5 Small Business Opportunities for 2008

If you’re serious about work at home or small business, there are plenty of good reasons to remain serious about it. There also is an ample array of opportunities to engage your enthusiasm and entrepreneurial spirit.

Recent figures from the research firm IDC identify 14.1 million home-based businesses in existence today (counting telecommuters and satellite offices, that number balloons to more than 20 million income-generating home offices). Interestingly enough, a growing number of these — now roughly two-thirds — are full-time operations.

But that’s not to say that every small-business idea is a sure winner or that the tumult of the past several months hasn’t had an effect on what will work and what won’t.

Here are five business ideas worth considering — and why. They have been culled from suggestions from more than a dozen business and entrepreneurial authorities:

Home Protection

Granted, many of us aren’t as jumpy as we were in the past a few years. But the safety of home and hearth is still of paramount concern. University of Alabama associate professor of business management Mark Weaver says that serves up significant opportunities for goods and services that touch on home security, ranging from firearms shops to home-alarm installation to kennels that breed guard dogs.

However, don’t focus solely on products that are only at home in a well-appointed bunker — that’s the inside track to a short business lifespan. Instead, augment what you do with other goods and services that will keep customers coming back after jangled nerves inevitably settle down. For the gun shop owner, that means safety classes and sport shooting events; for the pet shop owner, aquariums and toucans alongside the Dobermans and German shepherds.

At-home Services

Do you remember back about 20 years ago when every pundit within earshot droned on about “cocooning” — how we would never leave our homes any more and work, shop and play from the puffy sloth of our living room recliners? Well, it didn’t happen then, but it is happening in a somewhat different fashion now.

Whether you chalk it up to safety concerns, less money or less time, consumers are welcoming the convenience and peace of mind from quality goods and services at their doorstep. That opens up a menu of business opportunities from which to choose, such as a reliable auto repair business that comes to your garage — not you to theirs — and in-home hairdressing and beauty services (which are especially appealing to the elderly). Particularly promising are in-home technology services as consumers invest in electronic gizmos without the wherewithal to make the darned things work. That goes for everything from getting modems to run to the satellite-stereo-DVD-VCR home theater that can’t decide on channel three or four. (I can attest to that: I happily paid a service tech $75, after he took about three seconds to hook up a cable network I’d spent four hours stressing over.)

Outsourcing Services

The headlines are everywhere about major corporations laying off employees by the boatload. That’s lousy news however you look at it, but it’s also a reminder of work that still needs to be done. No matter if it’s accounting or software development, more and more large companies are outsourcing work (up some 25% from 1999, according to small-business author Kim Gordon). Not only does that provide work for small businesses that offer those kinds of services, but it also spells opportunity for businesses that bring the two together.

Gordon says there’s a growing need for services that help businesses identify their outsourcing needs and, in turn, hook them up with the appropriate outside help. And, she adds, don’t just focus on large companies — while news that Ford Motor Co. trims several thousand employees makes the front page, the used-car dealer who has to lay off his bookkeeper is just as much in need of outsourced muscle.

Videoconferencing

Businesses of all sizes are facing a double whammy these days. Not only are many skittish about flying, but tightening budgets make airfares, rental cars and hotel rooms harder to justify. But that also makes video teleconferencing services a potentially lucrative venture, providing work at home businesses with the space and the means to meet, at a fraction of the expense of travel (see this story).

Ironically enough, one of the few industrial sectors to prosper after Sept. 11, 2002 has been telecommunications — in part, analysts say, because of growing demand for video conferencing. Other pluses: For one thing, the cost of the necessary camera, software and other equipment is dropping all the time, limiting upfront expenses. And, unlike telephones and computer conferencing, video allows participants to hone in on non-verbal clues. That ensures meetings that are as effective and productive as face-to-face huddles.

Teeny Luxuries

These days, the likelihood of consumers buying a BMW on a whim is about on par with the Taliban hosting a fund-raising dance marathon and kegger — if nothing else, drops in the stock market, particularly in technology holdings, tossed dirt on that sort of excess months ago.

But that doesn’t mean that buyers still don’t want to pamper themselves — indeed, they may need them all the more now, only on a smaller scale. That, in turn, boosts the fortunes of purveyors of “mini-luxuries” — everything from gourmet food shops to imported cigar sellers to health and beauty spas. The message is clear: That vacation home along the coast may be off the table for now, but you still can get away for a few minutes via the pure pleasure of hand-dipped chocolate turtles.