What cottage industries will profit in a depression/ recession?

[Josh_LA]

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.

i disagree slighty, I think you CAN store enough food.

you should have a backup plan about leaving the country or area, and if you can, you don't need more than a month of food.

 

[MrNick]

If things get too bad, I'm getting out my floaties and swimming to Cuba.

 

[Deborah K]

Mental health facilities
Book stores
forms of entertainment and passing of time - games/sports
gardening and hunting equipment

everything else I can think of has already been mentioned

Love the thread, btw.

 

[cheapseats]

Mental health facilities
Book stores
forms of entertainment and passing of time - games/sports
gardening and hunting equipment

everything else I can think of has already been mentioned

Love the thread, btw.

I think not on the bookstores -- rather, I anticipate the closure of a chain.

On the other hand, particularly in densely populated Renters=Screwed areas, a book EXCHANGE -- say, out of a second bedroom in a mega-unit complex -- with a modest membership fee paid to the person doing the warehousing/cataloging might provide a income to one and service/savings to others.

Ditto, to the Nth degree, on women's clothes/shoes/handbags -- an approximate size/style per mini-enterprise, perhaps. BIG savings, that would generate.

It does not seem possible that Congress/Paulson et al. will not have realized that scrappy Americans known for their Ingenuity will find myriad ways to avoid payment of taxes. Why wouldn't they, when it is so obvious that the very state of affairs that prompted the writing of the preamble of the Declaration of Independence again exist?

They have but one purpose now, to rob Peter to pay Paulson.

Wonder what ELSE they have up their well-tailored sleeves and down their unfailingly deep pockets...

 

[torchbearer]

Computer service business has been doing well for me...
I'm cheaper than my competitors, I have very little over-head, and i'm more available.

As people's budgets are shrinking, they are doing more shopping around for service, which works for my benefit.
I'm getting new business clients who are looking to slim their budgets.

This is a good time for everyone to take a share of a market with smart business.

If you are in computer service, use part of your home as workspace, save on overhead, reduce your cost for service.

 

[slacker921]

home security.. as people get desperate the crime goes up.

 

[cheapseats]

TRY to find a Small Appliance Repair.

It must seem laughable to those in their 20's but the households of upwardly mobile Baby Boomers -- whose parents are/were Depression Era -- DID, in fact, take toasters and coffee makers and shavers and such in to be repaired, rather than replacing items at their first failure to operate rightly.

I expect that women members will corroborate the disappearance of what were latterly called Handy Men. Growing up, one used to come to the house one a month or so, to do odd bits of repair and maintenance, wax the kitchen floor, change an unreachable light bulb, put a washer in a dripping sink, etc.

In Los Angeles, there is a thriving business called Rent-A-Husband.

 

[cheapseats]

home security.. as people get desperate the crime goes up.

Have a care, however. I have not researched statistics but I have thrice been told by credible people that a startling percentage of private security guards have jail/prison records.

 

[rapidtrends]

Selling gold and silver.

May sound strange, but our business has been booming.

We even have a way for people to make money referring business. PM me for details if you are interested.

 

[cheapseats]

When I was in Iowa and Wisconsin last winter, one of our Working Farmers (as opposed to one of our sitting Pharmaceutical Executives, such as Barack Who's-Your-Daddy Obama proposes to have head our Agriculture Department) said that the biggest favor the American People could do for the American Farmers is grow their own food, and use manure as fertilizer.

Americans are picky, whereas the world is hungry. Their discard rate, in order to make those pretty displays in overpriced chain markets, importantly erodes profitability.

Parenthetically, BUNCHES of them said in all capitals, PRESS CONGRESS FOR THE DE-CRIMINALIZATION OF MARIJUANA AND HEMP. Our priggish and hypocritical policy on plants that have been used for CENTURIES, compared to the favor we bestow on the alcohol grains, is costing Farmers a lot of money.

Which we turn around and pay them in subsidies.

It couldn't hurt if our recess-happy Congress returned to find a couple million emails urging SANITY, JUSTICE AND PROSPERITY on this count.

 

[cheapseats]

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.

The daughters of Shop Til You Drop Suburbanites are IN LOVE with American Girl Dolls. Who knew? They are tres tres expensive, as are their wardrobes and accessories. One of the MSM outlets that gives us puff and pabulum instead of news and information did a bit on some girl whose TOUGH Tough Love mother obliged her to sell one doll on ebay in order to get a new one for Christmas. Yeah, THAT'LL teach her.

