At the moment the news seems to be full of nothing but doom and disaster, fire and famine, war and pestilence, death and destruction.
So it might seem insane to be talking about how to find new customers in these circumstances.
On the contrary, now is precisely the time when it is most important to be thinking about new business. For a start, during the bad times it may be essential to find new customers to replace existing customers who go to the wall. On a more positive note, the links one forges in the hard times tend to endure, and they will probably be the source of far greater profits when the good times return.
In many businesses, bad times produce as many, if not more, business opportunities as good.
If the newspapers are full of war and the threat of terrorism, now is the time to sell life insurance. For most people the chance of being killed in combat or by terrorists is negligible, but it is the fear of these remote possibilities that sells the insurance.
If there are pictures of tornados, floods, or hurricanes on the television, it is good time to be in building materials. The pictures of flattened wooden houses are poignant but also an advertisement for bricks. Again, the brick house would not stand up much better than the wooden one against a major hurricane, but it is the feeling of security that sells.
Even famine in the Third World is a business opportunity. It would be wrong to exploit the starving local people - who, in any case, do not have any money - but when the aid agencies move in, they and their employees will need all sorts of support on the ground.
At this point, there is an obvious question: why write about this instead of going out and doing it?
To this here is an equally obvious answer: even hardened entrepreneurs sometimes feel that there is something indecent about making money out of the suffering of others.
Yet surely it all depends on precisely how one does business.
Meeting a basic need is not in itself immoral. It is, on the contrary, essential that someone does. Indeed, it may be a positive moral good to provide food, shelter, water, healthcare and the like. No one in their right minds would suggest that those who provide these things should not be paid. If they were not, these products and services would be reduced to permanent subsistence level everywhere.
So the farmer who produces the food deserves to be paid. If he happens to be an enterprising and efficient farmer who produces more, and therefore lowers the price to the consumer, he deserves to be paid more.
However, if he reduces production or hoards food in order to drive prices up - which is actually government policy in many Western nations - he is a profiteer.
He is also a bad businessman. If the whole point of getting new customers in bad times is to make more out of them in good times, his exploitation will be remembered and others will make the profits he could have made in the longer term.
Guy Kingston produces and presents the Mind Your Own Business podcast, offering free business advice to entrepreneurs and business owners. As well as audio podcasts there are more articles like this, compelling videos and a must-read blog. All at http://www.myobpod.com or you can network and join in discussions on the MYOB Facebook group http://www.new.facebook.com/group.php?gid=12117784275
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