There are thousands of homebased businesses to choose from when
you decide to start your own. How do you know which ones will be
the most profitable in the years to come? To help you get started,
here are five up and coming businesses to consider for 2006 that
have the potential to be the next homebased trend.
Alternative Energy
Installing
If you're troubled by the rising costs of heating and lighting
your home, you're like millions of other households that may be
feeling the pain of high energy bills. The result is that lots of
people are seeking alternatives. They want to get "off the
grid." In other words, be independent of utilities that use
electricity, water, gas or propane. Solar, wind, hydro, geothermal
and wireless are among the technologies that are enabling
increasing numbers of people to live independent of pipes and wires
and rising utility payments.
In fact, futurist Richard Celente predicts that one of the big
trends for 2006 will be alternative energy installation. While
residences are the most lucrative market for installers, commercial
entities such as radio stations, bed-and-breakfast inns and large
resorts are prime markets for alternative energy.
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This business requires mechanical abilities. To learn more about
the possibilities, check out Solar Energy
Installation Businesses.
Collection Agency
Difficult economic developments such as rising energy and
health-care bills, record debt loads, the doubling of minimum
payments on credit-card debt, and a $5-billion cut in child-support
enforcement funds mean more business for collection agencies. These
agencies collect bills, debts and non-sufficient funds (NSF) checks
for businesses as well as for individuals.
In large collection agencies, the people hired to make
collections work on commission and often are financially hard-up
themselves. Motivated by their own desperation, they tend to
harangue the accounts they're assigned to.
People who own their own collection business and have chosen it
as a career adopt a more professional, problem-solving approach
with debtors and are able to collect on a higher percentage of
accounts than the traditional, high-pressure, hard-nosed collection
agent.
You can learn more from How to Start a Home-Based Collection Agency
by Robert H. Bills and Starting a Collection Agency by Michelle A.
Dunn. You can also find information at Michelle Dunn's website
at www.credit-and-collections.com.
Home-Theatre Consulting
We tried watching the same broadcast of the Rose Parade on both the
Discovery high-density channel and on a local television station.
No wonder HDTV's are selling so well! Unfortunately, getting an
HDTV calibrated isn't as easy as plugging in a new TV or even
installing a new computer. This is particularly so if you want your
HDTV to mesh with other video and audio components. A lot of
expertise is required.
Home-theatre consultants are doing well, earning fees from $200
to over $1,000 for doing the technical work that improves the
color, brightness and sharpness of the image, connects the system
with other equipment and optimizes lighting and room
arrangement.
Among the training programs for learning how to calibrate HDTV
you can find on the web are those offered by the Imaging Science
Foundation, which provides training seminars throughout the
United States.
Massage Therapy
From time to time, most people enjoy a massage. But for people with
injuries or boomers with aging bodies, getting a massage approaches
being a necessity since some people use massage as an alternative
to more costly physical therapy.
Giving massages doesn't mean opening a massage parlor.
Massage-to-go as well as offering massages in one's own home
are increasingly en vogue because many clients prefer their massage
therapist to come to them or will choose a home-based practitioner
over the inconvenience of driving and parking in crowded commercial
areas to go to a more "clinical" office.
Combining massage with another type of health treatment, such as
acupuncture, can be a winning combination in attracting clients.
Keep in mind though that every additional service you add will
require additional training. While less recognized by most medical
professionals than acupuncture, many massage therapists also offer
acupressure, polarity therapy, reflexology, reiki, shiatsu and
therapeutic touch (t-touch), and more.
The largest of at least five professional associations for
massage therapists are the American Massage Therapy Association (AMTA) and
the Associated Bodywork and Massage Professionals (ABMP).
From their sites, you can learn about training opportunities.
Web Design
Who, today, thinks about starting a business without having a
website? What business can keep a website without updating and
changing it?
While easy-to-use programs like FrontPage enable most people to
design their own website and free templates for websites are widely
available (www.templatesbox.com, www.freelayouts.com, www.webzonetemplates.com to name a few), many--if not
most--corporate and institutional owners realize that for their
website to look first-class and truly effective in drawing in
business, the expertise of a professional website designer is
required. If you want to learn more about this business, check out
How to Start a Home-Based Web Design
Business by Jim Smith. For training, there are many
resources, including tutorials at www.webmonkey.com.