Kim Wonhyo: "Celebrity business failures are due to reliance on high-profit broadcasts and lack of direct management"

Kim Wonhyo explained the reasons behind celebrities’ business failures based on his own experience. Recently, Kim Wonhyo ventured into the offline tool-type market business. He appeared on the YouTube channel ″Business Property Owner Kang Hodong″ and said, ″When people meet, the common question is ’Why aren’t you on TV these days?’ I want to go out too, but you can’t just do broadcasting because you want to. You can even start a business without money, even by borrowing. But for broadcasting, you have to be invited. People don’t know this and think I’m deliberately not appearing on TV. If they call me, I go. That’s also why I started a business.″ Kim Wonhyo shared that he went through multiple attempts before succeeding in business. He tried various ventures such as a kimbap restaurant, underwear business, and Jirisan air business, experiencing many trial and error processes. He also added that it was not easy to run a business due to prejudices and stereotypes about being a celebrity. Regarding why celebrities fail in business, Kim Wonhyo explained that the income from broadcasting activities is very efficient, so when they start a business and the actual profit falls short of expectations, they tend to think about returning to the entertainment industry. He said, ″The income celebrities earn from broadcasting activities is the most efficient work when calculated by hourly wage or daily pay. Singers get several tens of millions of won for performing a few songs at events, then they get a few million won for hosting an event for 1-2 hours, and then they open their own store. They try it once. But if the business does well? Even if the business does well and monthly sales exceed 100 million won or reach the billion-won level, if the business is good, there are many people, material costs go out, and after all expenses, the remaining profit is not much. Then celebrities later think, ’I only need one event a month...’ and keep thinking about going back. Those who have one or two stores fall into that mindset. But those who professionally expand a franchise to hundreds of stores don’t think like that. Although the income from one store is less than entertainment income, if the income from multiple locations grows to the point that entertainment income can’t keep up, that’s the level they can’t reach.″ Kim Wonhyo also pointed out that celebrities’ failure is partly due to not taking real responsibility in business. He said, ″The second reason is that they say they are the boss, but they are not the actual boss. Even if it fails, I should be the boss, but most don’t want to take that risk, so they often have a figurehead boss who holds image rights. They call it a shareholder boss. But even as a shareholder boss, you can do well if you participate actively according to your shares, but that rarely happens. Even if it doesn’t cost 10 million or 100 million won, if it’s just 100,000 or 500,000 won of my own money, I would do it because I don’t want to waste money. If you don’t do that and just take shares, you won’t work hard.″