Businesses cost the same whether you buy and existing house, or build a new one - see The PF Downtime Buildings page for the base prices - and remember that there will (almost certainly) be a Licence Fee to add to the cost.

However, well run businesses earn you money that contribute to your Living Expenses. Under these rules, you can't take those as cash, trying to work out regular cash payments is an administrative nightmare (Yep, I tried it, and it is hard work).

Big businesses need more customers than small businesses - part of the extra profitability comes from having more, and wealthier, customers - if you build them in the wrong place, they won't earn as much money. In general, small businesses cost 1000gp or less, medium businesses between 1001 and 2500gp, while anything that has a base cost of more than 2500 is a large business.

However, you might choose to build a School or Temple in a village for altruistic reasons and deliberately forgo the larger profit to be made in a town. Or you might build a village Inn, knowing the settlement will grow to a small town in the near future. Equally, you could build a Tavern now, and upgrade to an Inn later. However, the profit is still calculated in accordance with the rules, using the actual size of the settlement at the time.

You can upgrade businesses to more expensive versions, later, and only pay the price difference - so long as the new building is similar to the original. For example, you can upgrade a Tavern to an Inn or a Dance Hall for the price difference. You can also add extra rooms at the standard cost, and create a customized building. However, if you want to upgrade a Trade Shop to a Museum, you might get a reduction in the cost, but not all that much of one.

Every business comes with a staff of L1 commoners. They have the basic skills to operate a simple business, but larger businesses need knowledgeable, and properly trained, managers to make them run efficiently and earn a proper profit. While managers cost you money, they are good value in the long run. You can find descriptions of Managers and their wages on The managers page.

Some businesses benefit by employing properly skilled staff. It costs money to recruit specialists, but the business earns more money, and it can be an inexpensive way to boost your income, you can find the cost and earnings figures at the bottom of the Rooms & Buildings page. However, there is a caveat - You can only recruit Commoner-1 staff to work in villages, however, skilled staff will work for businesses located in towns or cities.

Note (That restriction is part GM game management, and part realistic, as towns were, historically, the home of the skilled crafters. Villages were very rural, agricultural places)

You can work out the potential income from a business - by going to the buildings page and getting a list of the rooms. Then check against the rooms page for the income potential of each room. Bedrooms don't count as they are accommodation for the manager.

As a rule of thumb, Earnings Potential*2 will give you the amount of gold you earned towards your Cost of Living Expenses, each month - modified by any size restrictions etc. However, check this with your DM first as there might be extra or special modifiers that you haven't included. You don't need to own many businesses to cover your living expenses to quite a high level. A thousand GP, invested wisely, will cover an Average standard of living, and pays for itself in less than three years.

I will, eventually, add the base returns for each business to the tables - but that will take a while to work through.

Small businesses can be built in any size of settlement, operate normally and return a full profit. They are Lock-up businesses, and staff live somewhere else in the town (includes village or city). Like other businesses, they are fully staffed with L1 commoners, with the minimum skills to keep the business running - they won't do anything special, but the business runs and makes a profit. There will be planning restrictions - the Pier needs navigable water, smelly or noisy businesses will be pushed into trade areas on the edge of the settlement - well away from anyone with money.

Small Business, especially those in villages, do not normally benefit from employing managers or skilled staff. Small businesses in Towns or Cities can benefit from employing skilled staff.

You need a town or a city to make Medium Businesses work properly, there just aren't enough people in a village to make them financially viable. Even worse, they all need managers to make them fully profitable.

• Medium Businesses in a village - reduce earnings by 50%
• Medium Businesses without a Manager - reduce earnings by 50%
• Might benefit from employing skilled staff.

You need a city to make Large Businesses work properly, there just aren't enough people in towns or village to make them financially viable. Even worse, they all need managers to make them fully profitable.

• Large Businesses in a village - reduce earnings by 90%
• Large Businesses in a town - reduce earnings by 50%
• Large Businesses without a Manager - reduce earnings by 50%
• Large Businesses benefit from employing skilled staff.

(*) Druids groves must be built in wilderness or country areas, but still take the profit hit, in accordance with the rules. They are not a good business investment.