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Big players like Bank of America and Wells Fargo may rule the financial world, but there is still some room for the little guy to make a buck. Bolstered by an improved economy, the financial planning, advice, and investment industry saw an 11 percent increase in sales in 2010, according Sageworks. And as more Americans pull out of the recession, demand for professional financial advice is poised to increase.

Looking at the numbers, one might be discouraged. IBISWorld's predictions show the physical therapy industry might barely grow through the rest of 2011

American consumers put the brakes on major purchases through 2008 and 2009, and car sales—for both new and used vehicles—suffered significantly. Now, more than a year after government incentives (remember Cash for Clunkers?) got consumers back onto the auto sales floor, the industry is recovering—and could face a big boost due to a simple fact: people are sick of driving their beaters.

While annual revenue for public relations firms flat-lined from 2008 through this year, IBISWorld foresees a nearly 6 percent annual growth for the industry over the next five years. And while employment in the field has actually dropped in recent years, it's staged for a 3 percent increase every year through 2016. Gary McCormick, chair of the board of directors of the Public Relations Society of America, says the industry's recent stagnancy was due to other companies that use PR firms or independent contractors cutting back on advertising, marketing, and PR expenses.

School's the new cool nowadays. At a time where many businesses weren't able to survive the recession and others are struggling to stay afloat during the recovery, technical and trade schools are thriving

Hot start-ups in the coming year will likely be thinking outside of Silicon Valley. It's not that technology and software are on their ways out; rather, a softly stabilizing economy has heightened consumer confidence and opened up growth in areas such as brick-and-mortar retail, boutique consulting firms, and education companies, industry data from three private research firms show

Call it the comeback car.

Setting out to identify the most promising industries for starting a business in the coming year, a team of Inc.com reporters and freelancers scoped out data from three private research companies and researched independently (which included all sorts of standard reporting procedures, including but not limited to: phoning reality-show agents, interviewing used-car-salesmen wannabees, and getting a haircut at at the country’s best barbershop). The data we compiled, compared, and contrasted came from Sageworks Inc. , which does past and current financial analysis of privately held companies, AnythingResearch.com , which provides industry market research analysis, reports, and publications, and IBISWorld , which provides detailed past industry growth percentages, revenue forecasts for the next five years, employment growth, profit margin averages, and industry competition ratings

As businesses go global , the market for second-language acquisition continues to grow due to both increasing globalization and an increasingly diverse U.S. population

On a busy stretch of the Garden District in New Orleans—miles from the frat-boy brouhaha of Bourbon Street—Aidan Gill is rebuilding the idea of the American male, one haircut at a time. Walk into his shop and you're met with a monument to the history of barbering (here, it's almost necessary to call them "barber arts"): Glass cases on the wall display tonics and lotions of ancient pedigree along with old blades, powder brushes, and some downright-medieval-looking grooming devices.

Imagine Twitter had a dating service, where the only options were to propose dates, respond to dates, or directly message the person. A user could see the person's picture and basic information, and if interested, click a button to indicate that.

A shave and a haircut is worth a lot more than two bits these days.

%excerpt% Read the original post: GolfChannel: Tranquility amid mayhem at Masters

They say the Masters doesn't truly begin until the back nine on Sunday.

%excerpt% See more here: Ballengee: S. Africa shines again with Schwartzel