Five Startup Ideas to Help Others Beat a Tough Job Market

The job market hasn't been this crowded for over 26 years. An estimated 10.2 percent of the U.S. population is unemployed. The U.S. workforce has seen 15.7 million jobs vanish since the start of the recession in November 2008. In this environment, many job seekers are looking to support services to give them a competitive edge. Answer their call by parlaying your skills into a business helping others get hired.
The following small businesses draw strength from a competitive job market, providing a lifeline of professional support services to job seekers.

1. Career Coach
Help people discover the color of their parachute by setting up a private practice as a career coach. Unlike personal counselors, career advisors are not licensed by an outside body. The only credentials you need to hang your shingle as a career coach are a positive attitude and access to an arsenal of career assessment tools. If you have a background in human resources or professional counseling, so much the better. Some career coaches possess intimate knowledge of a particular industry such as law, and specialize in helping clients find their place in this universe.

Professional and Business Networking is critical to a thriving career coach practice. Team up with corporate recruiters, institutions such as universities, business networking sites such as LinkedIn, Tradeseam, and counselors as a valuable source of client referrals. To create a buzz for your services online, construct a well-designed Web site with the help of a website design and SEO specialist. A career advice blog can also help draw attention to your coaching service.

2. Temporary Staffing
Recession is boom time for the staffing industry, as businesses rely on temp agencies for greater flexibility. According to the National Association of Personnel Services, temporary staffing agencies have emerged as a "full-fledged human resources business partner to corporate America." The industry has averaged a steady ten percent annual growth for the past seven years.

As the administrator of a temporary staffing agency, you handle recruiting, placement, and benefits. In exchange, you charge a premium over the hired employee's base wage. Temporary staffing agencies require little overhead and due to their regional focus, can compete effectively with the industry's titans. It's possible to fund an agency startup on a shoestring budget of several thousand dollars. You'll need a small office, a computer system with accounting and database capabilities, and a Web presence. Credit Card Processing and E-commerce services can help you get the ball rolling at minimal cost.

3. Graphic Design
Job seekers depend on a couple of self-marketing tools to land a job: an effective resume, a cover letter, a portfolio, and increasingly, a personal Web site. Your freelance graphic design business can help go-getters develop visuals that get noticed in today's competitive marketplace.

Graphic designers need little overhead funding to set up shop. Word of mouth and an Internet presence are the keys to building a client base. To make the most of your online storefront, consult a search engine optimization expert for specific keyword and web design strategy advice.

4. Career Skills Training
Employers with their pick of qualified candidates can demand on advanced, up-to-date technical skill set. Help prospective employees get up to speed and back in the race by setting up a specialized training institute. You may draw on your own technical skills to develop a niche curriculum. Or hire experts to pass on their trade to a new generation.

Startup requirements will depend on how you decide to deliver career training to students. For a traditional classroom approach, look for real estate and equipment leasing. Or opt for an online approach, investing in an e-learning module to deliver lectures and host class discussions.

5. E-commerce Support Services
Help out-of-work professionals help themselves. This business-to-business e-commerce support venture allows you to partner with an entrepreneur who has a great business idea or product, but lacks the skills to bring it to market.

To launch a business in e-commerce support solutions, draw on your experience and outsource other functions to external experts. For example, you might want to focus on the business side, developing strategies and proposals to attract investor interest. Contract the technical logistics to an independent expert, and you have a full-service e-commerce support solution. Medical Billing, Telemarketing, Call Center, Web design, SEO, and/or pay per click management are good candidates for outsourcing.

The rising unemployment rate indicates the need for a new type of business--support services for job seekers. Your skills and experience could offer the unemployed the resources they need to get back on their feet. Business ventures specializing in career counseling, training, placement, and self-presentation extend a crucial lifeline to displaced workers, helping them evolve with the changing times.

Path To Early Retirement For Under $5K

As 68 million American baby boomers start to retire, they are redefining what retirement means. For many, it doesn't mean they've stopped working, but rather that they are exercising more choice over how they work. According to a 2009 survey, some 67 percent of people who chose to engage in some form of work found it to be satisfying, and in three out of five cases, they were able to find jobs for what are known as "encore careers."

Picking the perfect second act for your career can involve trying an industry or a field that's always interested you, helping out with a cause that you believe in, or getting a chance to run your own business.

If it's running your own business that appeals to you, chances are you don't want to invest a large chunk of your retirement savings into a new business venture at this point. Therefore, the key is getting started with minimal  up front investment. This is very possible these days, depending on how you set up your business, and what type of business you choose to go into.

