Among those industries riding the crest of the current economic wave are healthcare, family style and ethnic cuisine restaurants, specialty shops, event planners, home improvement companies and construction firms that specialize in building projects for the retirement and vacation industries.

David Catalano, CEO of Midwest Bankers in Indianapolis, a national lender that provides strategic advice and access to capital for niche markets, says there's been an uptick in the healthcare sector especially among dental professionals.

"Dentists are building buildings, expanding their practices and growing their facilities to accommodate more patients," he said. "They've just done pretty well the last several years."

Catalano also noted that growth has also been steady in the accounting industry as evidenced by a number of accounting firms growing their businesses.

They're growing because there clients are growing, and as various Fiducial professional business and financial services experts can attest, there's plenty going on.

Shifting gears to supply a niche

Fiducial franchisee Michael Vovakes of Upper Montclair, NJ, describes the small business picture in his vicinity as a bell shaped curve with some companies doing very well at the top of the curve with a few not doing so well at the bottom while the remaining bunch lies in the middle.

One of his most successful clients is a company that installs kitchens for customers of IKEA in Jersey City. The company bought a small warehouse and the City of Jersey City bought it back from them for a substantially higher sum due to its prime location right across from lower Manhattan.

Several middle of the road restaurants which offer casual family dining are posting profits, Vovakes says, since more people are going out to eat these days lured by "very reasonable prices."

Another of his clients used to operate service stations but shifted gears to open a store in Wyckoff, NJ, that sells ballet shoes and other such goods. The store did $1.2 million in sales last year.

"He learned how to fit those shoes," said Vovakes. "It's a bear doing that but that's his forte. It saves dads money rather than driving across the river into New York, paying $6 in tolls and $20 for gas."

Natural products are a boon to some small business owners and he has a client whose lawn fertilizing company uses all natural products, no chemicals or pesticides to keep environmentally conscious customers happy.

Of the lawn fertilizing company's owner, Vovakes says, "He does a good job of managing. The first trick is if you have any concern about the environment—that's his hook and so he prices it well. He has incentives for people to pay in advance and he has the team to get the job done."

Offering services that more people need

Fiducial franchisee George Powers says that some of his clients are doing "amazingly well" in Liverpool, NY, such as physical therapists and other healthcare professionals who have been experiencing steady growth. "They're just offering services that more and more people need," said Powers.

Other small businesses such as retailers are having a tough time due to increased competition from larger competitors. Contractors, for example, are having problems getting good help and are further hamstrung by high insurance rates.

On the flip side, industries that are prospering are those that provide services to other businesses such as a sign shop or event planning companies.

"The event planning industry is really growing," he said. "More and more companies are saying ‘let's outsource.' Outsourcing is becoming a bigger trend."

Small businesses are carving out successful niches for themselves, Powers says, by specializing in one area so they can compete against bigger companies. Take, for instance, a seller of school supplies that's holding his own against national chain stores by giving his customers what they can't find down the street.

"He has everything you would need—funky pencils, teachers' aides, everything that mainstream stores don't carry," Powers said. "You have to be known for something particularly well or else they [customers] just go to the Wal-Marts of the world. Big companies advertise the lowest price but they don't have them. Most small businesses can raise their prices and do more. They have more assets than they're aware of."

Powers believes that 80 percent of small businesses just kind of plod along while successful companies "have a vision, a budget and a game plan of this is where I want to be in five years."

Can't get enough skilled tradesmen

When Douglas Mieden, a Fiducial franchisee, relocated to Southport, NC, a decade ago the area hadn't yet blossomed into the retirement mecca that it has become. Sandwiched between Wilmington, NC, and Myrtle Beach, SC, Southport is now home to an array of small businesses that serve the growing gated communities.

Construction companies are doing well in building the upscale homes needed by the retirement and vacation industries.

"Everything is custom built," said Mieden. "No two houses are alike." But builders can't get enough skilled people to work on these projects.

