Looking back at my childhood during the 1990s, I now realize that the Internet and I have a pretty good relationship – we grew up together.

As trite as this may sound, the Internet targeted everyone, but more specifically generation Y. I remember rushing home from school to plug the modem into the phone jack, creating a dead line that blocked all incoming phone calls, all to get connected to the Internet.

I lived for that free flow of information and connectivity to the world outside of my enclosed bedroom. That AOL voice that said 'Welcome' opened the doors to a central nucleus in which I was granted access to everyone from around the world at my fingertips.

The good thing was that it was all free. Even as a child, I understood that these "free" Web sites made money from those pop-up and banner ads that appeared everywhere. I knew that I was being targeted by outside companies, but I understood the value of the Internet, and continued to log on and participate.

When it comes to holidays, Veterans' Day really gets the short end of the stick. Wedged between the sugar shock of Halloween and the tryptophan coma of Thanksgiving, celebration of the eleventh day of the eleventh month usually involves department store sales and the occasional wreath at the local soldiers' monument. Needless to say, this is poor recompense for the men who, in the words of Allan Massie, "[make] it possible for civilized folk to despise war."

This year, however, Maid Brigade, an Atlanta-based cleaning company, decided to show its appreciation for America's fighting men with the Veterans Franchise Giveaway, a contest that is designed to help soldiers make the transition from military life to the civilian world. The program, which I reported on in August, rewards its grand prize winner with a full Maid Brigade cleaning franchise, valued at $45,000. Second and third prize winners get similar packages, worth $27,500 and $17,000. Additionally, Maid Brigade waived its franchise fee for any qualified veterans who were interested in going into business with the company.

All your life you wanted to do something outlandish for a living. But that cushy corporate gig and the frills attached to it stopped you from turning your passion into a profession.

Enter recession, pink slips and voila your ticket to be your own boss.

Unemployed folks are taking the leap of faith and investing their time, energy and resources into entrepreneurial ventures. Yes, believe it or not, new entrepreneurs are on the upswing in this downward spiraling economy. While some took that layoff as an excuse, many are jump starting new ventures out of necessity.

Last year, the hemorrhaging economy cost 2.6 -million jobs, the highest tally in more than six decades. The bloodletting hasn't stopped yet. But laid off employees are moving on. They are providing that silver lining to an otherwise gloomy environment.

Perhaps Janis Joplin said it best: Freedom's just another word for nothing left to lose. While there have always been people who, when handed a pile of lemons find a way to make lemonade, this recession is proving that we may indeed be a nation of lemonade-makers.

The unspoken motto: Make unemployment, funemployment.

Some use the time off to travel the world, visit friends in faraway places or just chill. But others see the break from the daily grind as a chance to chase a long-deferred dream, take a gamble with starting up their own business and test the limits of their creativity.

In the months before Chris Smith graduated from Missouri State University in 2002, his classmates were doing the networking and other things that soon-to-be college graduates do in looking for a job.

Smith, however, didn't have the time. While others were out job hunting, Smith was out working at a job he didn't get paid for: He played football for the university.

Looking for work, any kind of work? Have you considered direct sales? My friend Shira did. I got a Facebook announcement from her over the weekend: "I've decided to become an Avon Lady!"

"Wow, those are still around?" I asked myself. Sure enough, Avon sales reps are worldwide, and the company touts the job of selling its cosmetics as an easy, breezy way to do business. You can earn up to 50% commission, work from home and be your own boss. You could even be the next Debbie Davis, an English woman who turned to selling Avon cosmetics five years ago after losing her job and was just crowned Britain's top Avon lady for earning more than half a million dollars (U.S.) a year.

Half of U.S. workers are women and there are about 10.1 million businesses owned by females, according to the Shriver Report. Those companies employ about 23 million people and earn a combined revenue of $3 trillion.

But only 3% of businesses owned by women in the U.S. actually have revenue of $1 million, compared with 6% to 7% of companies owned by men, according to the Center for Women's Business Research.

In fact, 75% of all women-owned businesses in the U.S. have annual revenue of $50,000 or less.

Nell Merlino, president of Count Me In for Women's Economic Independence and creator of "Take Our Daughters to Work Day," said in an interview that there are several reasons many women-owned companies struggle to break past the $50,000 level.

On a recent episode of Shark Tank, inventor Cactus Jack was faced with two offers that would yield him $180,000 for his product, a device that makes it easier for heavy people to do push-ups.

Barbara Corcoran, taken with this big guy with a big personality, offered to give him the cash -- provided he lose 30 pounds. Otherwise, she said, who could take a weight-loss guru seriously? If he didn't lose the weight, he'd lose the deal. (Watch back episodes of the ABC show at this link.)

"There's no way in hell he's losing 30 pounds," kvetched fellow Shark Kevin O'Leary after Cactus Jack had left the room. "The 30 pounds is gonna keep it off the table forever."

Flash forward. Months later, Cactus Jack has flown to New York City from Iowa to meet with Corcoran and hash out the future of his business. Critical to the next stage is the big test: Has he lost the weight contingent to the deal?

Corcoran invited WalletPop to her penthouse office for the big moment. At stake: A comically large novelty check made out for $180,000, and potential infomercial involvement by TV impresario Kevin Harrington.

Was this medical check-up a photo op for the media? Of course it was, but it was fun. And did this larger-than-life guy prove Kevin "Mr. Burns" O'Leary wrong? Watch and see.

It was a moment worth $6,000 a pound.

McD-ed out and want something lean on the go?

Edible Arrangements, the fruit bouquet guys, made their foray into the quick-service sector this month, selling juices, salads, smoothies and dipped fruits to customers in a hurry. Frutation stores are locating themselves near high foot-traffic areas and existing Edible Arrangement stores. They are butting heads with Jamba Juice, Qdoba and of course the burger giants.

