Did you know that most millionaires have 7 different sources of income?
They don’t just rely on getting paid from their job like most people. Whilst they might still work for a company, they have income from money they have saved and then invested in different ways. They have income from side businesses they have started over time. These different sources of income provide them with security and allow them to build wealth via Compound Interest.
(Note: All links throughout this blog open in a new tab so you can read later)
In this blog, I share a story that my eldest daughter wrote after I told her all about Red Bull. I was telling her about Red Bull as most people believe Red Bull is just an energy drink company. However, they are much more than that. They do something very clever which means they don’t just make money from selling their drinks.
How does Red Bull make so much money?
We see Red Bull all over the place. They seem to sponsor football teams, extreme sports, eSports, music events and fun other events like the downhill soapbox races. The clever thing is that in a number of cases, they don’t sponsor these events, they own these events.
For example, Formula 1 motor car racing. They own two teams. This means they get to advertise their energy drinks all over their cars to help sell more drinks. They also make a lot of money from prize money, TV rights and selling advertising space to other companies.
They do the same with football teams (FC Salzburg, New York Red Bulls and many more), Ice Hockey, eSports and extreme sports. They even have their own music recoding company. Each of these businesses allows them to make money whilst promoting their energy drinks.
As mentioned above, I shared this with my daughters as I wanted them to think about different ways to make money. Just like Red Bull does. This inspired the story below.
Boba Becomes a Billionaire by Eldest Daughter Rainey
Hi, I’m Boba. I live on a gigantic farm near a medium sized village. To get my weekly pocket I have to do a lot of dreadful chores. My parents get me to pick up all the fallen petals from Mrs. Gootie’s garden. She is a grumpy old lady who lives on the other side of the village.
One day, I grabbed a bunch of petals and wrote “I HATE CHORES!”
Then my sister Nira saw what I had done and said “Wow, that is sooo cool! Can you make me a picture out of petals? I’ll pay you $5!”
I worked on a picture, gave it to her and got my cash.
I then decided to make 50 more petal pictures to sell. I even made a logo with a sloth, my favourite animal, holding some flowers.
I then paid $15 so I could set up a stand at Corem’s Boot Sale [flea market] so I could sell my pictures. Corem is a kind and stylish girl. She is also my neighbour.
I set up my stand but as I was in the corner, only my sister’s friends and a few classmates came. I then saw Jake’s stand. He had everyone but me at his buying his stuff.
I then asked him how everyone knew about his stand and he said try using a magazine called ‘Big Bunny’. It only cost $25 to get your name in it and then all the kids in the village will know what you are selling. As I had $30 left after the boot sale, I thought I’d put Boba’s Petal Pictures into the magazine. The next week I had lots of kids coming to my stand to buy my pictures.
Now I can make even more money from the petals I have to pick up from Mrs. Gootie’s garden. I love going there, even though she is still always grumpy.
Whilst I like selling my pictures, I don’t like paying $25 to be in the magazine. I went to see Mr. Mecole the librarian, he gave me a book called ‘Make your own magazine’. I copied all the steps and I now have my own magazine. My friends give me a bit of money so they can show off the things they are selling, even Jake is in my magazine. I now have even more people coming to my stand to buy Boba’s Petal Pictures.
Just like I didn’t like paying to be in the magazine, I don’t like having to pay $15 to set up a stand at Corem’s boot sale. I decided to set up my own boot sale on a different day on my parent’s farm. I told everyone in my magazine about it so lots of people came. The other kids who wanted to set up a stand at my boot sale gave me a bit of money too. As Corem is a good friend, I made sure to tell people about her boot sale so she would still make money.
My friend Jo’s parents’ own the local Ice Hockey rink. My friends and I love going there. I’m not the best ice skater as I always end up going home with a bump or two, especially if we play Ice Hockey, my favourite sport. As you can imagine, Jo is awesome at skating as she pretty much lives at the rink. The last time I was there, I noticed they had lots of posters advertising different things, from energy drinks to cars. I asked if I could pay them some money so they would put up a poster telling everyone there about Boba’s Petal Pictures and where they could buy them from. Now everyone in the village comes to buy my petal pictures.
As Jo’s parents were putting up my poster on the walls, the local Ice Hockey Team came out to practice. All their tops show names of companies in the village. I wanted to have Boba’s Petal Pictures on there. I had to pay quite a bit of money but as I had saved a lot of what I had earned, I got my name of their tops. As they play games against other teams, I was now getting people from different villages coming to buy my Petal Pictures.
I didn’t like paying to get the name on the tops. As I was now making a lot of money from the pictures, the boot sale, the magazine, I had enough to buy the Ice Hockey rink from Jo’s parents (they wanted to move to Spain). I now didn’t have to pay for the posters or to have the name of the team’s tops. I was also getting more money as now everyone who came to the Ice-Hockey rink would give me some money and also companies who wanted to put up posters or have their name on the team’s top would give me some money.
I renamed the Village Ice-Shaking Rink “Boba’s Petal Pictures Rink”.
Then an astonishing thing happened, Mrs. Gootie came to my stand to buy a petal picture from me. As it was her petal’s I was using, I gave her a discount and for the first time in my life I got to see her smile!!
As I started to get more and more money, I wanted to own my favourite Ice Hockey Team, The Vacay Sloths. They play in the town next to our village and I now own that team. As they play all over the country and are on TV, everyone is asking to buy Boba’s Petal Pictures.
Of course I’ve been following the 3 Rules of Wealth [LINK] that my parents told me so I’m investing at least 10% of all the money that I have ever got. I’m now a BILLIONAIRE!!
The End!
Why is this story important for kids?
The key message from my eldest daughter's story is that we should all look out for different ways to earn money. The younger our kids can understand that there are many different ways to make money, the greater advantage they'll have in life. It will also provide them with security and freedom when they adults as they won't just be relying on their jobs for money.
Why not get your kids to think of different ways they can make money?
Kids have a great imagination and therefore will be able to come up with ideas that we as adults probably never think of.
You never know, your kids could have entrepreneurial talent. Just like my old neighbour Harry (you can find out more about the real-life businesses young Harry started here).
Thanks for reading. And thank you to those who have been sharing my blogs with their friends to help them start teaching their kids about money.
Will
P.S. If your kids enjoyed this story, they’ll love the ‘Happy Farmer, Sad Farmer’ story as it is also about clever ways to grow a business.