How to make money during a recession

This article was halfway finished, with the title you see above, when I got an email with this subject line: "If you want to sell better, just shut up!"

Whoa, I thought. Readers often send me emails with the article title as the subject line. But this article hadn't yet left my computer! What was going on?

Two business owners are vying for the same client. Both are working hard, busy exchanging emails with the client, doing their homework, trying to make sure they make the best possible impression. A lot of money is on the line, and getting this project will secure their financial situation for the next year or two.

But something just happened that changes everything. The client, who knows perfectly well he is being wooed by these two different people, has just sent an email to Suitor #2 that he got from Suitor #1. He is asking Suitor #2 to comment on the email from Suitor #1.

I'm in a country at the moment where there is a very large divide between "the rich" and "the poor." The unemployment rate is estimated to be at 40%. Yet, in many areas, the malls are packed, and hotel suites in the city near the water go for $1500 a night. [Note to readers - after getting quite a bit of response on this point - I am NOT talking about the United States. I'm about 8,000 miles from the U.S. at the moment. - kz]

You've got a business to run. You've got a family to support and customers, employees, and vendors who are depending on you. If you stopped doing what you are doing, your business would die.

As true - and basic - as these statements are, it's important to say them right now.

Because as we all are trying to do our jobs, we are continually being distracted by the latest "crisis."

"Look at me! I'm the banking industry! I loaned money to people who couldn't afford to pay the money back! Now I'm going under! Help! Send me your money - via more taxes - and bail me out!"

You can always tell when you are being sold something that you might regret buying later when the person selling it keeps talking about how sorry you will be if you don't buy it. They are selling fear, pure and simple. IBM used to call it "FUD: Fear, uncertainty and doubt." The goal was to convince the buyer how bad off he would be if he didn't buy whatever was being sold.

Right now we are being told to be afraid, very afraid. We are supposed to buy into that fear, to believe it, to act upon it. To fret and worry and rush around tearing out our hair.