This has been a much requested post, it has just taken me a while to get all the information collected for it! This post shows how much it costs to build each business, the time it takes and how many sims are needed in your town as all three of these factors increase each time you build a business.
| BUSINESSES BUILT SO FAR | TIME | COST (SIMOLEONS) | SIMS NEEDED |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | 4 minutes | 500 | 2 |
| 1 | 4 hours | 1,000 | 4 |
| 2 | 8 hours | 7,500 | 6 |
| 3 | 12 hours | 7,500 | 6 |
| 4 | 1 day | 15,000 | 7 |
| 5 | 1 day 6 hours | 20,000 | 8 |
| 6 | 1 day 12 hours | 100,000 | 9 |
| 7 | 1 day 18 hours | 150,000 | 10 |
| 8 | 1 day 20 hours | 200,000 | 11 |
| 9 | 2 days | 250,000 | 12 |
| 10 | 2 days 6 hours | 275,000 | 13 |
| 11 | 2 days 12 hours | 300,000 | 14 |
| 12 | 2 days 18 hours | 325,000 | 15 |
| 13 | 2 days 18 hours | 350,000 | 16 |
| 14 | 2 days 18 hours | 500,000 | 17 |
| 15 | 2 days 18 hours | 700,000 | 18 |
| 16 | 2 days 18 hours | 850,000 | 19 |
| 17 | 2 days 18 hours | 900,000 | 20 |
| 18 | 2 days 18 hours | 950,000 | 21 |
| 19 | 2 days 18 hours | 1,000,000 | 22 |
| 20 | 2 days 18 hours | 2,000,000 | 22 |
| 21 | 2 days 18 hours | 3,000,000 | 22 |
| 22 | 2 days 18 hours | 3,000,000 | 22 |
| 23 | 2 days 18 hours | 3,500,000 | 23 |
| 24 | 2 days 18 hours | 3,500,000 | 23 |
| 25 | 2 days 18 hours | 3,500,000 | 23 |
If they add anymore businesses I assume they will be the same requirements as they are for 25
However some businesses that you have to build during a quest or to begin a quest do not follow this pattern, some may be completely different while others such as the Community Center take a certain amount of time to build and this doesn’t change but the cost and sims needed still increase each time you build a business.
NOTE: the arcade, beach, pet park and carnival cost orbs to build not simoleons
Does building a business increase the price, time and sims needed for workplaces or houses? No, building a business only increases the requirements for building another business, it will not affect a workplace or house. If you build a workplace then the requirements will increase for the next workplace only and if you built a house only the time and cost for building a new house will increase.
You can find the table for Workplaces here
The Girl Who Games 
Is there any way to pause the game completely? If you can help me thank you 🙂
No you cannot pause the game unfortunately.
Hi, I have only started playing around New Year. Thanks so much for your efforts in writing the blog, it helps me as I find the best strategy to complete the Quests and Hobbies. I am not sure is it because of the update, but my 12th business to be built will cost 325, 000 simoleons instead of 350, 000. Hope to give back for what I receive.
You’re welcome and thanks for letting me know! I have just updated this post so hopefully it should be correct now
Alright so after looking this over and attempting some further research on the matter I have a bit on confusion. Perhaps (hopefully) you have some clarification?
I am currently at Level 40, with no active discovery quests going. I am trying to carefully plan out in order which buildings I want next. The last one I just completed was the Health Hub/Grooving Guru Quest. That was about 1/2 price than the rest of them. Before that I built the Private Island for $950,000. So I would imagine that the Private Island was building #18, and the Health Hub did not count to increase the next purchase. The next build is going to cost $1,000,000. According to this table I should have 5 more things to build but here is what I have left that is not built:
Sorcerous Supply Store
Maternity Store
Simtown Express
Salon
Costume & Swim Store
Castle
So I have 6 more to build rather than 5. Does anyone know how much a 24th building will cost? Also any advice on what order to do these would be greatly appreciated. I am thinking that I will go in the order I have listed just because from what I am finding the castle seems to wind up being expensive and very time consuming. Is there a cost and time delay on building the hospital once I have completed the Simtown Express?
Sorry, I hadn’t updated this post recently to add the other buildings (I believe there are 25 now (I hope there are, I counted about 10 times!) and they seem to be the same cost as number 23
I think you’ve picked a good order there and the hospital is a workplace so that cost will increase as you build the workplaces.
The table isn’t completely viewable on iPhone I can’t even scrolled to see the rest of the table.
Sorry about that, it should be fixed now