Anyway, I imagine that a collaboration between a Sewer and an Online Wizard might could identify a niche market in Wardrobes for Privileged Children's Dolls. Understand that the Haves spend more on their PETS than most parents can spend on their kids.

 

[AmericasLastHope]

According to the Kondratieff Winter cycle small businesses are the riskiest investment and gold is the safest investment...

 

[invisible]

I would disagree with Exter: In times like these, real estate is a great investment - at the moment, you are able to buy low, and prices on real estate will continue to drop as fewer people can get loans. As more and more middle class people lose their homes and can't get a loan to buy another, demand for rentals will increase, and landlord will be able to either get higher rents or be more choosy as to who their tenants are. Like food and oil / gas, you need a place to live to survive as well.

 

[Acala]

Really?

i disagree slighty, I think you CAN store enough food.

you should have a backup plan about leaving the country or area, and if you can, you don't need more than a month of food.

The Great Depression lasted more than ten years. Think you can store ten years' worth of food for yourself and your family and friends that you can't turn away? I'll bet you can't.

 

[phill4paul]

Understand that the Haves spend more on their PETS than most parents can spend on their kids.

Bingo!

The haves, even the ones that now have less, still have more.

I'm in lawn care maintenance. I really was troubled that the down turn in the economy would hurt the company. Within the last year our billings are up 15%.

We only had one client end service (because of selling his home) with us, but picked up 6 new accounts.

Lawn care is successful because of one thing. The appearance of money is integral in the money game. A well kept lawn is part of this image.

Find those with money. Find out what they need to project this image. Maybe, car detailing, lawn care or house keeping. Offer caring service at a reasonable price. Nothing more to it.

 

[Sandra]

Bingo!

The haves, even the ones that now have less, still have more.

I'm in lawn care maintenance. I really was troubled that the down turn in the economy would hurt the company. Within the last year our billings are up 15%.

We only had one client end service (because of selling his home) with us, but picked up 6 new accounts.

Lawn care is successful because of one thing. The appearance of money is integral in the money game. A well kept lawn is part of this image.

Find those with money. Find out what they need to project this image. Maybe, car detailing, lawn care or house keeping. Offer caring service at a reasonable price. Nothing more to it.

Lawn service is great for those who don't have the equipment, are disabled, or elderly too. A mowed lawn keeps the house pests down too on the practical end.

 

[cheapseats]

Bingo!

The haves, even the ones that now have less, still have more.

I'm in lawn care maintenance. I really was troubled that the down turn in the economy would hurt the company. Within the last year our billings are up 15%.

We only had one client end service (because of selling his home) with us, but picked up 6 new accounts.

Lawn care is successful because of one thing. The appearance of money is integral in the money game. A well kept lawn is part of this image.

Find those with money. Find out what they need to project this image. Maybe, car detailing, lawn care or house keeping. Offer caring service at a reasonable price. Nothing more to it.

Candidly, Haves don't care about You/General enough to care whether you care. Price and reliability, that's what they care about. I wouldn't be shy about inserting ENGLISH SPEAKING, nor about playing the Patriot Card.

HIRE AMERICANS
They work for less under the table, too.​

 

[Josh_LA]

According to the Kondratieff Winter cycle small businesses are the riskiest investment and gold is the safest investment...

I totally disagree that bonds are less safe than FRN
And I totally disagree that small businesses are less safe than real estate.

BUT, I am not in real estate, I just think if you do your homework , and are willing to take loss, reduce risk , both small biz and RE can be profitable.

Why aren't commodities near gold?
And why aren't foreign currencies near FRN?
Hell , shouldn't diamonds be near FRN too?
(I seriously don't think this graph is accurate)

 

[Josh_LA]

The Great Depression lasted more than ten years. Think you can store ten years' worth of food for yourself and your family and friends that you can't turn away? I'll bet you can't.

How about have a few thousand in gold coins so you can flee the country?

 

[Josh_LA]

I would disagree with Exter: In times like these, real estate is a great investment - at the moment, you are able to buy low, and prices on real estate will continue to drop as fewer people can get loans. As more and more middle class people lose their homes and can't get a loan to buy another, demand for rentals will increase, and landlord will be able to either get higher rents or be more choosy as to who their tenants are. Like food and oil / gas, you need a place to live to survive as well.

I agree, real estate is good if you can catch the bubble (which I believe is yet to come)