" family.

Very intriguing idea!

-ZW

I think a lot would depend on whether the game is programmed for a going-out-of-business sale where the creditors dump all the assets in an attempt to recover their cash.

Of course, in real life you have to be very careful because what seems like a fantastic price on a bankrupt business's assets might not be so great. If the business went bankrupt because the managers made irrecoverable blunders, it might be; but if it was driven into bankruptcy by rising taxes or some other nefarious means, it might not be a bargain even if it's free! :lol:

Well, I took your advise Miros & actually managed to pull it off!

Basically, I had purchased everything I could think of purchasing for a business (mostly related to a more normal employee break room set up*) while at a Sim's Home lot, placed it in the Sim's inventory & had them deliver the stuff to the Business lot. That- and a little carefully planed construction- let me set up the default lots to a more "user friendly" status, & without having them start zillions of dollars in the hole.

Things were a little trickier with Florence & her home-based flower shop, but with careful planning, I managed to tweak her lot & not run her into excessive debt!

-ZW

I'm impressed! I never managed to do well with Florence, so I've never let any of my Sims start home businesses.

That's interesting. Florence's flower shop is the only business I've ever played with! :lol:

She did run in the red for a few days but once she had built up her clientele and hired a bunch of kids, her business was going like gangbusters and she had some time to relax.

You mean none of Sheba's kids has started a black market Smart Milk business?

Flowers! Florence only sells flowers! :laugh:

I meant Sheba's kids running a black market business out of the basement of whatever mansion Gregsim and She are living in now.

Oh! They probably would if they could! :laugh:

On the other hand, why bother with a black market? Mom sells the stuff anyhow and there are no taxes in Happy Valley! :D