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Community
and Economic Development
Building
a Sustainable Rural Business
Business Ideas:
The following
list of possibilities for businesses is provided to stimulate your
creative thinking regarding income-producing ideas.
Accounting
Adult Care - day, residential and post
surgery health care, adult in-home foster
care
Animals - grooming, sitting, exercising,
training, boarding, breeding
Apartment guide
Attorney
Automotive - rental, painting, cleaning,
and repair
Beauty services - nails, hair care, facials,
massage, beauty products
Bicycle, moped, motorcycle sales and
repair
Books - binding, sales, collecting
Bridal consultant plus gowns for rent or
sale
Calligraphy
Chauffeur - limousine service
Clock repair
Clothing and sewing-related - alterations,
monograms, exchange, needlework, hemming,
re-weaving, tailoring, refurbishing
vintage clothing, custom sewing, clothing
for disabled, clothes for hard-to-fit, drapery
making, custom window treatments, baby
specialty items
Correspondence for others
Costumes - design, manufacturing, sales,
repair
Counselor - marriage, family, career, children,
rehabilitation, financial, and investments
Coupon mailer service
Day Care - child day care center, group
family day care, family day care home
Designing and painting murals in churches,
homes, offices, and restaurants
Digital watch repair
Get-away weekends for couples, families
Genealogical research
Greeting cards/notes - design, sell
Health improvement - exercise, body toning,
electrolysis, stop smoking clinics,
weight control, diet preparation, recreation
for older adults
Hospitality services - catering, mobile
catering, clowning, parties for children and
adults
Image consultant - color analysis,
wardrobe analysis and planning
Income tax preparer
Jewelry design, sales, repair
Laundry and ironing
Messenger service
Shopping Service - clothing, groceries,
interior design, maintenance services
Towing
Services to the Home
Appliance repair
Appraisals - antiques, books, collectibles,
objects d’art
Architecture
Auctioneer
Awnings - design and make canvas
awnings and shades, installation
Building storage sheds
Burglar alarm sales and service
Carpet installation and cleaning
Carpentry
Cement casting - curbing, patio blocks, etc.
Chain saw service
Chair caning
Crystal and china repair
Custom rug making - braided, hooked,
woven
Electronic sales and repair
Energy consultant
Fence installation and repair
Firewood
Floor refinishing
Furniture - build, design, repair, refinish,
upholster, sell
Garden furniture - rewebbing, repainting,
repadding, reupholstering, reweaving
Home handyman service
Home repair and maintenance - painting,
wallpapering, chimney cleaning, etc.
Household cleaning
Household moving
Housesitting
“I’ll finish your project” service
Interior design and decorating
Lamp repair
Mobile lock service
Musical instrument maintenance and
repair
Organizing, cleaning basements, attics,
eliminating junk
Oriental rug repair
Pest control
Plants - potting, sales, care at home
Pool cleaning and repair
Porcelain refinishing (tubs, sinks, etc.)
Real estate sales
Rental agency - furniture, tools, appliances,
party items, etc.
Screen and storm window service - sell,
repair, install
Security patrol
Small engine repair
Tree service - treat, trim diseased trees,
tree removal, replacement
Welding
Window and wall washing
Yard/Lawn maintenance - landscaping,
pruning of shrubbery, flower bed preparation,
fertilizing, specialized outdoor lighting,
design and installation
Services
to Other Businesses
Accounting or book keeping - setting up
books, keeping records, completing tax
forms, payroll
Advertising - write, copy, layout, artwork
Advertising specialist - sell calendars,
pens, bumper stickers and other items
imprinted with business names and advertising
message
Aerial advertising - skywriting, towing
advertising banners behind airplane, balloon
signs
Agent - literary, sales, insurance
Answering service
Aquarium service - design, install, clean,
and maintain
Art rental - plan and display art in businesses
Booking agent representing musicians,
models, actors, actresses and other temporary
help
Builder’s cleanup service
Burglar alarm sales and service
Business chauffeur
Calligraphy - diplomas, scrolls, certificates
Clipping service - newspapers and magazines
Computer - analysis training, programming,
repair, sales, hardware, software, web
site developer
Computer-generated visuals
Consultant and deliverer of professional
development seminars
Copy center
Credit investigator - check on history of
people applying for credit
Data and word processing
Delivery/messenger service
Employment agency - match workers with
job opportunities. Teach classes in developing
resumes, interview techniques, etc.
