Editor’s note: This article was first published in June 2010, during the economic crisis in Spain. Its claims that these services were little exploited and in growing demand reflect that moment; online advertising and search-engine positioning agencies, for example, are now a mature and crowded market.
In times of crisis, companies still need certain services to keep going, and that opens the door to new business opportunities built around serving other businesses.
As usual, we’ve gathered the best profitable business ideas: useful ones that aren’t yet widely exploited in Spanish-speaking countries and are seeing growing demand right now.
Remote secretarial services
You can offer this on your own or set up a business that handles administrative work for companies from the outside. It’s a service in growing demand, especially if you add call handling and other useful services such as preparing meetings and PowerPoint presentations, and anything else small and medium-sized businesses need and ask for.
Communication and advertising
Until now, this business was aimed mainly at large and medium-sized companies. Today it’s a necessity for small businesses and micro-enterprises that want to carve out a place in the market and get known ahead of their competitors.
Company auditor
These days, auditing firms are among the most emerging and sought-after businesses, because the law now requires companies to hire an auditor once they exceed a minimum turnover and a certain number of employees. That’s the good news. The bad news is that you need the right training and must be registered in the Registro Oficial de Auditores de Cuentas (Spain’s official register of auditors).
Freelance sales representative
This is the self-employed salesperson or area representative who works for a company on sales commission. Companies are clearly very interested in this kind of professional. You can do it on your own, or you can build sales teams to add to a company’s sales force, with your business taking charge of raising your client’s sales. In later articles we’ll go into detail on how to turn this into your business.
See also: How to make money with a blog: 9 tips for a successful blog
Online advertising for businesses
This is a growing sector. The idea is to set up your own agency that specializes in getting clients into the top positions on internet search engines and running their online ad campaigns. Demand for these services is high, not only from large and small companies but also from individuals who venture into affiliate programs or network marketing without the necessary know-how.
Other emerging businesses related to services for companies include:
- IT security consultant.
- Telecommunications consultant.
- Event management.
- Specialist in finding financial services.
- Capital reinvestment adviser.
- Management of unpaid debts.
- Transport services.
- Corporate social responsibility (CSR) consultant.
- Business plan writer.
- Foreign markets consultant.
As you can see, a crisis brings a wide variety of business opportunities. Crises aren’t good, but we should make the most of them.
Further reading
- How to start a business with no money
- Business ideas related to tourism
- The structure of a good business plan
Featured image: Alan Cleaver, CC BY 2.0, via Flickr.
