Do you make an investment or sit on your cash?

In the "Parable of the Talents" (a well-known Bible verse), in Matthew 25:14–30 tells of a master who was leaving his house to travel and, before leaving, entrusted some money to three servants.

Two of the servants put the money to work, made nice returns and were rewarded by the master. Those two were called, “good and faithful servants”. The third servant was afraid of his master and therefore buried the money for fear he might lose it. Although the money was returned, the master rebuked that servant for not putting the money to work and it was given to the servant who created the greatest return.

For some companies or individuals this verse seems to be directly applicable today in these times of doubt and economic slowdown. For those that are strapped with small cash balances and tapped out lines of credit there is little choice. Hunger down, cut expenses, live to fight another day when growth returns.

But for those that have capital and or strong lines of credit there are choices.

1. Put your cash into a money market account. Do nothing. Bury it like the 3rd servant.
2. Go full speed ahead. Attack while others retreat. Buy that new machine, roll out that new piece of enterprise software, expand your sales team.
3. Take a middle ground approach. Invest in something that guarantees to lower your operating expense. Then when business picks up you are in a much better position than your competition.

I am biased toward number 3, the compromise approach. An example of that is a privately owned Solar Array that lowers your cost of electricity producing a return of 20 to 30%. Granted, this isn’t something that will 10X your revenue. However, it surely beats burying your cash in the ground.

Full disclosure, iDeal Energies provides private solar arrays to Business, Government and Schools.