Friends and Non-Friends.

Yulia spent much of Wednesday trying to make another friend.

She almost made one of Amanda Carlson before Amanda got tired and left,

and made some progress with Toby Breunig

until he nearly died of starvation.

This reminded Yulia that she needed to eat,

after which she played cards with some customers,

and nearly made a friend of Ivy Copur (who had 1 customer loyalty star).

Before bed, she called Amanda Carlson just to talk,

then crawled into bed

knowing she had $6,905 (and dreaming of fashion),

3 friends,

and a net worth of $28,646.

Before dawn on Thursday, Yulia tidied up her venue, splurged on a $1,500 sculpture that she figured would make her venue more aesthetically pleasing for her customers,

tried to entertain Andrea Hogan with an hilarious joke Yulia had heard from Amanda Carlson the night before,

but Andrea informed her somewhat icily, “I’m just here to play cards, honey—I’m not much for chit-chat.”

Yulia resolved to keep in mind that some of her customers just didn’t want to be friends, and this approach worked out a short while later when Andrea gained a second star,

and Yulia achieved a Level 3 Business! She picked the next Cash Business Perk,

which brought in $10,000! Since Yulia now had enough money to start a second business on a community lot,

and since achieving a Level 3 Business had gained her 3,500 aspiration points

and given her a platinum mood, she got herself a Thinking Cap and got busy improving her Charisma.

By the time, several hours later, that she had become grouchy enough to stop skilling,

she was up to 7 Charisma. While eating lunchmeat sandwiches, and otherwise attending to her needs, her venue reached Level 4!

She took another cash biz perk,

that was worth $20,000!

After catching up on her sleep, she played cards (in her underwear), and bought a new painting and another very expensive sculpture (and decided it would also be a good time to buy a burglar alarm),

and chatted up Brandon Lilliard.

She continued to rack up aspiration points and, by shortly after midnight, she was back up to 13,500 (Yulia had her eye on a Energizer, which she knew she’d need soon),

$31,769 in cash, and a net worth of $67,048,

and 7 Charisma points.

_____________________________________

NOTES FROM THE AUTHOR: Yulia hadn’t rolled any buying wants for more than a day, except for a “Game Worth $3,000” one, which I wasn’t going to do! For one thing, she doesn’t really have a big enough lot for it, but another reason is that there may be an athletic venue in her future, and I want to keep all the venues distinct. (Which means she won’t have any card tables in the other venues.) Sometimes I think the game looks at your available cash and tries to convince you to exhaust it, or pretty nearly. So, I was relieved when the $1,500 sculpture want came up. I have to say I think the pricey sculpture made a big difference—once Yulia got it, her biz got quickly to Level 3 and then to Level 4 in about another 12 Sim hours. So, the $1,500 cost was way outweighed by the $33,500 in cash biz perks she got. I probably should have put up the sculpture sooner!

And once she bought a $3,000 sculpture a few hours later, she rolled a fear of being burgled. I think the game was trying to warn me of an impending crime, so I had her buy a burglar alarm! I guess sometimes the game is your friend….

Yulia’s strategy (which she got from her mother’s book) so far is:

Have a “Ridiculously Cheap” home venue business that will gain customer loyalty stars quickly. Two card tables are optimal, because they and 8 cheap chairs are not that expensive, and they spin money once customers start playing/gambling. (So, you’re getting more than just the hourly ticket price—the “house” seems to get a cut.)

Even if you don’t yet need any employees, use the “Business-Hire Employees” phone interaction EVERY DAY to try to find employees who have Bronze or better in Register and/or Restocking, and Gold in Flower Arranging, or who at least have a total of 5 (or close to it) badge points (Gold = 3, Silver = 2, Bronze = 1) in ANY field (Toymaking, Robotics, whatever), so that you can promote them to manager and thereby control them in-game. (That is, you can monitor their needs and send them off to sleep on-lot when necessary, thereby reducing the chances that they’ll “go orange” and quit.)

Get to know your customers—even though you’re not a salaried employee and don’t need friends for promotions, you never know when someone might give you a discount on buyable stuff, or who might help your reputation, or who might be a potential employee. Re the last, you can’t depend on the “Business-Hire Employees” phone interaction do this—the game usually offers you people who’d be useless employees. (But occasionally you get lucky, as Yulia did with Shelby Barrett.) Plus, once you have friends, you can call and invite them over to your venue, thus increasing the # of customers. Plus ultra, you need to find a husband, and he may have a salaried job and so will need friends to be promoted. And to be a star at 5TLB you really should run a restaurant (quite difficult, with loads of micro-managing), and--not to put too fine a point on it--you’ll need family members (pre-Uni teenagers included) to help you get the restaurant to Level 10.

The first 5 times the Business Level rises, choose a Cash Biz Perk: the 1st is worth $1,000, the 2nd $2500, the 3rd $10,000, the 4th $20,000, and the 5th a whopping $50,000!

Once financially comfortable, get Charisma to Level 10.

And, obviously, keep stashing aspiration points whenever possible. Yulia’s right—she IS going to need that Energizer, sooner rather than later.

The back story:

http://veilsmilliondollarchallenge2.blogspot.com/2008/12/yelena-andropova-picked-up-phone-to.html