Big Ambitions Businesses: All 21 Types and What They Need

Updated 2026-09-08 · Last verified 2026-09-08 · Steam Big Ambitions

Big Ambitions has 21 ownable business types in 1.0: 16 retail formats and 5 office formats, plus three support properties (headquarters, warehouse and factory) that are not customer businesses in their own right. This page lists every one with what it sells, what it needs to operate, and the exact patch that introduced it, because four of the 21 types are under eighteen months old and most guides still describe the older roster.

The most useful correction first: the 1.0 update added no new business type at all. Coverage filing Speedy Bites, Theater, Travel Agency and Event Planning Agency together as "the 1.0 businesses" compresses three separate patches into one.

How this list is built

Method. Names and introduction dates come from the official Steam announcement archive, all 100 posts from the Early Access launch on 10 March 2023 through the 1.0 patch of 1 September 2026, read in full. Where no post in that archive introduces a type, it was in the Early Access 0.1 launch build; those rows read "EA launch". Operating requirements come from the community wiki, cross-checked against an official changelog wherever that changelog names the same staff, furniture or supplier. No prices, no profit figures, no margins and no ranking. Hovgaard Games has never published start-up costs or profitability, and has rebalanced the answer repeatedly.

Every business type in 1.0

Business	Class	What it sells or does	What it needs to operate	Introduced
Coffee Shop	Retail	Coffee and cafe food	Retail unit, customer service and cleaning staff, wholesaler or importer supply	EA launch
Fast Food Restaurant	Retail	Burgers, fries, hotdogs, pizza, kabobs	As above, plus cooking furniture such as the industrial grill	EA launch
Supermarket	Retail	Broad grocery range, plus Soda and Energy Drink since EA 0.11	As above; high footfall, so it dirties faster	EA launch
Gift Shop	Retail	Gifts, plus Energy Drink since EA 0.11	As above	EA launch
Florist	Retail	Cheap and expensive flowers	As above; flower display stand added EA 0.7	EA launch
Clothing Store	Retail	Clothing	As above, importer supply only, so a warehouse	EA launch
Jewelry Store	Retail	Jewellery	As above, importer only, high security recommended	EA launch
Liquor Store	Retail	Alcohol, plus Energy Drink since EA 0.11	As above, importer only	EA launch
Fruit and Vegetable Store	Retail	Fresh produce	Shopping baskets, checkout counters, Digital Scale, display stands and crates; produce from Total Produce Trading	EA 0.2
Nightclub	Retail	Entrance fees, coat check fees, Beer, Margaritas, Martinis, Whisky	Dance floors, cocktail bar, barstools, DJ Booth and a DJ; importer only	EA 0.3
Hairdresser	Retail	Haircuts, hair care products	Hairdressing equipment and hair stylists	EA 0.3
Electronics Store	Retail	Six products: ZanaMan and Arty Fish phones and smart watches, Rhythm By Tre Headphones, Noize Boss Earbuds	Product Display Tables; the changelog states it "requires high security"; importer only	EA 0.4
Book Store	Retail	Six types of book	Large or small bookshelves, supplied by Hudson Wholesale or BlueStone Imports	EA 0.5
Gym	Retail	Memberships; Soda and Energy Drinks since EA 0.11	Equipment, trainers, cleaning. No goods deliveries required at all	EA 0.7
Cinema	Retail	Screenings, plus Popcorn, Cotton Candy, Slushies and Cheese Platter	Projectionists, concession stand registers, steep licensing fees	EA 0.10
Theater	Retail	Live shows, plus the same four concessions	Actors and Stage Crew; steep licensing fees	EA 0.10
Law Firm	Office	Lawyers serving customers digitally	Office unit and one computer workstation per employee	EA launch
Web Development Agency	Office	Programmers serving customers digitally	As above	EA launch
Graphic Designer	Office	Graphic designers serving customers digitally	Workstations, plus Mousepad, Graphic Tablet or Graphic Tablet with Screen from Mr Scott's Office Supply Store	EA 0.2
Travel Agency	Office	Travel agents serving customers digitally	Computer workstations plus Desk Globes	EA 0.11
Event Planning Agency	Office	Event planners serving customers digitally	Computer workstations plus Desk Calendars	EA 0.11

Hovgaard Games called Cinema and Theater "the largest businesses in the game with some steep licensing fees". No licence fee figure has ever been published, so this page does not guess at one.

The three support properties

These are not businesses and they take no walk-in customers, but you cannot run the larger formats without them.

