Recession proof business ideas

[Guest]

Toss in your ideas on business/employment ideas for weathering hard times, from most to least training/education/expertise requirements.

Debt collection comes to mind, for starters.

[BobinSFCA]

Re: Recession proof business ideas

I have a small auditing firm, and business always seems to pick up when the economy goes South. Despite being in the finance sector, it tends to be somewhat resistant to downturns. Lots of business valuations to do i suppose.

[obstruksion]

Re: Recession proof business ideas

I'm thinking about getting my patent agent license this summer. I heard the patent business holds steady in downturns...

[FRED]

Re: Recession proof business ideas

Toss in your ideas on business/employment ideas for weathering hard times, from most to least training/education/expertise requirements.

Debt collection comes to mind, for starters.

Great idea for a thread to develop ideas. We're working up a data-driven article along these lines for subscribers. Some of the trends we're finding in the data are obvious, such as you do not want to be in the home furnishing business:

Pretty much anything related to retail sales is a bad idea for trend reasons:

But also due to access to credit:

The surprising fact is that demand for consumer credit has been trending down since early 2002, and the seasonal peaks (holidays) keep getting weaker.

[dbarberic]

Re: Recession proof business ideas

Liquor stores, pawn shops, pay day lending, scap metal dealers/recyclers, gardening supply shops.... you get the idea.

[FRED]

Re: Recession proof business ideas

Liquor stores, pawn shops, pay day lending, scap metal dealers/recyclers, gardening supply shops.... you get the idea.

We looked at booze. It's not doing so well and generally does not in hard times, contrary to popular belief. We looked back 30 years and booze does not do well during major recessions, only minor ones.

Where's the government money going to flow? That's the question. Consumers are not the focus of the Economic Stimulus Act of 2008 but businesses.

Not to leave businesses out, written into the Economic Stimulus Act of 2008 are a few provisions that will be of great interest to businesses - provisions that will likely spur equipment purchasing decisions in 2008.

Big Changes to Section 179 (you know, the "Hummer" tax code!)

To put it briefly, the "business side" of the Economic Stimulus Act of 2008 largely seeks to enhance and expand Section 179, which is a section of the US tax code that allows businesses to deduct the full amount of certain equipment purchases during the tax year they were bought. People sometimes refer to Section 179 as the "Hummer" tax code, because Hummers were part of the qualifying equipment.

To give a good example of how Section 179 works, say a business purchases qualifying equipment for $100,000. Section 179 allows them to deduct the entire $100,000 for the current tax year. This gave businesses a big incentive to purchase new equipment.

The new act greatly raises the limits on how much can be bought and written off.

Previously, the "cap" on equipment purchase deductions was $128,000, and the total cost of equipment purchased could not exceed $510,000. The Economic Stimulus Act of 2008 has almost doubled the deduction cap, to $250,000, and raised the overall total cost to $800,000.

Twice as Nice

In other words, a business can write off the full purchase price of almost TWICE the amount of qualifying equipment during calendar year 2008 as it could in calendar year 2007. As of now, the act is for 2008 only - the equipment must be put into use between Dec 31, 2007 and Jan 1, 2009.

Another change that the Economic Stimulus Act of 2008 brings is it offers a one-time "bonus first year depreciation" of 50% on qualifying equipment. This is after the above deduction limit is reached.

Basically, the government wants businesses to spend more money on equipment during 2008, which will help stimulate the economy. This means "His and Her" Hummers for the business are not out of the question.

To show the effects this could have, let's give an example:


As you can see, the financial benefit of the new legislation can be immense. In this example, $400,000 worth of qualifying equipment has a true cost of only $281,000. That's a pretty big deal. It's almost like getting some of the equipment for free. In fact, that's exactly what it is. And if businesses finance this equipment over time, the bottom line can look even better.

Of course, the above example is hypothetical (although the math is spot on), but there's no mistake that the Economic Stimulus Act of 2008 makes buying equipment that much easier. In effect, it makes buying more equipment NOW a smart business decision (especially since most businesses need new equipment at some point anyway - it just makes economic sense to buy it now.)

