Investment is like farming, you need to plant greens that will grow in a month, rice that will grow in 6 months, bananas that will grow in 2 years and trees that will grow in over 10 years.
That’s how you should think of investment too so you will have something for today,tommorow and years to come.Some friends usually wonder why I keep putting money in ventures that may not make money for the next 2-3 years for example, Campus Doctor. We have been investing in Campus Doctor for the past 2 years running and its yet to make a single penny despite having injected over 40M into it and injecting more. Many don’t understand why but its a long term investment and we know how long we have to wait. It’s been growing and going in the right direction however.

So you need to have that kind of investment. Some thing big, in that when it finally works out, it’s impact will be unimaginable. You also have to have some thing that brings in money daily. That’s your food on the table investment. The one that will feed you and gaurantee you are on a full stomach. Remember the best decisions are made on a full not empty stomach. Its also easier to be patient with out the pains of hunger. For me these can be things like a car washing bay or pork or mpuuta joint. Am using examples of things am doing myself, you can find ideas you can work on too.

Then you need something that will bring you money monthly and for me that’s my consulting business Young Treps that pays me a monthly salary and also affords me annual dividends as a shareholder. This being the money I use to inject into projects like Campus Doctor, Boroborob to keep them going as we look for investors these being very huge capital intensive projects in the offing.

I recall trying to work with a friend on something. I literally brought money and bought into his business. It was a promising products business he had inherited from his late father but was struggling to grow/take to the next level. He called me to get on board something I agreed to seeing the prospects. I bought some shares and took over the mantle as the business developement lead. Ofcourse the place was a mess and vigorous changes had to be implemented. Changes he wasn’t comfortbale with. I recall he said to me “the things your introducing are for big companies, we haven’t yet reached there.” That was it for me. I told him I wasn’t here trying to look for daily bread, I had that covered already. I wanted us to build something big for the future.

Truth is the business made 2-5 million in sales every month and had vast potential. We needed 3-5 years to be one of the biggest players in the sector. We clashed ideologically and I chose to pull out. About 5 years later the business is still the way I left it, putting food on the table and yet I was past the food war and looking to build long term.It’s important to spread out your investment into things that have daily returns so you’ll be gauranteed of what to eat daily. Things that have monthly returns so that you’ll have money to take care of your monthly needs. Things that have annual returns so you’ll have money to work with on other investments or big projects and things that will give your returns for the rest of your life/long term.

That’s how you should spread out your investment, short term, mid term and long term. The short term creates the comfort you need to wait on the mid term, the mid term does the same for the long term and the long term covers you forever. know

So many changes have come to stay and only those who will adopt and adapt will survive.

Jaluum Herberts Luwizza is a Speaker,Writer, Columnist with the C.E.O Magazine and Contributor with the Nile Post.He is also a Business Consultant with YOUNG TREP East Africa’s No.1 Business Management and Consultancy firm that helps people start and grow profitable businesses.
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