Editor’s note: This article was first published in July 2010; the forecast of on-site nurseries at many companies, the claim that clean energy funding was easy to obtain and the term metrosexual reflect that year, and Spain sharply cut renewable energy subsidies from 2012.
Let’s highlight some business ideas involving products or services that will be driven less by supply and demand than by a need. Wherever there is a need, profitability is guaranteed, as long as we come up with an innovation that sets us apart from our competitors. These markets are:
1. The market for older people
Most Spanish-speaking countries face the same situation. Life expectancy has increased, and this means that within five years more than 30% of the population will be over 70.
Care homes and residences very different from the ones we know today will open, offering new services. The market for older people moves billions every year: organised trips, residences, hotels… It’s a matter of considering starting a business that makes life easier for our older people.
2. The market for children
The big problem when you have a child is the lack of time and not being able to look after them because of work. We haven’t talked about this before, but before long many companies will set up nurseries on their premises for their employees’ children.
Leisure centres for children where they can be left while their parents go out to dinner or to the cinema, babysitting agencies, restaurants specialising in children. Children are a good business sector.
3. Beauty and health
This used to be something only for women. Now men have joined the sector too. The number of “metrosexuals” is growing, and so is our concern with feeling healthy and looking good.
See also: Everyone has their own business, and you should never forget it
Beauty salons, spas, massages, hair removal centres, baldness products, slimming diets, gyms. As you can see, anything to do with the cult of the body and personal care is a sector of endless possibilities. Here are some business ideas related to body care and personal wellbeing.
4. Tourism
Tourism has always been a good sector, and probably the one with the least innovation. Demand calls for a different, alternative kind of tourism, as more and more tourists with greater purchasing power want new services. We suggested several ideas in our business ideas related to tourism.
5. Renewable energy
This is a need, and one backed by governments. For anything involving clean alternative energy, it will be easy to obtain funding from public bodies, unless you take too long to decide and the grants get cut because of excess demand.
More business ideas
- A spa as a highly profitable business
- Business ideas in the clothing trade
- Business ideas with a future in times of crisis
Featured image: Hanley: Westcroft Nursing Home by Jonathan Hutchins, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