Getting Started on a Shoestring Budget

To start a business with relatively little up front capital, the key is to minimize fixed costs. Variable costs--expenses of the pay-as-you-go variety--are preferable because they allow you to ramp up your investment depending on how the business is going.

Here are some key tools for keeping fixed costs low:

• E-commerce Solutions. Who needs a business location when you have the Internet? The ultimate low-overhead storefront, the Internet gives you access to a world of potential customers. Utilizing e-commerce solutions is much cheaper than having a physical place of business where you receive customers. For example, it allows you to avoid the many expenses of having a retail outlet, such as rent, utilities, staffing, and insurance.

• Outsourcing Back Office Tasks. Rather than building a complete organization from scratch, try to outsource anything that isn't central to the unique value proposition of your business. For example, functions such as customer support, credit card processing and human resources are only needed occasionally or periodically. Therefore, it makes more sense to utilize outsourced call center services for telemarketing or customer support or HR outsourcing for human resource activities than to try to staff it internally.

• Use Social Media Strategies to Promote Your Business. Developing a full scale online social media strategy can seem overwhelming at first. But you can implement simple things by hiring interns to do the leg work such as starting a business blog or using Twitter, and tracking different programs making adjustments along the way.

Low-Cost Entrepreneurial Business Ideas


If the above are some techniques for structuring a business with minimum up front investment, what are some lines of business which lend themselves to getting started with minimal capital?

One rule of thumb is that services generally require less investment than manufacturers or retailers, though with e-commerce some re-sellers can operate cheaply if they have tight supply lines and add value in the process. Focusing on services, the following are some examples of businesses that might be right for the current environment, and can be started on a shoestring.

• Business consulting. If many retiring boomers are going to be starting their own businesses, why not use your business experience to help show them how to do it?

• Green consulting. People are striving to become more energy-efficient, for economic and environmental reasons. If you have expertise in this area, consulting with businesses and homeowners on how to reduce their consumption is a natural.

• Public relations. If you have media and promotional experience, you could be in demand with the new wave of entrepreneurs starting their own businesses. In particular, bringing knowledge of modern promotional techniques such as social media strategies could be valuable to these new businesses.

• Employment counseling. Between a weak economy and an aging population, there are many people facing a career crossroads these days. Helping them find the right niche can be a good way to make use of any personnel experience you have.

• Lead Generation. Sales Lead Generation is growing by leaps and bounds as far as start up industries are concerned. This is a very special industry that affords flexibility and freedom that is unparalleled. And, there is even a significant demand for highly specialized lead generation consultants to help companies generate qualified sales leads in this market.

Running your own business may not have been your parents' idea of retirement, but things are very different today. If you have the entrepreneurial itch, starting a venture might just give you the satisfaction and extra income to make your "golden years" more than just an expression.

Don't let your internet marketing efforts take a summer vacation

Strategies to make the most of the summer slowdown

When most people hear the word "summer," thoughts turn away from work to days at the beach, camping, traveling or summer sports with kids. We normally think of summer as a time when work generally slows down. However, spending on marketing during a slowdown has actually been shown to increase sales leads once spending picks up- according to one study, businesses that increased advertising during the ‘01-‘02 recession saw sales increase an average of 3x times more than businesses who kept marketing spending flat.Here's how to get a head start on Internet marketing efforts this summer:

1. An online marketing strategy like Search Engine Optimization or Search Marketing only works well if your site is equipped to deal with the increased traffic. Hire a website design services firm to make sure your site is easy to navigate and has the capacity to handle more visitors. If you don't have an e-commerce section, now is a good time to accept credit card processing on your site and build a shopping cart. Companies providing merchant account could also have special rates given the slow economy.

2. Develop strategies to land more customers. The way to do that, particularly for small businesses, is to use effective sales lead generation and small business marketing solutions to connect with new customers, partners and suppliers and create a positive experience. Make sure you give every customer the best experience you can. That means clean restrooms, courteous staff, eye contact, handshakes. You've got to do this better than the other people out there. Another good option for local businesses is community involvement. Join a small business networking communities or the Chamber of Commerce. Sponsor a Little League team. Let the Girl Scouts do a car wash in your parking lot. This is part of bonding with your community and becoming an established part of it.

3. Try New Social Media Strategies. If you've been putting off launching a social media strategy, such as starting a blog or using Twitter, now is the time. During the summer, you'll have the time to implement a strategy, hire interns to do the leg work and track different programs making adjustments along the way.