What cottage industries will profit in a depression/ recession?

Sandra

Sandra

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Since a good many of us will be looking for a new way to make income in the coming months, what small businesses will prosper in these times?
 
Repo man. :o

I think if you can work with metals, fashion parts for vehicles, repair electronics (or create parts for them) you would do okay. I'm trying to learn to make quilts right now, nice heavy ones.

Butchers will become quite popular again I believe. That would be a very useful skill to have.
 
any sort of repair business; shoes, clothes, appliances, electronics, small engine, car, home, etc. people will hang on to things longer and put off large purchases in favor of repairing what they have. home improvement stores will probably see an uptick in small ticket item sales, but I doubt it will be anywhere near the amount needed to offset the drop in sales due to the lack of new homes being built.

commodities (food, oil) will still plug a long because everybody needs to eat and drive, but no real growth here. maybe local food suppliers and farm stands will benefit as long as the Fed's don't raid them like that Ohio food co-op.
 
Cheap eats,pawn shops etc

Sandra said:
Since a good many of us will be looking for a new way to make income in the coming months, what small businesses will prosper in these times?
Click to expand...

Open a soup canning business and put Campbells under. Invest in pawn shops.
 
Intuitively, struggling homeowners, many of whom bought houses that are bigger than their wallets, will take in boarders -- whether for cash rent or in exchange for the labor of a modern-day "Hand." Also intuitively, such an arrangement being a win-win for homeowner and boarder, these transactions are unlikely to be reported on either side as taxable income.
 
cheapseats said:
Intuitively, struggling homeowners, many of whom bought houses that are bigger than their wallets, will take in boarders -- whether for cash rent or in exchange for the labor of a modern-day "Hand." Also intuitively, such an arrangement being a win-win for homeowner and boarder, these transactions are unlikely to be reported on either side as taxable income.
Click to expand...

Similarly, as previously non-working parents are obliged to take whatever crazy-hour part-time jobs they can find, I imagine that families strapped for cash will devise local babysitting cooperatives that bypass prohibitively expensive registration/insurance as Day Care Facilities.

Again, because these cooperatives shall be voluntary and mutually beneficial, I imagine that the parties will land on such meaningfully lower childcare expenses as will persuade the working parent NOT to declare childcare expense and enable the delegated Kid Sitter to avoid declaring taxable income.

I don't know that, of course, nor am I encouraging the practice. I am merely practicing Free Speech as to what I imagine people might do.
 
Steadily rising gun sales surely imply a quite urgent need for low-cost weapons training and target practice.
 
LibertyEagle said:
Ooooh, I'm jealous. I've always wanted to learn to do that. :) I LOVE quilts.
Click to expand...

I have a ton of old kids' clothes. 3 kids generate a lot of clothes and I saved so much to pass from one to the other but #3 was a girl so I have a lot of boy clothes especially. So they are all getting heavy duty quilts. The outside pattern will include my fave baby outfits.

When I was a kid I had a handmade quilt my grandma gave to me- it was pretty old at the time. It couldn't be washed, it had to be hung up outside and beat with a broom. It was so freaking heavy that it was hard to move under it. I never, ever got cold, though even though I grew up in a big, drafty house with only wood heat downstairs.
 
Young Americans with decreasing prospects might, as in yesteryear, boldly walk up and knock on the many many many front doors of people who engage under-the-table help and offer THEIR services as babysitters, house cleaners, gardeners, car washers and dog walkers.

The Young 'Uns might also agitate, as a class, for federal raids on Illegal Immigrants employed in ritzy residential neighborhoods -- let 'em flex the muscle they THINK they demonstrated by voting for Change.
 
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cheapseats said:
Similarly, as previously non-working parents are obliged to take whatever crazy-hour part-time jobs they can find, I imagine that families strapped for cash will devise local babysitting cooperatives that bypass prohibitively expensive registration/insurance as Day Care Facilities.

Again, because these cooperatives shall be voluntary and mutually beneficial, I imagine that the parties will land on such meaningfully lower childcare expenses as will persuade the working parent NOT to declare childcare expense and enable the delegated Kid Sitter to avoid declaring taxable income.

I don't know that, of course, nor am I encouraging the practice. I am merely practicing Free Speech as to what I imagine people might do.
Click to expand...


after looking at how much we spent on regulated child care, I would be all for that. We already have a family that we do this with when we want to have an evening for ourselves on the weekends
 
Sandra said:
Since a good many of us will be looking for a new way to make income in the coming months, what small businesses will prosper in these times?
Click to expand...

I'm working on a recessions jobs list.

Anything that's done with time and labor (and sadly, many may require licenses, thanks beauracrats!)

reselling on eBay
treasure hunting Goodwill
junk collecting
house cleaning
transportation
messenger & delivery
2nd hand trading
multi-level marketing (HIGH UNRECOMMENDED, BUT it definitely increases when people get scared)
cellphone brokerage (when people need to switch to cheaper plans like boost, metroPCS, alltell)

More info will be available and organized on http://RecessionGuy.com
 
Stitches is a sewing lounge in the Big City that rents a sewing studio with machine , cutting table, and tools for sewing your own clothes. Also the Threadbanger series on DIY Network and YouTube are getting younger people interested in making their own clothes from thrift store finds.
 
Great Thread!

This is a great thread! You cannot store enough food and supplies to get you through this mess. You must find a way to provide something of value to your fellow man and community. It is back-to-basics economics.

How about providing security for neighborhhoods and businesses?

Make solar ovens.

Grow and sell herbs and spices.

Grow mushrooms.

Make swaged bullets.
 
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