Usually when I am giving advise on which business to do or not do I love to look at the circumstances surrounding the person trying to get into business.
I look at things like their experience,their age, their interests for starting a business among other things.
Age is a big factor when it comes to deciding which business to do because with age naturally comes responsibility and in enters the risk factor and ability/room for people to take risk.
Looking at this particular situation, my first question would be, what other sources of income does he have other than his job?
If he has some then fine but if he doesn't then it's another thing all together. Having other sources of income gives us room to take a risk on business not having makes business very risky for a 49 year old who has spent their whole life in the corporate world with no prior experience of starting a running a business whatsoever.
Like I tell people retiring, if your'e retiring with no other sources of income to your name then safety should be the priority when investment is being considered.
So as much as business is one of the most rewarding investments there is, it's also not one of the safest. When you're coming to end of your career and expecting a windfall in terms of pension you don't want take very huge risks.
Safety first then build from there. You also want to guarantee regular cashflows because you'll need some regular source of income to replace your lost job/info. So ventures that hold money away for long periods before paying like bonds/shares shouldn't also be looked at as first option.
This makes real estate the best bet. In this case I would tell the person to build rentals. Get land wherever and put up these 100k per month rentals. Put up as many as 25M can afford you and insure you at least have some guaranteed money/income coming in to support your livelihood because life's demands don't stop after 50 and you don't wanna be bothering you kids and relatives living off the mercy of others.
Once the livelihood issue is sort then you can take more risk from there and long term investments.
At 30 I would tell the person go for business, you still have a lot of life/room a head of you to burn your fingers and comeback. Your risk window is wider. At 50 if you mess that could be it for life.
So before you ask which business to start we should be asking if starting a business is the best option to start with anyway.
Jaluum Herberts Luwizza is a Speaker,Writer and Contributor with the Nile Post.He is also a Business Consultant at YOUNG TREP East Africa's No.1 Business Management and Consultancy firm that helps people start and grow profitable businesses.
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