From Gather.com: Home business opportunities have blossomed of late owing to the great advances that have been realised in internet technology.

The wide range of modern communication equipment in existence has also contributed widely to the success of many businesses.

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From ChannelWeb.co.uk: A survey of 862 UK companies has revealed that IT sector employers are failing to harness online technology themselves to boost efficiencies.

Mike Petrook, a spokesman for the Chartered Management Institute, said cyber-cynicism is holding back IT businesses of all sizes.

“We surveyed 862 employers in the UK. We included organisations with 25 to 10,000 or more employees,” he said.

“Employers appear wary of technology but it is there to be used, to make life easier.”

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From PowerHomeBiz.com: There's an abundance of home business opportunities on the internet for you to choose from. The problem is knowing which internet home business opportunities are legitimate.

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From the Birmingham Post (UK): Ashvin Parekh, national leader, Global Financial Services, Ernst & Young, in India looks at the challenges and opportunities for businesses looking to trade with the sub-continent.

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From BBC News: US retail sales fell sharply last month, recording the biggest monthly decline since 1992, as hard-up consumers avoided the shops.

The US Commerce Department said sales fell 2.8% in October. This follows a 1.3% decrease in September.

Sales have dropped in recent weeks and Circuit City, the electronics retailer, has filed for bankruptcy protection.

The decline in October was steeper for car sales, at 5.5%, as consumers deferred big purchases.

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The BBC News website is tracking nine small businesses from across the UK to see how they are being affected by the economic downturn.

Over the coming months they will be revisiting them at regular intervals to see how they are getting on.

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From Businessweek, by Jack and Suzy Welch: The Illinois senator built his decisive win on three leadership principles: a clear vision, clean execution, and friends in high places.

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From BBC News: US banks have tightened up even more on lending, despite the Wall Street rescue deal designed to encourage the renewal of normal lending practices.

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A leading UK business broker has reported a record month of business sales, despite the onset of recession.

The continuing dearth of credit has failed to prevent buyers from finding the funds to purchase businesses, according to Bolton-based brokerage Knightsbridge Plc.

Greg Jackson, CEO of at the company, says:

"Knightsbridge have seen a record month for business sales throughout September, with October looking just as promising.

"Despite the current economic climate and negative press surrounding the leisure sector we are still seeing significant demand throughout the sector."

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From ThisisMoney.co.uk: First came the Dragons, now the 'Angels' are lending a helping hand to small businesses struggling in the credit crunch.

It looks like a scene from the BBC reality show Dragons' Den - except no-one is hamming it up for the TV cameras and the clock ticks even faster.

This is an anonymous business centre off Tottenham Court road with a roomful of entrepreneurs, eager to pitch to investors.

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The chances are, if you've found this blog, you've done so by typing business opportunities or something similar into Google.

I can therefore say with some degree of certainty that an upcoming exhibition should be of great interest to 99% of you (though, as this site attracts users from around the world, it won't be accessible to everyone).

The Business Opportunities Show is taking place on 28-29 November at the Olympia in London.

Dynamis - the company behind this blog, BusinessesForSale.com, BusinessWings.co.uk and FranchiseSales.com - will be there, including me (one of the in-house journalists) and the manager of FranchiseSales.com.

A range of business opportunities will be on show, including franchises, recession-proof opportunities, home-based online opportunities and much more.

Obama, along with McCain, has sought to make political capital out of Joe the plumber (pic courtesy of Ralph Alswang)A major talking point in the US presidential elections is also generating interest in business buying.

‘Joe the Plumber', who has become something of a political football in the States after confronting Barak Obama on the campaign trail, could have fuelled a rise in interest in buying businesses.

Earlier this month Joe Wurzelbacher approached the Democratic candidate as he met voters in Ohio. The man held up to epitomise ‘the average Joe' was intending to buy the plumbing business he worked for but, as he complained to Obama, feared the Democrat's tax plan would result in higher taxes on its profits.

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There are construction opportunities in Second Life just as in Real Life

Second Life Builders Required
Business which has just bought island in this virtual world is seeking skilled object builders to create some attractive architecture.

Dubai Partner Seeking Project
Can launch and develop market for lighting, electrical or building
materials anywhere in Middle East. Send proposal of product offer and marketing support.

Run Your Own eBay Business
UK dropshipper and supplier of games consoles offers eBayers, online traders and homeworkers chance of high profits. No stock required - they ship for you.

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Banks are reluctant to lend to each other at the moment - let alone to businesses or house buyers.

For that reason the means through which Roland Stringer bought his dating agency should be of great interest to aspiring business buyers.

Roland, a former accountant with experience of overseeing business sales,  persuaded the vendor to agree to something called 'loan notes'.

Also called seller financing, loan notes is where the vendor loans the money for the purchase to the buyer instead of banks or other finance providers. Already popular in the US, it's set to become increasingly so in the UK as buyers seek alternatives to scarce bank credit.

Roland also discusses how things are going with his dating agency, RSVP, which he bought with his wife Anne, two years on.

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From Boston.com: The turmoil on Wall Street is aggravating tough economic times on Main Street as small businesses, accounting for half of US private-sector goods and services, begin to feel squeezed by the credit crunch.

Newly tightened lending requirements imposed by some banks are putting added strains on companies already coping with a slowdown in consumer spending since the housing slump took hold some months ago.

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From USA Today: If there's one moment that crystallizes the sorry state of the casual dining industry, it's Ruby Tuesday's (RT) gambit this summer to blow up a store "live" online.

Kaboom! Bye-bye, old store.

There's growing sentiment that this is something the whole $75 billion casual dining industry needs to do. We know their names — such as T.G.I. Friday's, Chili's (EAT), Applebee's (DIN) — but over the years, too many of the nation's 81,000 casual dining restaurants have come to look, taste and feel the same.

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From BBC News: As Small Business Week 2008 continues with a series of events to highlight the importance of the sector to the UK economy, times are now looking pretty tough for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

With it seeming increasingly likely that the UK will slide into a recession, against the backdrop of the continuing woes in the global banking sector, many of Britain's more than 4.6m SMEs face a bumpy ride.

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Who’s Who Publications, which profiles the UK’s leading lights in business, entertainment and other walks of life, is up for sale on the web’s leading business for sale site for just £67.5k.

Its current owner, Jeremy Hall, who bought the magazine in 2004 six years after its foundation, gives prospective buyers an insight into what they can expect day to day.

“The first call we took into our office was Frank Bruno’s daughter’s personal assistant,” he recalls. “We’ve spoken to colonels, actors… all sorts of people.”

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From City AM: In 1886, the retail giant John Wanamaker is supposed to have said: “I know half of my advertising spend is wasted. I just don’t know which half.”

Over 120 years have passed, but little has changed. Some advertising methods – such as TV campaigns – still can’t provide data to prove that a particular message is reaching its target audience.

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Watch a video about how to prepare your business for sale.

One of Dynamis' clients, business intermediary Tony Calvacca, was interviewed about the subject for Smart Money, one of the Wall Street Journal's brands.