Small business ideas for a small town?

I live in a small town, and i own this little empty shop. Does anyone have any ideas of a business I could start? Not involving food.

The first thing you must do is realize that an empty building or shop is just that, space. You live in a small town so what is the population? What service or entity is your town lacking?

What do the people in your town who will be your customers feel the town needs? You could open any business and have it fail because you are not meeting a need in your community it's as simple as that.

As for arriving at ideas for a business this is not the form for you to discover your business.

Do some research in your community, look at the complete trading area the demographics and your target market.

People will support what the community needs, not just a business to fill a vacant space.

Peace

You could open a specialty shop; a massage parlor;a second hand clothing store; what do you feel is missing in your town? Once you figure that out, you could fill the gap.

Given what I have experienced in small towns, yes food is not a good idea because most of the population is over weight. So, my idea has a solution to that, start an exercise program. Curves is popular with the women in the small town I live in, there are others to check out too.

something social might work, like coffee house, with internet. I know its hard or expensive to get good internet in small towns.

Also try a travel company or telemarketing company. You can offer customer service to different companies or start up a turn key operation for vacation sales and more. Living in small town you offer lower pay and can be attractive to some out of state business.

Athrift shop normally does well anywhere because people are always looking for bargains. You have very little tied up in inventory because most stuff you can pick up very very cheap from people who had garage sales merchandise that didn't sell. Some people could have hundreds of dollars of unsold stuff they'll let you have for $10 - $50 if you stop by at the end of the garage sale.

Most people do not want to haul stuff back into their houses or garages to take up space once again. And you offering them a little something for it to save them trouble or keep them from having to throw it away works.

You could also take things in on consignment... that gives you an instant inventory of items to sell without any investment on your part.

Also, take a look at the article at the site below about earning two checks for your job. It's really about being a print broker... and every business in your small town needs printed matter such as forms, business cards, menus, etc...

Both these businesses are recession proof... doing good no matter which way the economy goes.