Remember that in a recession, people will not stop spending money. They begin looking for more value. Your business should offer an innovative solution to a recession-specific need, or an alternative product that they no longer think they can afford.
For example, most people are feeling a budget crunch right now. They don't have as much discretionary money, and some even feel the stress of living paycheck-to-paycheck, not knowing if they can afford to pay the bills. A unique service you can offer during this time would be the skill of budgeting. Not very many Americans know how to create and stick to a household budget. You could create a niche website offering this information, create traffic, and earn money off AdSense or affiliate products. You could also create e-books to sell online. If you are better with face-to-face interaction, offer budgeting services and advice.
More and more people are having to cut their clothing expenses, but they still want new clothes. You could offer them an alternative: open an up-scale consignment shop, or a website that coordinates a clothing exchange.
The possibilities are endless, and are only limited by imagination. Now if, like me, you aren't particularly creative or imaginative, then the key is research. Ask anyone who will humor you, Google until you can't touch another key, and open your eyes as you run errands. The ideas will come to you, and the idea that sticks is yours to own. Whatever interests you most is surely the avenue to pursue.
The next step would be...yes, research. You'd need to figure out whether you have the courage, capital, know-how and time to make your idea into a money-making business. It took my grandfather 5 years to make his business profitable. He worked full-time as a firefighter and built up his business on the side. But after those 5 years he was able to quite his day-job and enjoy the fruit of his labor. Maybe one day we will too.
More resources:
Honestly, a
fter making an involved lunch I wasn't too keen on any of the ideas that started with the word "Make" or "Use", so I'm opting for freeze it.
Many people cautioned against this, saying that thawed mashed potatoes can turn out runny or mealy (that is, gross). The people who said their mashed potatoes turned out just fine made their potatoes with a lot of fatty ingredients like butter, cheese, sour cream, milk, etc.
Now, my mashed potatoes are usually chalk full of goodies like that, but I don't want to eat runny, mealy potatoes and it's not worth wasting a whole batch in experimenting. So I divided my potatoes into two smaller quart-sized freezer bags and then froze them. I plan to use them to thicken my soups/stews, make shepherd's pie, or potato soup. I'll let you know how it turns out!
For more information:
http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/528070
http://www.thriftyfun.com/tf802857.tip.html
http://www.thekitchn.com/thekitchn/good-questions/how-do-i-freeze-potatoes-good-questions-095567