Retail operations like movie rentals and upscale clothing stores are also reaping the benefits of the area's explosive growth.

As a long-time business consultant, Mieden moved here "to be where the action is" so he bought a franchise to get access to accounting, tax and payroll services. He has positioned his operation exclusively as a one-stop shop for small business for a sector that's much underserved.

Some farmers are feeling the squeeze

Across the state, Jerry Barrier says it's a different story for small business owners in Albemarle, NC, which is 20 miles from the nearest interstate highway.

A number of his clients are farmers who have been raising chickens for producers for several decades. But this line of work is getting harder and harder because producers aren't providing the flocks as they used to due to cost-squeezing competition.

Having opened his doors 20 years ago, Barrier has a diversified client base that includes clients in the auto repair industry to financial services to real estate professionals. His biggest client is an engineer who works with large utilities on coal and oil-fired boilers. Things are going to get even better for this client, Barrier says, since new laws on greenhouse gas emissions stipulate that utilities have to get their boilers operating more efficiently.

"They've got 12 to 14 employees and he works all over the world," said Barrier of his engineer client.

Barrier performs write-up work, tax preparation and assists clients with financial services and finds that "anytime you can help somebody is the satisfying part."

Just like the bigger cities, smaller businesses in the Albemarle area will feel the bite when a Super Wal-Mart opens there later this year.

"It's good for the consumer but not good for the small businessman," he said.

Restaurants, tradework booming in Florida

Down the south coast of Florida, Edilberto (Eddy) Carrioni says "the place is flourishing with restaurants." The Fiducial franchisee in Coral Gables noted that the influx of Latin American immigrants has spawned many new eateries to serve Colombians, Venezuelans and Argentineans that have brought their exotic tastes with them.

Carrioni knows this industry well because he used to manage a restaurant. A native of Colombia, he also has a Colombian restaurant as one of his clients and it helps that he's able to talk to them in their own language.

While the state is still reeling from 2004 weather-related blows, there are some promising aspects in the aftermath.

Further up in Port St. Lucie, FL, Fiducial's Jim Rizzolo says that all kinds of trade work is booming after the area had been decimated by four hurricanes last year.

Mother Nature also taught some home and business owners a lesson about battening down the hatches since many people are now installing higher quality windows and metal roofs that can withstand winds of 125 miles per hour.

"The storm shutter guys are going crazy," he said. "You can't get an appointment—that's how many leads they still have to run. Some of them cannot even promise that if they make a sale that they can get to you for hurricane season 2006."

The small business upswing

Small businesses are springing up in some unlikely locales such as in Idaho, now one of the fastest growing states in the nation.

"Our cost of doing business in Idaho is the second lowest in the West and among the top 10 nationally," said Georgia Smith, spokesperson for the Idaho Commerce Department. "Small businesses are very important to us."

More than 76 percent of all Idaho's businesses have fewer than 10 employees with the majority of the state's growth coming through small companies. Fueling the Idaho surge has been the state's science and technology laboratories and the many industries involved along the supply chain. This includes everything from environmental management firms to technical support companies.

Quality of life is also an enticement for people to move to Idaho and start a small business.

"We have a quality of life that makes our state an attractive place to recruit a workforce that serves science and technology," Smith said. "Our population growth has contributed to a need for a wide variety of smaller service firms from small retail to accountants to financial, insurance and real estate professionals."

Christine Scott, a Fiducial franchise in Idaho Falls, has a number of hunting and fishing guides as clients who have been faring pretty well since Idaho's wide open spaces are a steady drawing card for those who want to enjoy the great outdoors.

Scott's parents started the franchise business there in 1971 and she bought it from them in 1999.

The Fiducial services provider says medical industries have been going great guns in the eastern part of the state. Major healthcare facilities such as a heart center and a kidney dialysis center have been built there so residents don't have to make the trip to Salt Lake City, UT, anymore for those specialized services.

"I think we're slowly developing into more of a metropolis type of area," she noted.

STEPHEN PAREZO is the Media Manager for Fiducial.