One of the most difficult things to do in life is to rejoice amid the adversary. It takes the grace of God for someone to be able to do this. More often than not, what comes to mind each time we face an adversary is to ask God the reason why such a thing should happen to us. Take some minutes to pray these prayer points before you continue after you finish this article.
We have all forgotten that tribulations, adversaries and unpalatable situations are all part of life: there is hardly anyone who can escape them. How we handle the situation will largely be dependent on our maturity and experience.
Wealth Creation
Wealth creation has to do with a form of business which must involve money; the size or type of business is immaterial, it could be a small-scale, medium-scale or very big enterprise.
Everything that involves money must have a relationship with a form of exchange: most of the time, it revolves around buying and selling. As such, there is no business that is immune to failure, which may either be man-made or natural.
I belong to an investment group. One of our members was into the cultivation of Castor seed. He told us about the various opportunities in the cultivation of Castor seed with evidence. Our group decided to test the waters with N500,000. 1 counselled that we use N250,000 to test the waters, and they reluctantly agreed.
Our man planted the Castor seed, and two members of the group went to inspect the farm when it was a month before harvest. They brought positive reports.
A few weeks after they returned, we received the news of the death of our Castor farmer. We did not have any documents to back our investment apart from the photocopy of the cheque we issued. The investment went down the drain.
God’s Ways to Investment
Ordinarily, we were to question God why the man should die, but instead, we learned how not to enter into a business deal without proper documentation. No matter how close the person is to us, there must be a document to show the business transactions.
Experience
Most businesses will collapse not because of natural disasters, but because of man-made challenges. It is becoming practically difficult for one to get somebody who would work with a clear conscience when it comes to business transactions.
This is one of the reasons why many people are poor, and they might not get a helper. A fish farmer, who is a member of a Baptist church, approached an investment group for a business partnership idea.
Most members of the group were members of the same church as the fish farmer. The document of the partnership was signed by both parties.
He was to use an agreed-upon amount of money to raise fish from fingerlings to table size within three to four months. The profit was to be shared in the ratio of 60:40.
He was to take the larger ratio because he was going to be the one to manage the business. At the end of the four months, the fish farmer decided to roll over the capital and the profit without informing the group.
After much talk, he apologised that he would make it up during the next harvest season. It took the grace of God for the group to recover their capital and paltry profit. The fish farmer later came to the group to apologise.
He confessed that he made a good profit, but he diversified the money to do something else that failed. That is an example of a man-made challenge. I have given these two instances to explain both natural and man-made challenges in business.
The third type of challenge is created or caused by the business person. No matter how simple a business may look, there is a need for anyone who wants to be involved to go for training.
When I talk about training, as much as possible undergo both virtual and physical training. Take it or leave it, virtual training alone may not be able to meet all of your expectations.
A group heard about the profitability of the Palm Oil business. It was presented as simple as buying the product around February/March and reselling it around September/October. The group invested in the business when 25kg of Palm Oil was selling for N9,000; they bought 50 kegs.
At the time they wanted to sell, the price of a keg of Palm Oil had risen to N15,000. They would have made about a 60% profit margin on their investment. Unfortunately, they could not sell their Oil at the market price for two reasons: the oil smelled, and it had thickened.
It is not palatable for anyone to face disaster or challenges in business, but in the situation where you find yourself in the midst of it, there are few options for you; you may decide to ask God, “Why?” You may decide to call it quits with any form of future investment.
You may also choose to ask yourself the lesson you can learn from the situation. More often than not, many people go with the first and second option; they would ask for the reason why God allowed the disaster and then decide never to attempt any form of investment again.
Challenges You Should Know
Every investment has its pros and cons, and it is only a risk-taker can go into investment. Farmers are the greatest risk-takers; that is the reason why farmers win some and lose a few.
Anytime they lose, they are optimistic that the next planting season will be better. We are gradually coming to the end of the dry season; the rainy season will soon be here. What are your plans for the rainy days? I know you work in the city, and as such, you do not have the time for farming.
Is it possible for you and a few others to come together and form a group that would experiment cultivation of some crops?
We all have our place of origin
We can ask questions on how to acquire landed property for farming, either on a lease agreement or outright purchase. If you have the opportunity, acquire more than the acres you need now, because in a few years to come, you may need to expand.
lt will not be out of place to have someone who will be in charge of the supervision of the farm. This can be a relation of one of the group members or a neutral person. Once the terms and conditions of the agreement are acceptable to both parties, you can decide to set the ball rolling.
Start with crops that will bring the harvest in three months, such as Maize, carrots and Cucumber. You may do this side-by-side with Cassava and Yam, which may take about nine to ten months to reach harvest. A portion of the land can also be used to cultivate Plantain and Coconut.
Ploughing the land should not be a problem; the challenge will rather be the weeding. With the era of technology, you do not need a hoe to weed your farm any longer. A little education from those who know will lead you to the right choice of chemical you can use for the wedding.
The mere fact that you have a supervisor does not mean you will just be sending money without paying a visit to the farm. Once the land is acquired, you must visit the land. After the first and second ploughing, one of the group members must go to see the land.
The first month after the planting, a member needs to go and see. At least, a visit to the farm once a month will be a very good idea. All things being equal, if there is no shortage of rain or too much rain, the major challenge would be man-made.
Let me sound a note of warning.
If you decide to practice what I have just explained, you might likely be cheated by the supervisor. Your consolation is that his days of cheating are numbered. When the chips are down, you are still the owner of the land and the other crops. The price of farm produce this year, 2024, was very high.
Churches have been organising days of prayer and fasting for God to change our situation in Nigeria. I am not an unbeliever. One thing I know is that, no matter how many days of prayer and fasting we have, if many of us do not go back to the farm to plant, prices might not come down.
Our prayer point instead should be protection from those who can destroy life and farm products, and for God to give us good weather.
It is becoming extremely difficult now to keep poultry because of the cost of the feed. Can you think of getting involved in massive local chicken rearing instead? If you have a fence in the compound, please give it a trial.
