Creativity in Business Investment

Money Isn’t Everything

Rihanna is a billionaire!

Her worth was recently assessed as $1.7B making her one of the most successful musicians of all time.

What you might not know is that her music accounts for only about $300M with the rest of the value accredited to her beauty brand Fenti.

What you also might not know is that Fenti is a joint venture with LVMH in which Rihanna owns just under 50%. 

Even more startling is the fact that she didn’t invest any cash at the start! 

How can you build such a successful brand without investing capital?

The original agreement meant that LVMH would invest $30M in the partnership to develop and market products, in return Rihanna invested $30M of her time, ideas and image.

Think about that for a moment. Rihanna was certainly financially able to invest the money at the time, but she didn’t.

The partnership was formed with $60M of value that contained very little cash.

The business is now valued at $2.5B based on what is regarded as a clever combination of global brand power and identification and service of a market niche that had been underserved in the past.

Foxleigh Insight

Almost all of the $2.5B value accredited to Fenti has come from the combination of intangible assets brought by the investors.

In a world where investors are sought to drive the growth and performance of start ups are you thinking creatively enough about the investors you seek or the investment you can offer?

If you are looking for expertise or have it, if you want connections or have them, if you have ideas or need them, do not be constrained by the need to pay for them.

Agreements can be built that offer a platform, personal promotion, personal satisfaction or long term value without the need for cash to be exchanged.

In fact, cash could be the last thing that is required to drive business performance.