Event planning
Free-lance writer
Home-based business directory - publish
directory of home-based businesses in area.
Charge for listing and give directories free
Income tax preparation
Jewelry and watch repair - contract with
jewelry stores to repair jobs they take in
Mailing list - develop/print labels
Marketing research
Money broker
Newsletter research, writer, editor
Notary public
Office machines repair
Parking lot maintenance - sweeping,
striping, coating, snow removal, installation
of signs, replacement of light bulbs
Pest control
Printing - layout, edit, operate
Proofreader
Public relations
Rubber stamp making
Sales representative
Secretarial service
Security patrol
Sharpening service
Shopping service - shop for busy executives-
purchase and ship or deliver gifts to
their customers or employees
Signs - design, build, install
Translator - if fluent in foreign language,
may escort foreign business executives
Travel agent
Trucking - long/short distance
Typing pool
Welcome new residents - provide community
information and referral
Window and wall washing
Art - prints, original art
Bait and tackle sales
Balloons
Director sales - candles, cosmetics, seasonings,
household items
Fiberglass molding
Firebacks - design and manufacture cast
iron plates that absorb and radiate heat
Florist
Greenhouses - design, build, install
Homemade food products - Specialty
processed foods, breads, cakes, cookies,
pastry maker for restaurants and delicatessens,
candy, catering gourmet meals
for delivery or pick up
Household items
Insurance
Mail order
Personalized products
Used clothing
Crafts and
Related Arts
Candlemaking
Ceramics
Decoys
Dollmaking, doll clothes, collecting unique
dolls, dollhouses
Dried flower arrangements
Framing
Glass blowing
Jewelry—design, repair, restyling, sales
Lampshades
Leather work
Metal design
Miniatures—manufacture and sales
Ornaments
Personalized sketches of house, boat, animals
Pottery
Quilting
Selling crafts supplies
Silk screening
Soft sculpture
Spinning
Stained glass
Teaching crafts
Toys
Weaving
Woodworking
Sales Businesses
Educational Services
Career counseling—resume writing, tutoring,
dressing for success
Children’s camp
Educational services
Historic or educational tours
Sports camp for children
Teaching classes or individual lessons in
the following: time management, typing,
study skills, test-taking, public speaking,
computer, foreign languages, photography,
music, voice, natural childbirth, dancing,
physical fitness, first aid, self-defense,
weight-loss, quit-smoking clinics, specific
crafts skills, games skills (bridge, chess,
etc.), cooking and sewing, etc.
Other Businesses
Bed and breakfast
Beekeeping - keeping hives, selling honey,
making beeswax candles
Blacksmith
Boat rental - rent boat only or conduct
charter fishing trips
Christmas tree farm
Coin dealer
Coordinate exhibitions - organize antique
shows, art fairs, flea markets, fund-raising
drives, special promotions
Goat production - sell meat or milk to ethnic
markets, health food stores, and coops.
Make cheese and fudge to sell.
Gun repair
Herbs - grow, dry, sell. Teach classes on
“how-to.”
Holiday greenery
Organic vegetable growing
Pick-your-own operations
Restorations - antiques, artifacts, cars,
boats, and home
Roadside vegetable/fruit stands
Sheep raising
Sod farm
Taxidermy
Trailer and camper maintenance and
repair
Underground sprinkler systems - installation
and repair
Unusual transportation - carriage, horse
and buggy rides, etc.
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