Hello,
I am un-employed and cannot seem to find a job in Houston , Texas. I am thinking on starting a small biz on a shoestring budget. I have worked as an office manager in home health agencies and have experience as a medical biller. I would like to be given some small bis ideas that are recession proof and also have a low investment.
Thanks for you advice.
Gigi

It's amazing how great micro businesses do during a recession as compared to big firms.

While you may not have found a JOB working in your field you probably can start your own business doing exactly what you were doing previously. The reason? As businesses down size they still have to do a job, so they still need someone to do the office managing, the billing, etc.. but they can't hire someone out right, instead they hire a TEMP or an independent contractor.

That is where you come in, you market yourself as an Independent Contractor in the field you have experience in, Medical Billing, and you do that job for several different offices from home.

Since you've been an Office Manager it is likely you could also market yourself as a general virtual assistant. The start up cost would be very low. You'd need at a minimum a small website (you could get one free with wordpress with low hosting costs of about 5 dollars a month), a logo, a business name/license, that would be a couple hundred dollars.

Computer, business cards, etc..

So I'm curious, did you find something since your post?


Stephanie

Recently I came across several insurance companies selling Medicare Advantage and Medigap Insurance. They look for individuals to sell these plans to seniors over the age of 65 who have qualified for Medicare. They don't always look for people who have insurance backgrounds or licenses per'se, and the jobs are usually on a commission basis. You would in a sense be running your own business under the umbrella of company product and a company that supports and educates you. If you go to Career Builder or Monster you can research it if you are interested.

With your background in medical billing I'm sure that you know first hand the nightmare that seniors must face when making the right decisions to get the best and with most coverage. And let me ask, who is submitting the majority of those medical claims if not seniors.

Here are some statistic for you to think about when researching RECESSION PROOF businesses.

---By 2020 it is projected 1 in 6 Americans will be over 60 years of age.

---By 2050 the GLOBAL population over the age of 60 year old will be 2 billion people

---(I've heard so many statements about what years actually constitute boomers, so I'll take this one from my Certified Senior Advisor manual). They define a boomer as those born 1946-1964... "By 2011, the oldest boomer will reach the age of 65 and, after that point, 10,000 boomers will turn 65 every day".

Think how many people in Texas that you could potentially sell to everyday... and I hear Texas is really....really big.

At any rate, that is my RECESSION PROOF advice for you having your own sucessful business, with a company and training behind, and an endless amount of clients. Hey, that sounds pretty good...I guess I should look into my own advice.

Good luck to you!