Property	What it does	Notes	Introduced
Headquarters	Houses back-office staff: Purchasing Agent, Logistics Manager, HR Manager, Headhunter, Pricing Manager and cleaning	Every role except cleaning needs its own workstation. The Pricing Manager is new in 1.0 and reprices a whole neighbourhood at once	EA launch
Warehouse	Receives importer bulk orders on Pallet Shelves and delivers on to your shops	Six extra size codes (P1 to P3, Q1 to Q3) arrived with Industry City in EA 0.9. Storage Shelves became usable inside warehouses in 1.0	EA launch
Factory	Produces goods from raw materials, and is the only property that can export	Built inside warehouse buildings, staffed by factory workers. Completely rebuilt in EA 0.10	EA 0.6

One flagged contradiction: the community wiki's Buildings page says only warehouses can deliver to shops, while its own Importers page says factories can too. This site treats that as unresolved rather than picking a side. See logistics, where three separate figures for the delivery destination cap also fail to reconcile.

Which patch added what

This table dates any other guide you read. A business list missing the bottom two rows was written before June 2026.

Patch	Date	Business types added
EA launch (0.1)	10 Mar 2023	Coffee Shop, Fast Food Restaurant, Supermarket, Gift Shop, Florist, Clothing Store, Jewelry Store, Liquor Store, Law Firm, Web Development Agency
EA 0.2	29 May 2023	Fruit and Vegetable Store, Graphic Designer
EA 0.3	30 Aug 2023	Nightclub, Hairdresser
EA 0.4	13 Dec 2023	Electronics Store
EA 0.5	18 Apr 2024	Book Store
EA 0.6	17 Oct 2024	Factory (support property)
EA 0.7	17 Dec 2024	Gym, as a player-owned business for the first time
EA 0.10	11 Mar 2026	Cinema, Theater
EA 0.11	18 Jun 2026	Travel Agency, Event Planning Agency
1.0	28 Aug 2026	None

The gym row is the one most often got wrong. A gym existed in the city from the start as a place to work out, at Keep Calm and Squat On, but you could not own one until EA 0.7. Anything describing gym ownership as a launch feature confuses the venue with the business.

Balance history, and why there is no ranking here

Profitability has been deliberately moved by the developer at least four times, which is the reason this page refuses to rank business types.

Patch	Official balance change
EA 0.10 build 3458	"Tweaked Cinemas (and Theaters a little) to be more profitable"
EA 0.10 build 3461	"Increase office customers"
EA 0.11	"We gave a few of the weakest businesses a bit of a boost as well. Specifically, Gyms and Offices!" Law Firms, Graphic Designers and Web Development Agencies each got a profitability boost, and gyms gained drink sales with no extra employee
1.0	Loans, interest, tax rates and deductions reworked, changing the cost of financing any expansion

Note the direction of travel: gyms and offices were officially the weakest businesses until June 2026, then buffed. Any tier list older than that describes a game that no longer exists. The community wiki's Business Types page still carries an unsourced, undated "highest profit" section naming electronics, jewellery, clothing, Theater and Cinema. It cites nothing and postdates none of the rebalances above, so this site does not reproduce it.

The trade-offs to compare instead

Constraint	What it decides	Where the extremes sit
Floor space and capacity	How many customers the unit holds, and how much furniture you must buy to fill it	Retail codes run from A1 and A2 at 75 m² and 15 customers up to M1 at 1,000 m² and 75. The same footprint as an office holds far fewer: C1 and C2 are 225 m² either way, but 30 customers as retail against 8 as an office
Staffing load	How many hires and schedules you manage per unit	Offices need one professional per workstation and little else. Nightclubs add a DJ, gyms add trainers, cinemas and theatres add projectionists, actors and stage crew. High-value retail also wants security guards
Supply complexity	Whether you need a warehouse, a Purchasing Agent and a vehicle before the shop can trade	A gym needs nothing. Wholesaler-supplied shops can be restocked directly. Importer-only types cannot trade properly without warehouse infrastructure
Footfall dependence	How much the site's traffic index decides the outcome	Retail lives on it, and it cannot be changed after you sign. Offices serve customers digitally, so location matters far less. Marketing raises promotion but never replaces traffic index
Scarcity	Whether a suitable building is available at all	Cinema and Theater sites are so contested that an EA 0.10 build note records the fix "One Cinema / Theater will now be left available for the player"

Building codes and floor areas come from one source, the community wiki's Buildings page, last edited 7 September 2026 and therefore 1.0-era. The warehouse size codes are the exception: EA 0.9's official notes confirm the six new sizes directly. Full detail is on real estate, and the seven neighbourhoods on map. Note that the community wiki's Neighborhoods page still says the city has five neighbourhoods; 1.0 has seven, and The Hamptons has a retail strip the official notes describe as offering "new spots for you to run your businesses".

