The fact that your competitor is growing shows there is room for growth. Study your competitor and do what they're doing and improve where they're failing

DO THEM ALL!!!
Maybe Starting businesses is really your business. Not running them.

Create a generic business name, corporation, and domain name, phone number, email, etc that can be used as a central location for every other business you may create. Call it ZAZA or whatever you want. Just make it non specific.

Start with your easiest idea. (One that you can do by yourself, requires the least capital, requires the least time, requires the least effort from you.) Remember "least" doesn't Mean "Little".

Bring it to a point of completion or to a point where you make a buck, It doesn't matter how much but making a dollars shows you have viable product people are willing to pay for.

Set your business in automatic mode by hiring partners, or outsourcing marketing ect so you can do this process all over again with your other business.

Maybe Starting businesses is really your business. Not running them. Your problem is very common among people who are multi talented.

Colleges
High schools
Garages
Local Tech Meetups
Your coworker
Your children.
India (They'll work for practically nothing)

The implication is that sales have gone down also. If that is **not** the case, then hiring an outside marketing firm can be a good Idea and then you can re-position your marketing team to do other things.

If sales have plunged as a result of the stagnation of the marketing department, then It would be more effective to replace the marketing manager. Everything rises and falls on leadership, and if the marketing manager is slacking, that attitude will permeate the selection and working relationship with an outside firm.

Logically if the marketing manager cannot motivate himself or his team how can they manage an outside team. (Also a plunge in sales would mean lack of resources to hire outside firms)

An outside firm should be reserved for those that are doing well, and need to move personnel from marketing to customer service to facilitate the influx of new business that was created from their efforts in the first place.

There is success and failure in every industry and every market. No Idea is a failure or success. I would evaluate the person responsible for launching said idea instead of the idea itself.

An Idea is but a seed, you have to first find a farmer that specialize in growing that crop, then the farmer will let you know if the seed is damaged, or if it is the right time for planting.

So the short answer is to bring your idea to a farmer.

You should try searching yelp, they will give you customer reviews with feedback.

Your best bet is to go on the Java discussion board for this type of question.

There is no "Best",
Do a google search and compare POS
Focus on things like Cost, Learning Curve, and functionality.

Business names cannot be legally copyrighted. Any name is fair game. As long as it does not confuse people. Even if it is the exact name but marketed for a different product in a different way and different market.

Just don't use a little yellow ghost as your business logo and you'll be fine.

No special requirements needed for virtual subcontractor. All submission you give the government will be at your own discretion.