A new year, and plenty of new opportunities. What would be the very best business ideas for this year, in which many economics predict an economic recession?

Aging population
It’s a problem many western countries have to deal with. In the U.S., the Bureau of Labor has predicted there will be one million nursing positions by 2020 that can’t be filled because of lack of educated talent. For you as an entrepeneur, look at opportunities for mobility aid, health care services, aid for the mental or physical disabled, anti-aging products, senior travel, funeral and/or retirement planning services, retiree support. Also think about the luxury items the elderly purchase of their life-long savings. Japanese elderly have small families due to the one-child policy and many own a small dog, pampering it with designer clothes and gourmet food.

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Leslie the vampire helps Abaxis Inc. (ABAX) and Lindsay make a bloody good show….abaxis inc.

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Entrepreneur.com:

Like most people, Darren Berkovitz and his partners were experiencing a common dilemma: too much to do and not enough time to do it. They did, however, find the time to create a solution. The result is DoMyStuff.com, an online community where busy people can quickly find assistants to handle their errands and tasks.

Here’s how it works: Busy people — known as buyers — post a task they need completed on the site. Everything from mowing the lawn to chartering a private jet is appropriate; no job is too big or too small.

Local individuals or businesses then bid on tasks by providing information, such as how much they’ll charge, when the task will be completed and details about the service they’ll provide.

Buyers review bids and choose the best assistant to help them. The site is free for buyers, while DoMyStuff.com keeps a percentage of the assistant’s winning bid.

In addition to providing a service to busy people, Berkovitz feels the site is a great opportunity for entrepreneurs who want to start their own business on the side.

Depending on how much time they’re willing to put in, assistants can turn the extra work into an easy weekend gig or work up to the point of becoming a contractor and subcontracting tasks to people below them.

“You can literally go on [to the site] this afternoon and start making money,” says Berkovitz.

Wallstrip might need a fixer to come in and right the ship, but not clients who use Salesforce.com.

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Inquirer and Mirror:

It’s one of those mundane chores that annoys even the most cheerful Christmas enthusiast but is quickly forgotten shortly after completion in the glow of the holiday spirit: watering the Christmas tree.

Everyone knows the drill. Fill up whatever container that has been designated to do the job year after year with water, get down on your hands and knees and fight your way through prickly pine needles and boxes of neatly wrapped presents, all the while tryng not to spill the sloshing pan of water before reaching your goal: the tiny stand at the base of the tree.

Now there’s an easier way to keep your tree hydrated. It’s the HandyCane, the brain child of John Arena and his business partner Erik Dieknann.

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Angie Mecklenburg is a mother of four in from Sutter, Illinois. Her blog’s about her Farm, God and chickens. Over the last 18 months, Mecklenburg has been writing three blogs. The most popular is Ang’s Chicken Coop, which has the tagline “a view of the world from the coop.”

The blog has only 250 daily visitors, but Angie manages to make as much as $1,200 a month, collecting fees from Google advertising and marketers who pay her to write about their products via the blog ad network iZea.

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Wall Street brokers know how to dance. The Macarena, the Electric Slide, the Running Man…and now the Post-It. 3M Co. (MMM)

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Reuters:

A German scientist has come up with a solution for snoring — a computerized pillow that shifts the head’s sleeping position until the noise stops.

Daryoush Bazargani, professor of computer science at the University of Rostock and the pillow’s inventor, was displaying a prototype of his pillow at a health conference in Germany.

“The pillow is attached to a computer, which is the size of a book, rests on a bedside table, and analyses snoring noises,” Bazargani told Reuters.

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Springwise:

House-hunting can be a difficult and time-consuming process in which it often feels like you spend more time in a real estate agent’s car than you do viewing houses.

Pedal To Properties has come up with a novel concept whereby agents offer customers the chance to check out properties and neighbourhoods in a more healthful and leisurely fashion: via bicycle.

The free—and environmentally friendly—service is completely optional for clients, but those who choose to can tour through neighbourhoods and visit properties by cruiser bike.

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1. Million Dollar Homepage

1000000 pixels, charge a dollar per pixel – that’s perhaps the dumbest idea for online business anyone could have possible come up with. Still, Alex Tew, a 21-year-old who came up with the idea, is now a millionaire.

2. PickyDomains

Hire another person to think of a cool domain name for you? No way people would pay for this. Actually, naming domain names for others turned out a thriving business, especially, when you make the entire process risk free. PickyDomains currently has a waiting list of people who want to PAY the service to come up with a snappy memorable domain name. PickyDomains is expected to hit six figures this year. Full Story

3. Doggles

Create goggles for dogs and sell them online? Boy, this IS the dumbest idea for a business. How in the world did they manage to become millionaires and have shops all over the world with that one? Beyond me.

4. LaserMonks

LaserMonks.com is a for-profit subsidiary of the Cistercian Abbey of Our Lady of Spring Bank, an eight-monk monastery in the hills of Monroe County, 90 miles northwest of Madison. Yeah, real monks refilling your cartridges. Hallelujah! Their 2005 sales were $2.5 million! Praise the Lord. Full Story

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