I travel quite a bit, and nailing a number of different places I've been to this is shocking how many businesses seem to be gone.  Centers that were thriving pillars of community, how close him up shop.  Even some of the places you think wouldn't be affected by recession seem to have been hit the hardest.  First place is for example.  I'm not talking about places far away from home, but even local businesses and tourist area seem to be hurting.

The has to make you wonder, what kind of businesses to survive during a recession.  As the saying goes with every door closes, another door is open.  That says to me, that there must be some businesses that are doing exceptionally well these days given the number of doors that have closed.

Given that everyone is trying to save money, or get more value for their money, you'd think that discount shops would do extremely well.  One of the most cost-conscious retailers out there has to be Wal-Mart, and they for sure have done exceedingly well during these tough times.  Did any more customers, their stocks are up, and sales are going through the roof.

That is excellent as a little strange, but for some reason these schools seem to be doing pretty well during these tough economic times as well.  Not that the getting a lot of new people signing up of students.  But even students at a beauty school, need to have people to practice on a general in they offer the services to the public at deeply discounted rates.  So, why spend $100 or more for a fancy haircut, color, and perm, and the beauty school student can do for your a fraction of the price.

Unless you're living under a rock, I'm sure you're well aware of the suffering going on by auto manufacturers your and other dealerships. That's not to suggest that all areas of the car industry are performing poorly.  Mechanics, repair shops, and service centers are doing a booming business.  Any service to a customer that allows him to keep their valuable, and expensive automobile running of the longer is doing well these days.  Most consumers would rather spend a couple hundred bucks to keep their existing car the road than tens of thousands of dollars on a new one.

For that matter, any repair type business will do well during tough economic times.  It's easy for consumer to keep existing stuff up and running that investing considerable funds continue vehicles, homes, furnaces, air conditioners, boats, and just about moving else you can imagine.

The right up there next to fixing stuff, would be recycling things.  Secondhand shops, and garage sales are pretty busy places these days.  Thrift shops and eBay are doing exceedingly well.  They seem to be growing in size, or some of the higher price fancy boutique type stores are in serious trouble.

So, if you're thinking of starting a business, don't let the tough financial times dissuade you.  There's always an opportunity to make money.  You just need to use your imagination a little bit, and figure out what the people need.