The Sims 4 Businesses & Hobbies has just launched for PC and consoles, inviting players into a new world of small business management where creativity is key. As we noted in our review, this pack is wild and disjointed in parts, but its core business mechanics are very well-designed, and allow you to create fantastic, weird, and wonderful small businesses that stretch your Sims’ skills, and your imagination.
Personally, I began my journey into Businesses & Hobbies with a project I’d first dreamed up for a university course: Action Comics and Café. This business was essentially a comic and antique shop where customers could visit to purchase all sorts of goodies, then take a break at the upstairs coffee shop to sit, drink coffee, chat, or read a book.
I ran into all sorts of trouble making my business just right. This expansion pack limits you to five activities per your small business, so if you’re looking at a hybrid set up, you must think carefully about your choices. Eventually, I landed on the following activities: “Be Friendly, Browse and Buy Items, Drink Coffee, Drink Tea, and Read.”
This allowed for a cosy, quiet time, and I was pretty happy with the selection. Folks would come in and browse, then spend time reading on my outdoor patio. But I did notice that I wasn’t really selling much, because people tended more towards reading than any other activity. I also had trouble with my demographic selection, because initially I’d said it was fine for accompanied kids to come in.
But then I ended up having to deal with children crying and complaining while their parents looked after them, instead of spending money with me. So I made some minor tweaks, removed the accompanied Sims from my list of invited folks, and additionally, removed reading from my activities.
It was in these tweaks, I was able to start building my prestige, and actually having a business where my profits were in the green. People were browsing, and actually buying! And they still had time for “fun” activities, like being friendly. But it was certainly a process of trial and error to get there.
To talk more about how this process works, and all the wildest ideas for small businesses you can create in The Sims 4 Businesses & Hobbies, I’m going to rope in GamesHub’s managing editor, Steph Panecasio.
Steph, please tell me about your small business, and how you went about designing it. Were there any roadblocks in your progress? Any big ideas that went unrealised?
The Sims 4 Businesses & Hobbies wants you to dream big
STEPH: As with all things in my Sims life, when I sat down to play this pack I dreamt big, and overcommitted. I had hubris coming out of my ears – I was going to make the coolest Craft Collective there ever was, using my one (ONE!) Sim to create a sprawling shop with candles, jewellery, pottery, sculptures, cross-stitch and even a nectar bottle or two. And I was somehow going to manage this without using cheats for money or needs, while starting from scratch.
It did not work.
By the third or fourth day of working my Sim to the bone on crafts, I had a good hard look at myself. Was this ethical business practice? No! Was I mentally and emotionally destroying my poor Sim? Yes! Had she accidentally fallen asleep on the ground multiple times? Let’s not get into the details! Truly, I had no choice but to reconsider.
When you’re running a small business, you have to be able to pivot – and pivot I did. I shrank down my field of vision, eliminating some of the less lucrative crafts until I found my core concept. My Sim was most excited when she made jewellery, and that was her highest skill, so the path forward was clear: jewellery store!
Read: The Sims 4 Businesses & Hobbies review – Work, work, work
I was thrilled at finding the way forward and immediately switched up the aesthetics of the store, shrinking down the actual retail space and using the remaining area as a teaching zone. I sold the candle station, ditched the nectar maker and hid the cross-stitch kit in a back room that my Sim was only permitted to enter on weekends (largely because her autonomous crafting was overwhelming her inventory).
After only two days of selling jewellery, my net profits were skyrocketing. Sure, some of my customers were more preoccupied with dancing along to electronica (my own fault for accidentally selecting dancing as a business activity), but that was an easy enough thing to fix, so we proceeded with enthusiasm.
However, I neglected to prepare for one crucial thing.
On night three of running my successful jewellery store, I was robbed. I was betrayed by my beloved burglar, who had only just returned to the game in a recent update. And look, I can hardly blame them – my store was full of glittering gems, who could possibly resist? Weirdly, they were more keen on stealing a table, but there’s no accounting for taste.
The thing is, I had forgotten to install a burglar alarm, and my Sim was still so exhausted from her first week of running the craft collective that she was frankly in no state to get out of bed, so the fruit of my labour waltzed out the door in the hands of a striped thief, never to be seen again.
I’m currently in the process of recouping my losses. It’s going well! There’s a solid process in line now, and the residents of my neighbourhood love my jewels. That being said, my Sim has recently taken on the responsibility of being a mentor for one of her jewellery students, so if nothing else, it’s nice to see that she also dreams big and overcommits.
Creativity is key for your small business
LEAH: I think what’s most fun about hearing about your jewellery store is just how different your business model was from mine. The Sims 4 Businesses & Hobbies is themed around pottery and tattooing, but really, it doesn’t guide or determine your future plans at all. While I think pottery and tattooing are great fun as hobbies, and I particularly like seeing my little clay creations come to life, I had grander plans – and so did you.
It’s also really cool to see the synergy between packs here, with jewellery making being part of the Crystal Creations Stuff Pack. Being able to make your own jewellery and then sell it on to other Sims is a very neat idea, and that I imagine is slightly more rewarding than simply stuffing cabinets full of random trinkets and Batuu props that customers wander past and then purchase on a whim.
