The economy is sliding downhill, the stock markets have crashed, unemployment rates go up, and banks are going down (or belly up). Everybody seems to be slowing down in business - realtors are not selling homes, and those owners who do manage to sell are doing so at a reduced sale price. GM and Ford are finding it hard to make ends meet, and… well. You get the idea.

Rough times, and money is harder to find. Let’s look at some of us who are making some good money in this bad time in history. Maybe we can get some ideas!

5. Bankruptcy Lawyers

I don’t think I need to explain this one, do I? Bankruptcy has been going up around the world, including in North America as well as European nations. France is a nation known for its love for fine dining and wining, yet French restaurants are feeling the pinch of bankruptcy. Check out the Google Trends for the search term “Bankruptcy Lawyers”. It’s been rising the last few months it seems.

4. Divorce Lawyers

Tough economic times mean more strains on marriages, and we all know that financial problems are the number one cause for divorce. Divorces involve lawyers. They’re getting lots of business with all those households that are going into financial crisis.

3. Online Fraudsters

According to Symantec, online fraudsters who steal and abuse credit card information and bank account details will make $3.3b this year. That’s a lot more money than most financial institutions will net in profits this year.

2. Loan Sharks in HELOC

HELOC stands for Home Equity Line of Credit, and it refers to a loan that is made with your home equity on the line as collateral. If you default on your HELOC, the loan company can then take your home and sell it off to mitigate their losses in debts. But this in turn, obviously, becomes a huge asset to the loan sharks. In most default and foreclosure cases, chances are, the homeowner will lose a lot of money to the mortgage investors. Foreclosure rates in the US have been going up since late 2007. Of course, if property values drop down a lot more, then perhaps the resale of a foreclosed home may not return all of the money owed anymore.

1. Somali Pirates

This is my favorite one. Forget all the other lucrative recession-time opportunities listed above - check out the Somali pirates. They’ve been more active than ever, hijacking cargo ships full of goodies all over the high-seas. They made $150b this year. That’s a hell of a lot more than what Ford and GM are going to make this year. Sounds like the most lucrative gig on the list right now!

This entry was posted on Monday, November 24th, 2008 at 2:59 am and is filed under Business Strategies. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.