Fever pitch: pull out your thermometers, 'cause things are heating up! Here's our annual roundup of the newest trends, hottest markets and business ideas that promise to sizzle in 2005

Entrepreneur, Dec, 2004 by Karen Axelton, Steve Cooper, Amanda C. Kooser, April Y. Pennington, Karen E. Spaeder, Laura Tiffany, Nichole L. Torres, Sara Wilson, Natalia Olenicoff, Rebecca Villaneda, Jeri Yoshida

And therein lies a huge market--or plethora of markets. "Even within the baby boomer demographic, find a niche--a target group," advises Michael Kitces, director of financial planning for Pinnacle Advisory Group Inc., a wealth management company based in Columbia, Maryland. There's opportunity, he notes, for financial planners to target boomers within a specific asset level, for example, or even boomers getting ready to retire from a specific profession or industry.

Bruce Fenton started wealth managment and private banking firm Atlantic Financial Inc., now based in Boston, in 1994. He targets boomers as his main clients and warns that they are a particularly demanding group. "Boomers tend to be savvy consumers," says Fenton, 32. He has built his business to more than $1 million in annual sales by meeting those demands as well as being highly communicative with his clientele.

While the boomer market is highly competitive, forward-thinking entrepreneurs can also target Gen X and Gen Y consumers. Jonathan Guyton, principal with Cornerstone Wealth Advisors Inc. in Minneapolis, notes that financial planners can get into the business today by managing the assets of slightly younger consumers--who often don't have the same large net worth as boomers--and build a long-term trust with those clients over the years. But whatever niche you ultimately choose, Guyton sees a trend of more service-oriented vs. product-oriented financial planners--those who are paid a fee to provide ongoing advice on all relevant financial matters.--N.L.T.

CONCIERGE PHYSICIAN SERVICES

As doctors become frustrated with paperwork, red tape and stifling patient loads, some are taking matters into their own hands and starting a new kind of doctor's office, often with the help of a dedicated businessperson. "Concierge physician services" is a term that covers patient-financed health care. This has many variations, but most often, the patient pays a yearly or monthly fee for services like premium access, more personalized visits, even house calls.

Dr. John Blanchard, 34, is a founder and managing partner of Premier Private Physicians in Clarkston, Michigan, as well as president of the American Society of Concierge Physicians. "We were unhappy with the service we were able to provide and the quality of health care we were able to deliver to patients in the traditional health-care setting," he says. In a regular practice situation, doctors have 3,000 to 4,000 patients; with his 3-year-old business, each has about 600. "It restores the integrity of the physician-patient relationship," says Blanchard.

Because these companies don't bill insurance, they can have a smaller ancillary staff and lower overheard costs. Experts say family practice and internal medicine physicians are typically the ones who shift to a concierge model.

Katherine Harmer, 33, is founder and president of Higher Care in Denver. She came from a technology industry background and was propelled into starting a concierge physicians business due to the loss of her father and a desire to do something that really mattered. "You really have to do your research, and you have to have good attorneys," she says of starting this business. She handles all the year-old practice's business matters, while physician James Benoist handles the patients. Higher Care is about to earn a profit, and Harmer expects they will have a full patient load by the end of their second year.--Amanda C. Kooser