It may be the next logical step for a company that sustains itself selling perishable food. And with all the talk about insurance companies shying away from overweight clients, healthy is definitely trendy. But, in a hemorrhaging economy, dwindling disposable income and an already saturated quick-service food market, launching something new is quite the bold move.

The company does seem to be on a growth spurt; it has more than 900-locations and shows no sign of slowing down The goal is to touch the 1,000 mark by 2010, an Edible Arrangements spokeswoman said in an email.

There are already 20 Frutation stores since its debut, and plans are underway to open more stores in Massachusetts and Virginia.

Here's a peek at the menu: FruZees (iced fruit beverages) are $3.95 and $5.95; FruSalads (greens with fruits etc) are $6.95; and FruSalsas(pita with fresh fruit dipping sauce) are priced at $4.95.

The price seems on target. But will the fast fruit habit grow on Americans and turn them away from their burgers and fries? Only time will tell.

Many bloggers do so in coffee houses, libraries or even sitting on park benches. Then there's always the traditionalists who blog from their boring old offices, too.

But Procter & Gamble Co., the maker of numerous household items, including Charmin toilet paper, are looking for five energetic and innovative die-hard writers to blog from the bathroom.

And they're willing to pay $10,000 for all those potty-produced posts.

The "Charmin Ambassadors" will spend five weeks, from Nov. 23 to Dec. 31 in Charmin Restrooms, located in Times Square. At least they'll have prime seats when the ball drops on New Year's Eve.

As part of their mission, the bloggers will interact with the streams of bathroom guests; greeting, entertaining and engaging them. They'll also post their experiences on their personal blogs, as well as on Charmin-branded sites. Charmin says they'd also like the Ambassadors to create family-friendly videos, a sort of 'tales from the can" experiment.

The campaign "Enjoy the Go" will officially kick-off with auditions on Nov. 5 at New York's Hilton Hotel on 53rd Street and 6th Avenue. For more details, visit enjoythego.com.

On last night's season finale of ABC's Shark Tank, two guys walked in the door with empty pockets and walked out with $600,000. Just who out-sharked whom here?

Brian Duggan and Adam McCombs were willing to give the Sharks 10% of their company, JumpForward, in exchange for "only" $150,000. Their subscription-based website is designed to make it easy for colleges to recruit high school athletes by giving them a place to post profiles of their achievements. So far, 30 colleges have signed up, and 60,000 students were represented, which helps universities live by the strict and complicated rules that govern contact between college recruiters and students. Using their proprietary system, colleges can relax, knowing they're not likely to run afoul of violations, and therefore incur steep fines, if they go about recruiting athletes in the wrong way.

In three months, they've made $150,000 in contracts, and they see it going to $35 million. Instantly, Barbara Corcoran didn't trust that the costs wouldn't inflate, and so did Harrington, and they went out. "You guys are way too smart for me," Daymond John admitted, and he left the table, too.

And they are, too. As part of our popular AfterShark video series, WalletPop's Jason Cochran caught up with them in the wake of the show to find out what was going through their minds during the big moment. It turns out there was plenty of action that network TV audiences didn't get to see.

So we've seen the season finale of Shark Tank. It makes me sad to admit it, but it was possibly the series finale, too, if ABC can't find a more hospitable time slot for it. Most of the people I've talked to who have stumbled on the show have been surprised to admit how gripping it is, and in fact, ratings have climbed ever higher with every airing in the past few weeks -- although possibly not high enough to satisfy perpetually panicking network execs.

As WalletPop readers know, we have been fans of the show since the first episode, and we've been consistently impressed with its intelligence and real-world lessons even as we've documented its dramas. The season finale, the eleventh episode of the show, was just more proof that the show deserves to live to swim another day.

Two of the most memorable entrepreneurs from the broadcast dropped by WalletPop's studios to fill Jason Cochran in on the experience. Sandy Hyun and Roman Peters know nearly nothing about how to gear up a new business and work with manufacturers to create their iPod covers, but they were smart enough to seek assistance in the Shark Tank. How did it go? They dropped by WalletPop to talk about their experience so far.



After the jump, find out what went down on the show:

Gayla Bentley made quite an impression Tuesday on ABC's Shark Tank. She's a big lady with a big vision: to create the first globally successful luxury fashion line for women of size 12 or larger. In fact, now that she's got the investment she needs, you may be hearing from her again.

WalletPop's Jason Cochran talked to Bentley about her success in obtaining the capital she needs to bring her garments to a wider market, and we got the video interview on tape as part of our popular AfterShark series.

As the ninth episode of ABC's Shark Tank unspooled, we met Dan Mackey. When he saw that California was dumping sugary sodas from the schools, he realized there was an opening for something organic and low-glycemic, with no high fructose corn syrup: his Chill Soda.

"A lot of people have great ideas. It's just a matter of doing something about it," he told us. And he's right about that. He only wanted $50,000, but for just 10% equity. Using agave nectar, it has about half the calories of the regular sodas on the market. Right away, the pitch started to go flat, when Kevin O'Leary asked what was the one thing that marked the ability to sell in the market, and Mackey was apparently too nervous to answer. "Distribution!" O'Leary said. "Sorry, I thought that was a given," Mackey said, and then said he already had a distributor working away, although he had only sold 250 cans. "You're getting in on the ground floor of this." You could hear a cricket in the Tank until Daymond John pressed a little more, and Mackey clarified: That was 250 thousand cans, worth $175,000 in sales. "I'm a marketing guy. I'm not in the beverage industry," he said, and the Sharks knew it was time to go for blood. "You should never have ever told me that you do not know that business. I'm out," said Daymond John.

WalletPop's Jason Cochran caught up with Dan Mackey for our popular AfterShark series: