Next household due to be played in my, admittedly very loose, rotation in Greater Veronaville is Malcolm Landgraab IV. I did actually try to play him last year, when I visited the Club Dante with him, but unfortunately that episode was lost when my hard disk failed, and the only backup I had of the session was on the same hard disk. I have to admit that I was a bit disappointed with the Club Dante. Compared to my other nightclubs, especially the privately run ones, Club Dante seemed big, sprawling, unfocused, and a bit drab. Really it's in competition with the downtown clubs, both the Maxis ones, and some LGBT ones I have added. Looking at Club Dante, in its present state, I can't see why any of my Sims should choose it for a night out, especially considering that if it's to generate an income for Malcolm, it will have to charge for admission. In short, it needs some sort of makeover.

Contrary to some rumours that are circulating in the village, Malcolm isn't made of money. His available funds amount to some §27,000, and he would like to use some of it for food and clothes. Moreover, running a business is insecure compared to a salaried job, so he really needs to keep a cash reserve for emergencies. My privately run nightclubs, which admittedly are in unrelated 'hoods and are therefore not in direct competition with Club Dante, tend to be small, intimate, and offer "adult" entertainment. I know Malcolm has no objection to offering adult entertainment at Club Dante, but his main focus has to be on making the club attractive and profitable, while keeping within his budget. If that includes adult entertainment, then so be it.

During my unsuccessful attempt to play it last year, Malcolm managed to fall out with his employee at Club Dante, Marcellus Tennyson, who resigned in high dudgeon, because he thought Malcolm was giving him too much to do. This despite Malcolm giving him a pay rise. So I think I might start this time by inviting Marcellus round and trying to build up a friendship before even going to the Club. (To set the scene, I have only played Malcolm for one 1-day rotation since I attached Bluewater to Veronaville. In the course of that day he visited his Electronics Superstore [which seems to be doing ok, though it's still really just a fledgling business], and entertaining his Welcome Wagon visitors.)

So can any of you give Malcolm and me any help with giving the Club Dante a bit of a makeover (while keeping within his budget) and turning it into a desirable destination for a night out? And a profitable one for Malcolm!?

[Spoilered] pictures of any makeovers you and your Sims have done to Club Dante will be very welcome. Even if it's above our current budget -- it might give us something that we can aim toward in the future.

A venue business is most profitable the longer it keeps paying customers on the lot since they pay by the hour. Sims love hot tubs and the card table and karakee. Selling that wall TV should net some thousands. Also add some dancing and keep the bar since it is a club and make sure it has some food like a pay buffet. That kitchen can be removed and the eating area in there and next to the bar.

My Malcolm Landgraab discovered that pool (billiards) tables can be very attractive to customers. The downside is that they can be expensive to buy. There are plenty of nightclubs in my game already and the few pool halls in my game are on university campuses. Malcolm's pool hall has very little competition.

I haven't done it yet, but I'm planning on turning Club Dante into an expensive country club type of place.

I agree with RoxEllen1965, if you already have a bunch of nightclubs, it can help to differentiate them by having features that the others don't, or decorating to theme.

In Malcolm's case, I found he had a lot going on at Club Dante, and there's really just no need. I think when I needed him to make some quick cash, I just put in a hot tub and called it a day. But I've updated since then; after a few business ranks and enough money for a new mansion, I redid the place (see attached). It's definitely still designed for minimal employees and I think that 2x2 empty square in the middle is set up for an eventual elevator to a VIP lounge on the second floor. Right now, the second floor is empty.

The way I've been playing Malcolm is that he's very hands off and doesn't run anything--the wife or a manager actually runs things things and sells tickets. An employee does clean up and she goes home if there's nothing to clean. Anyway there's coffee and a grill in the back so that Malcolm or the manager can take care of needs.

One thing I like to do is to use the Visitor Controller and Pescado's Customer Selector to make certain sorts of clubs for certain sorts of sims.

Rich Mann runs a club for Criminal Career sims. Sebastian Rafferty runs a Pleasure/Romance only club. I've had Mortimer Goth own the "Good Old Boys" club only for wealthy playable men. So I might ask myself, "Who is Malcolm Landgraab?" and the answer to that might have to do with what Club Dante becomes.

Generally, in keeping with the nature of Bluewater Village, in my game, Club Dante becomes a place to grab a quick meal and drink and maybe dance a bit when you're down on the coast of the greater SimCity region. It's not right on the waterfront, but it gets fresh fish every day, and you go there because you were down hanging out in the shops of Bluewater and you want to grab a meal before you hit the road back to Strangetown, Pleasantview, Veronaville, or wherever you came from. If you were American, West-Coast variant, I'd tell you to think of the little towns on the coast of Washington state. That's what my Bluewater is, and that's where Club Dante is.

Thanks for all your suggestions. Malcolm didn't open the club on Tuesday. Instead he invited his employee Marcellus Tennyson round for breakfast, and entertained him for much of the day. My hope is that, if Malcolm and his employee are good friends, the latter might be less stroppy than he was the first time I tried to play the club. I don't know if that will make a difference but it's worth a try. Marcellus asked if he could bring a friend with him, and the friend turned out to be Marion Hutchins, a teenage Downtownie with a Romance aspiration. Malcolm cultivated her friendship too, as she might be useful. Marion has been on the fringes of my game for ages, and has long had a close relationship with my pal Andrew. By coincidence Andrew was also one of only two friends that Malcolm had as I began to play on Tuesday morning. I think he and Malcolm had spent some hours soaking together in a hot tub, probably when I was playing somebody else. Anyway Marion's short term relationship with Andrew had dropped to 49, so Malcolm invited Andrew round so he and Marion could renew their friendship. Malcolm also had a less altruistic interest in Andrew's friendship. Malcolm is indeed very wealthy, far wealthier than Andrew, but most of his wealth is tied up in his businesses and his ostentatious mansion. Andrew, on the other hand has over §200,000 available in cash, and Malcolm hopes that he might be able to persuade an impressionable young teenager to invest in his nightclub.

Anyway, I'm drifting a bit off topic. (What's new?) In the evening Malcolm went out to buy some new clothes at Papaya Regime, and took Marcellus and Marion with him. Only Marcellus was left by the time they went on to dine at the poolside restaurant at the Swim Centre. (Malcolm would have chosen a posher eatery, but he needed a shower.)

Now it's Wednesday morning, and Malcolm does intend to open the Club today. But in the morning he again invited Marcellus and Marion round for breakfast. (Marion brought Gerry McBain with her.) Malcolm is thinking that, if he could persuade Marion to move in with him, she would become "family", and she could work at the Club, without him having to pay her wages. Feeding (and possibly clothing) her could be cheaper than employing her. There's no room for sentiment in business, is there? But, to my surprise I'm finding that I'm coming to rather like Malcolm. He's maybe not quite the ruthless businessman that he tries to be. There seems to be a playful side to him. At the end of breakfast he autonomously started a pillow fight with his employee Marcellus.

After buying clothes and paying bills, Malcolm's cash reserve is down to §25K, but it should still be enough to pay for a few card tables, pool tables, and other attractions. There's not enough money for a hot tub, especially the sunken built in ones that look better indoors, but Andrew might be kind enough to give him a love tub in the yard outside, paid for with some of his many thousands of unused aspiration points. Liam O'Donnell and Aidan Jamieson have one at the back of their Anything Goes club in New Desconia.

We'll put in a bandatron machine because Malcolm really needs to make some money from this club. Bearing in mind that we'll be starting at Level 1, any ideas on how much to charge for admission to Club Dante. We're thinking of a short introductory offer at a very low price, and then put it up to something that might bring in a half decent return. The bills for that mansion have to be paid.

I always start cheap and watch and see how quickly they come in then raise it to average if they don't turn away. And have Malcolm sell, sell, sell. But only to sims that gain a + if they show a - leave the cranky ones alone. 3 in a row + and you often gain a star from them.

When starting up a ticket machine business, I leave it on cheap until the sales person (usually the owner) gets a bronze badge. They I raise it to average or expensive, depending on how easy they find it to make a sale. Once my sims get their gold sales badges, then I fleece every customer out of all their money and charge anywhere between $800-1000 with the custom pricing tool. At that point, only townies and rich sims are allowed so the playables don't go broke. I have simulated sales mods, but they still complain.

I would say that Malcolm doesn't need to move in Marion unless he wants to run some more high-maintenance businesses. Like if he wanted to run some more stores (chain electronic stores, perhaps?) or start a restaurant. Otherwise, ticket machine businesses are very low key--assign employees so that when other sims visit, everything runs like it should, but when playing the lot with Malcolm, send everyone home until you're making a profit. Use the stereo instead of a DJ and influence customers to clean. A poker table and a stereo will keep sims entertained for hours. If you put a grill out, customers will make food for themselves, too. Just make sure customers aren't too mean to each other, so that no one gets negative stars, and, over time, customers will gain stars and your rank will go up with little effort. A higher rank means that it's easier to charge more for the ticket and you can get the cash perks, too.

Thanks again for your suggestions.

Well, I've now played Malcolm from Tuesday morning right through to Friday night, including 3 long sessions at Club Dante. (In theory I play 1-day rotations, but with aging almost permanently off, I don't need to worry about keeping families in synch, and I really wanted to get Club Dante established as a going concern that my Sims could visit. I often spend longer than a day with Sims that I like.) To my pleasant surprise I found the Club at level 2 (rather than 1), and Malcolm already had a bronze saes badge, gained at his Electronics Superstore.