Still, I had great fun with my antiques store and the chill vibes of not having to get too hands in with the sale of my goods. By offering a service instead, it appears I was slightly more relaxed than you, in your small business journey.
I did find I got bored fairly quickly though – and I actually ended up selling my shop a few days after creating it because gameplay wasn’t very hands-on or satisfying. My next idea was a wilder one: a bar for supernatural folks.
Like my shop, it was based on a service idea, but I had much more fun with it because it was a chance to get to know a bunch of my local supernatural neighbours. I had a visit from Vladislaus Straud (who actually ended up dying in the sun), and a bunch of local ghosts. The activities I’d set up were about having drinks, being friendly, and dancing – and this led to all sorts of fun antics, as my supernatural flock did the literal monster mash.
There was also a really cool added bonus in that all the hidden supernaturals of the game soon began to flock in. I set Occult Sim as a requirement for entering my small business, so when boho hipsters with torn clothes and mysterious beautiful ladies visited, I knew exactly which of my townies were supernatural, and who I could indulge in deep conversation about vampires, werewolves, and mermaids.
This ended up being my personal favourite of the businesses I tried – but in setting it up, I did have some concerns. Namely, that you do have to sell one business to start another, as Sims can only own one business at a time. There were other annoying limitations, too. As you mentioned, there’s only a limited number of business activities that can be selected at once. You also have a small number of people that can visit your business at once, limiting your commercial potential.
Personally, I would’ve liked a few more options here – although I know game performance is a concern, and there’s so many other factors that need to be balanced. But as you said, small businesses do need to pivot, and the finality of decisions needing to be made did require me to be more confident and creative in my choices.
Read: The best Sims 4 expansion packs for beginners
Turning focus here, I’d love to briefly touch on the wider world of the pack. Steph, have you had a chance to explore Nordhaven? Have you met my favourite NPC, Trashley? The Sims 4 Businesses & Hobbies isn’t only about running a small business, and I’d love to hear more about your experiences with the rest of the pack, too.
The Sims 4‘s new Nordhaven location is a delight
STEPH: Nordhaven is easily one of the most aesthetically pleasing neighbourhoods we’ve gotten in a while, in my opinion. Whenever I begin in a new neighbourhood, I like to send my Sim jogging and then keep the camera on them so it’s like I’m exploring from their perspective – kind of like how you’d explore a town you’ve just moved into in real life, checking distances between hotspots and navigating the best routes.
But if I’m being honest, nothing compares to Trashley. From the little snippets of dialogue to the general aura, Trashley has surpassed Grim and the Tragic Clown to become my all-time favourite Sims NPC, in an incredibly short amount of time. I don’t know who it was on the Sims team who’s coming up with this, but in my mind I like to imagine that someone made a passing joke, and then simply ran with it at full speed.
I also want to touch on the tattoo element of The Sims 4 Businesses & Hobbies for a moment. I’m not a particularly great artist, but the social media response to being able to craft your own tattoos has been wild – I’ve seen videos on TikTok of people livestreaming their creation process on iPads and sketchpads, and it’s truly incredible what you can achieve with the layering. Don’t get me wrong, I love the pottery skill too, and I’m sure I’ll get a lot of use out of it, but the tattooing skill and mechanics are really what hits home for me.
If I can only say one thing about this pack, though, it’s that I do appreciate the replayability of it. In the past, with expansions and game packs like Dream Home Decorator and even Discover University, I found that the central conceits of the packs made me want to play through them sparingly – once every six months or so, a Sim gets higher education, I guess. Luck of the draw!
Whereas the variability of the small business zoning has me properly intrigued. I remember in the past wishing that I could have a home spa business that functioned more effectively – and now I can. I remember wanting to create a daycare that didn’t require me to awkwardly invite all the kids in the neighbourhood to come hangout – and now I can. Libraries, galleries, mentoring spaces… they’re all feasible now.
I do note that some of the criticisms for the pack are valid, particularly in reference to the fact that we’ve seen versions of this before – I’ve certainly run my own retail business in the past, thanks to Get To Work. But it’s the capacity to have it all in one lot that changes everything for me.
LEAH: I absolutely agree. While I don’t think The Sims 4 Businesses & Hobbies is the most robust pack, and there’s not a heap of new features here, the opportunities afforded by the new small business zoning setting is grand. It means you can constantly revisit the pack with brand new ideas, and create a whole smorgasbord of cool ideas for new businesses.
My very next venture is going to be a theme park on the biggest lot I can find, with outdoor play equipment and a pool. I’m getting excited just thinking about it. If I can get that right, I’m thinking about setting another Sim up with a museum – but specifically a museum of antiquities discovered while spelunking and exploring caves, in Indiana Jones style.
That’s the real heart of this pack. As we’ve discussed, while it doesn’t pack in a heap amount of content, and some of the new additions are a bit weirder – we still love you, Trashley – it remains compelling and worthy with clever mechanics designed for new, more creative small business endeavours.
A copy of The Sims 4 Businesses & Hobbies was provided by the publisher for the purposes of this review.
