Wow - what an interesting question. Have you considered sustainable services? Services that will endure no matter what the economy is doing or what the state of things is. Healthcare, medical services, education, financials, etc? Or really honing in on a niche — marketing/advertising when budgets are cut? Business strategy while the stock market is down? Things like that would definitely pique the interest of businesses. Define your ideal customer, one who understands that there will be a payment involved. And you have control over when you get paid and your payment structure. You can do a discovery conversation upfront for no charge, but set a time limit. Create a discovery questionnaire as an initital qualifier to make sure a potential client is a good fit for you before you and the client highly invest your time. I hope that helps!