Club Dante is now returning a steady, if not spectacular, profit. It is now up to level 4 and requires only one more star to reach level 5. Malcolm has been steadily increasing the entrance charge, and it is now expensive at 36 Simoleons an hour. At that price Sims tend to stand and think for a long time before signing in.

Malcolm was worried that the charge might put customers off, but so far only one (Carla Cameron) has changed her mind and left without paying. For all the rest, a simple Basic Sell by either himself or Marion Hutchins has been enough to persuade them to pay up. Neither Malcolm nor Marion managed to get to Carla, as they were both otherwise engaged.

Marion? Malcolm did invite her to move in, and a good piece of business he reckons it was. For a start she's a Downtownie and she brought over §15K with her. She moved in on Friday morning, and later in the day he took her out to Amelia's Closet where he bought over §1,500 worth of clothes for her. They do genuinely like each other. I think Marion sees him as a sort of Sugar Daddy, buying nice things for her. For his part I think Malcolm sees her more as a business asset. But she's good company too. Malcolm is going to try to get her into a private school next week. There might even be a romance one day. One of the outfits he bought for her was a bunny girl outfit. (I downloaded it some time ago from a Japanese site, which I think was called Sim Islands, but I never had a use for it till now.) Wearing it, Marion is acting as a hostess at Club Dante, greeting guests.

For an extra §80, she'll do a private dance for customer too. It all helps the finances.

There was a bit of a panic when Blake Yang, the Veronaville Courant's cantankerous business reporter, turned up and started to play pool.
Malcolm was afraid that Blake would lose the game, get in a bad mood about it, and then give the Club a bad review as a result. In the event the game seemed to end indecisively, and Blake left. So far we've heard nothing more from him, so hopefully we've got away with it.

Malcolm now has a good relationship with his employee Marcellus Tennyson, who has mostly been assigned to the bar. Unfortunately the bar has been ridiculously quiet. Marcellus has just been standing behind the bar hoping for customers. Several times Malcolm has sent him home because there was absolutely nothing for him to do. I don't think he has sold a single drink the whole time the club has been open!

One more thing still disappoints me. With the Club at level 4 -- almost at level 5, we are only getting 4, at the most 5, paying visitors at a time. In comparison Liam O'Donnell's Anything Goes club in New Desconia (Level 5) normally has 8-9 paying customers at once -- plus 3 to 4 "workers". Club Dante has 2 to 3 "workers", depending on whether Marcellus is there or not. The main difference is that Anything Goes is much smaller - only 1 x 2 squares. So I'm thinking that the small number of customers at Malcolm's club may be due to the limitations of my computer. Well, as a result of the money that Marion brought in, and the profits that Club Dante is making, Malcolm now has over §42,000 in available funds, which he reckons is enough to start a new small club in Monopolis, where there are currently no nightclubs at all. And, if the §42K isn't quite enough, then it might be possible to do a deal with Milburn Pennybags, the billionaire financier who created Monopolis.

All told though, Club Dante really isn't doing so badly. Despite being quieter than we would like, it is at least consistently profitable. So Malcolm and I thank you again for your help.

Good that the business is going well! For customers, yeah, it could be the lot size. You could try changing the number of allowed sims on a lot in your user startup cheat--that's "intProp maxNumOfVisitingSims XX" and replace the Xs with your desired number. Or you can try mods--there's a few: Simwardrobe has the Customer Limit Adjuster, Cyjon has a More Customers mod or Squinge also has a More Customers At Shop and Piqiwi got one too--More Townie Sims Visit Community Lot (+ Business Lot's Customer).

I don't think I've ever seen the bunny outfit for teens before. Only for adults (like this set at TSR, http://www.thesimsresource.com/downloads/545711 or this one on insim http://www.insimenator.org/index.php?topic=90853.0 and the mesh for that is on https://dlmsimantics.livejournal.com/, just in case.) Anyway, what I meant to say was that did you know there are bunny ears, too? Phaenoh did some and, so did Windkeeper and both are all ages.

Oh, and fyi, if you're ever looking for business related mods, I did just type up a giant list the other day: http://www.modthesims.info/showthre...569#post5635569. It's by no means complete, but I think it should cover most of the basic problems you might run into when playing a business. So look it over if something about running a business starts bugging you.

I'd start by adding the career reward charisma podiums and pinball machines to the lot and use them to start making him earn more money even with the business closed so he could afford to make the changes and I'd set up a toddler play area since I use a hack for toddlers to go out to community lots and many of the clients would be young couples on a date night who might have toddlers and not always be able to afford to pay for babysitting.

I redid Dante's. My most useful change was figuring out how to make the dance floor colors fit my decor and making the upper floor useful. I put it on the beach as if it's a second location, Dante's on the Beach. For businesses, so far, I don't have the patience, so I usually have someone own it, then visit it as another playable and let the owner do all the work automatically. I also use Need Freak to tweak everyone's needs, so for this, for instance, I'd keep social just below half and energy just above, and they'd go all night without my help.