The government has offered a pretty big incentive - here's hoping businesses respond with as much fervor as the population will once those $600 checks hit mailboxes (note to myself: steer clear of the mall.) more...

[western]

Re: Recession proof business ideas

Outlined below are some new measures that are now part of new building regulations used in Europe to improve both new and old buildings for Energy performance. I don't know how much work will be available in a recession for these skills but they should make sense to any building owner/manager looking to save on heating and energy costs.

Building energy rating is basically a certificate which is got by examining every aspect of a buildings potential energy use from walls and roof insulation to what light bulbs you use and rating accordingly. This is legally required in Europe for all new buildings and will soon include all buildings sold.

Air pressure testing is also part of new building regulations and can be used in older buildings to identify areas of a building where excessive air can leak into and around a building and reduce the energy performance.

Building thermography is basically a thermal image camera that can detect areas in buildings where excessive heat is escaping or cold spots. This may be possibly due to cracks or insufficient insulation.

[Olduvai]

Re: Recession proof business ideas

Depletion of fossil energy will be the problem of this century (apart from wars, depressions, famines which are a direct result of this energy problem).
So anything which replaces/maintains any energy source but fossil energy will be in ever increasing demand.
Society will be ever increasingly electrical as related to the main future energy carrier.
So anything which maintains/enhances electricity supply/transportation will be in ever increasing demand.
Anything which transforms current uses of fossil fuel energy to electrical energy will be a runner.

So learning to be an electrical engineer (any level) would be a good option. Selling but also maintaining new energy supplies will be good.
All sectors of electrical transportation will be good.

[Mega]

Re: Recession proof business ideas

Bio-Fuels!

Bio Diesel
Enthol for E85 production

Mike

[rabot10]

Re: Recession proof business ideas

Anything to do with consumer debt - can't lose trust me on this one.

[c1ue]

Re: Recession proof business ideas

I'm in month 4 of my business idea: non-medical, in-home care for seniors

Great demographics, very important, and some economy of scale (hiring/scheduling/background checking/benefits).

So far things look great - we'll see what happens after the next month's major newspaper/radio blitz.

[Nicolasd]

Re: Recession proof business ideas

As the USD keeps depreciating , USA is becoming a low cost country to the rest of the world so anything to do with the P/C economy , for example small fabrication shop ,niche factories, etc. would be a way out.

Fixing cars and fixing depreciating assets will also be a way out as the general public and the industry will have less access/less capacity to credit and capital so they will have at some point to maintain their assets instead of changing or disposing of them.

For higher education skills , teaching/counselling on how to make a family budget and how to keep a budget will address a need.(certainly not to itulip crowd)

Altough un-intuitive, I am not sure going into higher healthcare education or business would pay out that much. Gov't will not be able to afford it in a not so distant future so what do you do after 11 years of training to become a specialist if you have no or limited access to surgery rooms ?
(Wife is bitching all the time about it :p)

For those really sharky, there is always a niche for loaning money at high rates. .

[Mega]

Re: Recession proof business ideas

"Working girls"..............You know what i mean.

I thought about a service where blokes from overseas can come to the US and tour (on the cheap). My idea was they are provided with female "tour guide"............."Tour with a whore!"

:0)
Mike

[lakedaemonian]

Re: Recession proof business ideas

one man band:

Repo agent

Receivables factoring sales agent

Business consultant....commission % for every dollar saved from business overheads

Security consultant for home/business

small business:

Large volume or specialized Repossessions: vehicles, boats, powersports, industrial equipment, office equipment

Property foreclosure management: Admin, Management, Security, Marketing

Security installation contractor for home/business

Medium/large business:

Liquidators/Auction houses

Infrastructure related engineering and construction

Receivables factoring underwriter

Security monitoring/patrolling

[Slimprofits]

Re: Recession proof business ideas

Fixing cars and fixing depreciating assets will also be a way out as the general public and the industry will have less access/less capacity to credit and capital so they will have at some point to maintain their assets instead of changing or disposing of them.

I'm thinking of computer installation/cleanup/repair services. Low overhead (home office), spyware/malware/viruses, problems with Vista, high gas prices causing more telecommuters...