One of the first businesses I started back in the late 1980’s was a computer dating agency. It’s to my eternal regret that I didn’t stick with it through to the internet dating age, where numerous fortunes have been made. And it’s not just the agencies that are raking it in. There are now a whole range of ‘dating coaches’ who have set up in business to help people (mainly men) get success with online dating.

Scott Valdez founded Virtual Dating Assistants in the United States in 2009. It now employs 35 people, 15 of whom are writers. They write profiles and even take over the whole communication process for,  what I’d assume are,  ‘personality-challenged’ clients. The average client spends $2,000 with the company.

Is this a business idea you could copy? If you have an affinity with people and some decent writing skills, there’s no reason why not. Dating isn’t going away any time soon!

If you are in the hair or beauty business and you’d like to get a head start on the competition this year,  then maybe you should look at a new trend that’s booming in the United States.

As the name suggests pixelated hair is a patterning system that makes the hair look pixelated. The technique was developed by a company based in Madrid and  was first showcased in Minneapolis late last year. 2015 is likely to be the year of pixelated hair so if you’re in the business why not investigate how to get involved and get a share of profits?

I’ve  just read about a 15-year-old American high school girl called Noa Mintz who is making over half a million dollars a year from a babysitting agency called Nannies By Noa. It has grown to 290 clients in just three years with Mintz charging a flat fee of five dollars for babysitters and then 15% of the  initial salary  of nannies. She now has 25 full-time nannies and 50 babysitters working an average of 15 hours a week and has now made enough money to hire a full-time chief executive to run the company while she goes to school.

The success of Noa’s business shows that there’s money to be made from the most mundane of services.  If a 15 year old can do it while still at school why not you? Perhaps it’s time for you to look at what other  boring but in-demand services you could build a fortune from.

A lot of southerners like to joke about Yorkshire been a land of  pigeons, flat caps and whippets. Well maybe  it’s me who will have the last laugh. In 2013, a Chinese businessman paid over a quarter of a million pounds  for a pigeon named Bolt named after Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt. Apparently the Chinese are passionate about pigeon racing.

Now I’m sure it wasn’t just any old pigeon but it goes to show that there are incredible profits to be made in the most unusual of places. I think I’m going to try and find out if the Chinese are interested in  whippets and flat caps as well!