For this part of the review, we are going to look at venues and perks with help from another old familiar face from recent times at TSZ.

Hello, I'm John Cleese.

Those awfully nice people at The Sims Zone have kindly asked me and Martha to help them with another review. Since winning Sim Brother 4, I have been living in quite a spacious mansion in Regras Gorge. The running costs are a bit steep, Simon Cowell has not got back to me and as the major offers of presenting TV shows have not come through. The winnings are also running out a bit too. So, I have decided to open my home to the public and laud it about like Hugh Hefner.

I telephoned the Chamber of Commerce, told them I was opening up a home business and that was that. I bought an Open-Closed sign, an electrono-ticket machine and set an admission price of §20. Hey presto, that was it and people started rolling in, paying for the privilege of meeting me and enjoying my home.

A word to the wise. The moment you tell the Chamber of Commerce you wish to run a home business, you are literally "open for business" and customers start calling. Also, that sign comes with the default being "Open" so if you are not ready for company, make sure you set it as closed. Once ready, let them in.

Running what those Maxis people call a Venue is a good place to start in business. People turn up, wait for a bit by the ticket machine, buy a ticket in almost all cases and make the most of the facilities and services available. The only thing I have had to do is entertain them and be a good host. Group activities can be a good thing. Getting everyone involved in "The Smustle" (if you have NL) or give them a virtuouso musical performance makes them more likely to be happy with the experience and not bored. The better the host I am in raising my patron's moods, the more likely they are to stay longer and come back again. One of my guests even liked being in the house so much that she fell asleep at the dining table.

It would help if you feed them. Homecooked or buffet, it's your call. Also, make sure you have not locked the toilet door so they can relieve themselves. The only place that I did lock was my bedroom while the lot was open to the public. I even had a good night's sleep once and the place ran itself. So it's true. You really can make money in your sleep.

As I was not really running the place as a retail outlet, I did not have much up for sale. I did want to get one of those nice talent badges so I put some family snapshots from my photobooth up for sale. As they sell for only §1 and it costs me nothing, I could quite easily sell them at a loss. That way, they were more likely to positively receive any sales talk that I gave them.

If you want to be a salesperson and get a Talent Badge, even negative experience is still experience and the more experience you get with trying out your sales pitches, the better. Even if all of them turn you down, you will ultimately get that Bronze Talent Badge in sales.

Well, I'll tell you that after a few days, I seem to be jolly good at running a business. It's done awfully well. I've picked up a few perks along the way and I have been able to help Martha out by passing on a few of these to her. She has business plans of her own that she's going to tell you about very soon.

In the meantime, now I've mentioned perks, those nice chaps at TSZ are going to tell you a bit more about them.