What Kind of Small Business Should I Start?

1. Start a Closet Crafters Business   Home-owners want the efficiency and looks of an organized closet with double-hung rods, cabinets and cubbyholes. With basic tools and simple construction skills, you can install upscale closet fixtures. The hardware is available at your big-box home improvement store. California Closets made a national business from this concept, but there’s plenty of room for you.
   
   
2. Start a Housecleaning Service Business   Homeowners simply do not have the time to keep the home clean. They want to delegate that responsibility to the someone else. This is a fragmented business niche, populated mostly by hit-or-miss cleaners.
   
   
3. Start a Household and Store Security Business   New laminates can be applied to window glass to transform windows into a virtually impenetrable barrier. Remember when glass block windows started becoming popular? Here’s an easy-to-start service business with an undeniable sales benefit, the security of a family.
   
   
4. Start a Decorated Concrete Pavement Business   A spray-on system will transform plain-Jane concrete pavement to a decorative asset. This is a low-cost high-impact home-improvement business that will bring an important feature to every neighborhood. The service business is easy to learn, easy to start and easy to sell.
   
   
5. Start a Fitness and Weight Loss Club Business   Everyone says that Americans have become obese. The business you start will help people feel better, lose some inches and pounds and become more energetic. You can feel good about what you are doing and give something worthwhile to the community. A personal trainer will keep things hopping while you start the business. There are opportunities for a membership-based fitness club business in almost every town.
   
   
6. Start a Child Care Business   While both parents are working, their young children need care. Your natural love of children will guide you into this desirable, high-paying field. By offering early-learning classes in music, language, karate and dance, you can save parents the time they spend chauffeuring, too.
   
   
7. Start a Sandwich Shop Business   The average sandwich shop can bring in more than $300,000 a year. A few good sandwich ideas, a location with good traffic, coupled with dedication, can bring you into the fast food business.
   
   
8. Start a Resale Business   Resale shops for clothing, toys and books are popular. Your sense of style, your love of books, your knowledge of toys will be an asset in thie resale business. Shops accept gently used merchandise on consignment, so they do not make a large investment in inventory. When an item sells, you pay the consigner.
   
   
9. Start a Massage Spa Business   The lure and luxury of a relaxing, soothing massage has become a healthy necessity for overworked stressed-out people. You can offer professional, therapeutic massages in a membership club setting. Training in massage is offered in short-term classes. There is a large unmet demand for massage services in a lucrative market.
   
   
10. Start a Bio-Fuels Business   The conversion of restaurant waste vegetable oil into automotive fuel and engine fuel is a nascent industry with unfathomable opportunities. Put together the pieces of the puzzle and provide your community with an ecologically friendly solution to the energy problem.
    
    
11. Start a Scrap Metal Business   The escalating prices for scrap metal, whether it’s copper, gold, silver, or other metals, is creating new business opportunities. The metals recycling is a business with lots of grow-room for the hard-working entrepreneur.
    
    
12. Start an Employment Agency Business   The Staffing Industry is growing because employers have outsourced many of their human resource functions. By providing staffing support and HR services to corporate clients, you match job seekers with employment positions. There are skills especially in demand in new-hires, like nursing and health care. Your people skills will be an important asset in this business.
    
    
13. Start a Gourmet Foods Business   The demand for unusual, exotic and good-tasting foods is never satisfied. Whether your specialty is candy, baked goods, fruit baskets, salad dressing, tomato sauce or frozen meals, there’s room for you in this business. If you make it, they will come.
    
    
14. Start a Lawn Care Business   There are 30 million acres of turf grass in the country, but only a small percentage is cared for professionally. Tap into the property owner’s need for landscaping service and groundskeepers, both residential and commercial. There are acres of opportunity out there.
    
    
15. Start a Pet Hotel Business   Pets are often treated like members of the family. These cherished pets need day care, exercise and boarding facilities in a warm, safe environment. If you love animals, you can be the caretaker that pet owners seek out and rely on.
    
    
16. Start a Retail Sales Business   If you can buy a product for $2 and sell it for $6, you’ll go a long way in this world. Specialty products for cleaning, tools, kitchen appliances, and many more offer you the potential for a growth sales business.
    
    
17. Start a Franchise Business   When you buy a franchise, it comes with training, site selection, a proven business plan and national advertising. You provide the enthusiasm and hard work. In return, your business grows with the franchise company. The top 10 franchises are Subway, Dunkin’ Donuts, Jackson Hewitt Tax Service, 7-Eleven, The UPS Store, Domino’s Pizza, Jiffy Lube, Sonic Drive In Restaurants, McDonald’s and Papa John’s.