Found an interesting article from the Associated Press while I was watching Gene Simmons Family Jewels last night (fun episode, Shannon on painkillers buying Ginsu knives and Gene trying to figure out how to stimulate the economy -- by ringing the opening bell). The article says Scott Painter and business partner Greg Brogger have started a group called SharesPost.

This vehicle was launched publicly in June and allows Painter to try and sell shares in companies he helped found, which includes car pricing start-up TrueCar.com. However, Painter wants to go further, backing an idea allowing insiders to sell shares in companies before their initial public offering (IPO). A couple of the companies Painter is interested in include Twitter and LinkedIn (sites you may be familiar with).

With the chances of finding a job fairly slim, people are certainly thinking about starting -- or even buying -- a business. But, which industry to go into?

It's a tough decision. Yet, there are still opportunities. To get some insight on this, I had a chance to talk to Toon van Beeck, who is the senior analyst with IBISWorld. Let's take a look:

In order to keep income trickling in, companies the likes of Avon (NYSE: AVP), Mary Kay, and Tupperware are seeing a flux of salespeople -- including professionals forced to take a second job thanks to the recession.

Becke Alexander, the sales manager for Avon, noted that she hears from laid-off bankers and stay-at-home moms every week, but the company is seeing a recent boon from "gainfully employed people worried how long they'll stay that way." In fact, Alexander said, "There are no hobby seekers coming in here. It's people with a legitimate need." This pop in makeup peddlers stems directly from the current economic crisis, but not just from unemployment. A common complaint is that bonuses have disappeared, as have hours, which have forced people to turn to direct sales to make up some cash.

While in an airport bookstore recently, this title caught me eye: How to Build a Business Warren Buffett Would Buy: The R.C. Willey Story.

How could I resist? I bought a copy and read the whole thing on my flight (OK, the book is only 192 pages).

The author of the book, Jeff Benedict, tracks the entrepreneurial career of Bill Child, who transformed a furniture business -- R.C. Willey -- into a retailing giant (he came on board the company in the mid 1950s when his father-in-law died).

Even during economic expansions, the failure rate for small businesses is high. Of course, things are even worse now, in light of the falling GDP and rising unemployment.

However, if a business needs to close down, the risks may be much larger than the overall investment. For example, in times of economic distress, there's likely to be a higher likelihood for lawsuits that can expose a small business owner to personal liability.

Selling a business can be thrilling and frightening. For most business owners, this is a one-time event. And, it will likely be critical in terms of retirement.

Unfortunately, it's not uncommon to make some big blunders, which usually cannot be undone.

So, what are some things to consider? Let's take a look.

This is the market view from five prominent stock market bloggers. I asked them each one simple question: Where do you think the market is headed, and why? Here are their responses (listed in alphabetical order):

James Altucher – TheStreet.com

Altucher is a financial journalist for the Financial Times, daily contributor to TheStreet.com (NASDAQ: TSCM), and founder of Stockpickr. His articles cover every angle of the market; he also stars in feature videos with other financial luminaries. He is the author of Trade like a Hedge Fund, Trade Like Warren Buffett, SuperCa$h, andThe Forever Portfolio.

"The market sold off too much. S&P 700 was anticipating the apocalypse, which is not happening. With $15 trillion in stimulus worldwide happening over the next one to four years there is only one hedge for inflation: owning a broad spectrum of stocks. Buy internets, nuclear energy (Altucher mentions Shaw Group (NYSE: SGR), Cameco Corp (NYSE: CCJ) and USEC Inc (NYSE: USU) in THIS video segment), gold producers, and healthcare stocks."

Bankrate, Inc. (Nasdaq: RATE) is one of the top financial sites on the Web. And one of the main reasons it does so well: organic traffic.

Huh? Well, this means that when you search on popular terms and phrases on Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) and Yahoo! (Nasdaq: YHOO), Bankrate's site is often on the first page. This is essentially free traffic.

So, how can you benefit from this? Of course, there are many strategies. But, there are some things you can do to get started. Let's take a look:

Optimize your page: You want to make it easy for search engines to index your pages. This means making sure that each web page title is unique and reflects the key search phrases that your users enter (the process is known as "search engine optimization" or SEO).

There is a region in Egypt's eastern desert, near the Red Sea, called the Sukari. Sukari is believed to contain a large gold deposit.

The existence of the deposit has been known for many years but was forbidden to exploration by Gamal Abdel Nasser, Egypt's president from 1956 to 1970

A company called Centamin bought the rights to explore and mine the Sukari from two Egyptian-Australians named El-Raghy and his son Josef who had been developing it since 1999.

While there are many pie shops, few have risen to the heights of Marie Callender's. Of course, part of the success came from the scrumptious food.

Another key was Don Callender's business smarts. Don Callender was the son of Cal and Marie -- who started a wholesale bakery.

Unfortunately, he died the past week. He was 81 years old.

Started in 1948, Marie Callender's grew slowly, despite the tremendous hard work. Don, however, saw a big opportunity. Why not turn the wholesale business into a restaurant?

This was in the mid 1960s. It was perfect timing as America underwent a growth spurt.

But Don also realized he needed to be highly disciplined with costs as well quality. And it worked. By the mid 1980s, Don grew the business to 120 locations and then sold out to Ramada for about $80 million.

He didn't stop there. He continued to invent new restaurants, such as Babe's Barbecue and Brewhouse.