Entrepreneurs go where business leads them. Anyone opening a bait shop in the desert discovers lonely days.

I spent a week recently where ads proliferated for paid instruction in sand-castle building. I suspect there is something worthwhile in artistic excellence no matter the medium.

Once, I saw a nearly flawless depiction of Madonna and child carved into the red part of a watermelon. If anything can move a heathen to faith, it would seem to be that.

And probably in the deep past of this anonymous artist, there was a stage mom insisting he go to watermelon-carving classes instead of heading to the sandlot.

Such is probably the industry of sand castling, the few and the proud aspiring to build Moorish-looking citadels, while other less ambitious tykes pile mounds of dirt and call them bastions.

Consider the environment required for a dog-walking business. As a bottom line, a fertile locale needs dogs, but it mainly needs dog owners short on time and long on money.

In New York City, a bonded and richly referenced company parades pets and monitors their business-doing for $24 an hour. In the doorman districts of Manhattan, there comes no greater bargain.

While it’s outside my area of expertise or interest, a living can be made in the field of toe-ring fitting, a service one printed promotion claims fosters in its customers increased comfort and heightened self-esteem.

Obviously, comfort and self-esteem have no geographical boundary, but the toe-ring enterprise has greater year-round potential in the sandal latitudes.

This ad for a “professional toe-ring sizer” – the horror stories of amateurism in this trade must be legion – included a testimonial, a mother of two who wrote of her perfectly fitted toe ring, “It’s really weird how it kinda gave me a boost in my self-confidence.”

Notwithstanding the preening of certain species in their mating rituals, humans remain the only animals who create commerce from waning self-esteem.

The cosmetics and fashion industries depend on consumers looking in a mirror, not liking what they see and using charge cards to make things better.

Even among the indicators that government uses to measure the nation’s economy, the category called “consumer confidence” carries a heft that rivals durable goods orders and trade imbalance.

This confidence took a hit once the price of gas rose and the value of the dollar sank. Checks sent from Washington to stimulate our consumerism and brighten our confidence largely went to pay debts already incurred rather than buy electronic doodads, or whatever.

Statistics arrived last week that showed an uptick in local unemployment. St. Joseph’s number stood better than the state’s overall, but that comes as no comfort to people needing a job.

Nothing damages self-esteem like wanting to work and finding no employer to share this desire.

Maybe the more optimistic among us should prevail, those holding the view that 95.3 percent of the labor force here have jobs, overwhelmingly a good thing.

But in a nation where confidence means much, the rest just can’t walk dogs and size toe rings.

Ken Newton’s column runs on Sunday and Tuesday.