How far players actually get

Steam's global achievement statistics are the only hard evidence of what players do with these businesses. Captured 8 September 2026, eleven days after launch, and they will drift.

Achievement	Requirement	Global unlock
Product Pusher, Bronze	Run 1 successful retail business	75.9%
Product Pusher, Silver	Run 5 retail businesses	21.9%
Product Pusher, Gold	Run 30 retail businesses	1.5%
Suit Castles, Bronze	Run 1 successful office business	31.1%
Suit Castles, Silver	Run 5 office businesses	4.2%
Suit Castles, Gold	Run 10 office businesses	1.4%
Storage King, Bronze	Rent 2 warehouses	21.7%
Storage King, Gold	Rent 10 warehouses	1.4%
Executive Producer, Bronze	Produce 10,000 items in a factory	1.9%
Oh, the Places You'll Go, Bronze	Hire and schedule 5 travel agents	1.3%
Party Planning Committee, Bronze	Hire and schedule 5 event planners	1.5%

Three readings. Retail is where almost everyone starts, and only a third of players ever open an office. Warehouses are a real filter, since only a fifth rent a second one. And the two newest office types are barely explored: fewer than one player in sixty has staffed either to five employees, which is fair warning that advice about Travel Agencies and Event Planning Agencies rests on very little play time. More thresholds are on achievements.

What this page will not tell you

No start-up costs, rents, sale prices, wages, margins or payback periods appear above. No official source publishes any of them, and per-item price data has been measured properly elsewhere since 2023; a second-hand copy here would rot silently. The primary and secondary product split that decides which goods sell best in which shop is on products, staff roles and recruiters on staff, a first-run route on guide, and the patch-by-patch picture on 1.0 changes.

Change log

8 September 2026: Page created. All 21 types dated against the 100-post official announcement archive. Corrected the claim that 1.0 added new business types; it added none. Dated player-owned gyms to EA 0.7 rather than launch. Flagged the community wiki's unsourced "highest profit" section and its five-neighbourhood error. Factory delivery capability marked unresolved.

Frequently asked questions

How many businesses can you own in Big Ambitions 1.0?

Twenty-one ownable business types: sixteen retail formats and five office formats. On top of those there are three support properties that are not customer businesses in their own right, namely the headquarters, the warehouse and the factory. The count rises to twenty-four if you include those three.

Which businesses did the 1.0 update add?

None. This is the most common mistake in current coverage. The 1.0 changelog of 14 August 2026 added a seventh neighbourhood, a private driver service, Speedy Bites food delivery, a Pricing Manager employee, three minigames and reworked banking and tax, but it introduced no new ownable business type. The last new types were Cinema and Theater in EA 0.10 and Travel Agency and Event Planning Agency in EA 0.11.

Is Speedy Bites a business you can run?

No. Speedy Bites is a food delivery service added in 1.0 that brings food to your home or business, and you can take Speedy Bites delivery jobs yourself for quick cash. You cannot buy or operate a Speedy Bites outlet, and it does not appear in the business type list. Several pages elsewhere file it as a 1.0 business type, which is wrong.

Which Big Ambitions businesses need a warehouse?

Any type supplied only by importers rather than wholesalers, because importer contracts require a warehouse and a Purchasing Agent at your headquarters. The community wiki lists Book Store, Liquor Store, Nightclub, Jewelry Store, Electronics Store and Clothing Store as importer-only. That list dates from the Early Access era, so treat it as a strong hint rather than a certainty, and check the supplier menu in your own build.

Does a gym need deliveries in Big Ambitions?

A gym can run with no goods deliveries at all, which is unique among retail types and is confirmed by both the community wiki and the official EA 0.11 notes. Since EA 0.11 a gym may also sell Soda and Energy Drinks, and Hovgaard Games stated in that changelog that doing so does not require an extra employee. If you stock those drinks you do need a supply route for them.

What is the best business to start with?

This page does not rank them, on purpose. Hovgaard Games has rebalanced business profitability at least four times since Early Access launch, including buffing gyms and all office types in EA 0.11 and making Cinemas more profitable in an EA 0.10 build, and 1.0 rebuilt loans and taxes on top of that. Any ranking you read was written for one patch. Compare floor space, staffing load, supply complexity and footfall dependence instead.