I’ve seen the debate for “cash flow vs. appreciation” occur a lot between real estate investors. It’s basically an argument on whether to take the cash now and wait for it later (with appreciation).  I think this discussion is just as important for business owners.

This blog post is late because I’m totally fried by the end of the day, these days,  I used to work like this, but it’s been a long time.  What has changed?  I’m growing my business; building for the future.  And that often means a lot of extra work.

I remember a story I heard once from the master of taking complicated things and making them simple, Robert Kiyosaki.  He said imagine that there is a village at the bottom of the hill and at the top of the hill is the spring.  THe people in the village need the water and you have an opportunity to sell the water from the spring to them.  How do you do it?

Well, one strategy would be to carry the water down to the village.  You could start right now and the only cost to get started is a couple of buckets.  But, you have to work to get paid.  Eventually, you might be able to hire others to carry it down, but you will probably still need to be around to supervise them and you have all the hassles of employees. What happens when one of your workers doesn’t show up?  Chances are you’re back to carrying water.  Still, it’s a higher level then what you had.

Another strategy would be to build a pipeline.  Once it’s constructed, you just need to provide maintenance. For the most part, it’s completely passive.  Wow!  That looks like the solution.  But it’ll take cash and it will take time.  What if you need money now?

The solution might be to do both.

And, that’s where I am right now.  I’m still working at DKA (my CPA firm), I’m not about to fire my clients so I can build these websites.  But it does mean that I”m burning the candle at all ends right now.