Best Recession-Proof Businesses Even in a recession, you can start a business. Find out which ones were voted most likely to succeed.

Q: I'd like tostart my own business, but I'm in a recessionemergency-behind on my bills, savings gone and no start-upcapital. I have been unable to make enough doing temp service work,etc, to cover basic expenses. What are the best recession-proofbusinesses?

A: Some businessesactually do well during recessions; they're"countercyclical." For example, as both business andconsumer debt mounts in a recession and companies need to collectevery possible dollar they're owed, debt collection agencies,companies that specialize in repossessing items and bankruptcyattorneys are at their busiest.

If you're good on the telephone, probably the most feasibleof this type of business is a collection agency. The American CollectorsAssociation offers a CD-ROM that will provide you with sometraining, and you can either buy or lease collection-specificsoftware from a number of companies.

If you're down to emptying your piggy bank, for less than$100, you can paint street numbers on curbs for homeowners orprovide household cleaning services. One specialized kind ofcleaning service that requires little more than a pooper-scooperand some plastic bags is cleaning up dog dung from people'syards. Some people are earning more than $50,000 a year doing this.These may not be businesses you want to do indefinitely, but theymay provide you with some income to help you pay the bills and savesome money for a different business.

During hard times, stress is higher, and therefore people'shealth suffers, causing a greater need for health care.Traditionally, health care was considered recession-proof; however,during the '80s, health-care providers took their hits, too.Still, health-care-related businesses like medical coding andmedical transcription can do well. But these do require trainingthat takes time and money.

Other businesses that tend to do all right during a recessionare:

• Repair services, when it's less costly to repair somethinglike a computer than buy a new one
• Résumé writing, because lots of people are seekingwork, and the better their resume, the better their chances ofgetting an interview
• Secretarial services and bookkeeping for small businesses forwhich outsourcing their work is less expensive than having anemployee do it

For many people, starting a business in the midst of an economicstorm has led to success, probably because the lack of slack leadsto more disciplined, well-thought-out marketing and spendingdecisions.

Paul and Sarah Edwards' most recent book is Changing Directions Without Losing Your Way.Send them your start-up questions at www.workingfromhome.com orthrough us at Entrepreneur.