"Forget Web sites and molecular imaging. The biggest fields of opportunity for aspiring entrepreneurs are the same mundane ventures that have been kicking around for decades.
Think landscaping companies, child-care providers, janitorial services and nail and hair salons. In a generally buoyant market for low-technology businesses, those are four of the biggest winners by far. Altogether, sole proprietorships in the United States, a rough measure of the size of the small-business low-technology sector, grew by nearly 4 percent in 2002, the latest year with statistics available, to 17.6 million, and their combined revenue increased by 5.5 percent, to $770 billion. The figures come from the Census Bureau's Economic Census, a snapshot of the American economy that is taken every five years.
And the trends that drove the increases in low-tech businesses have only accelerated, the bureau's economists say, as the nation's economy has rebounded and employment has recovered."
Read more in this NY Times article.