The Russian tennis player is not only one of the outstanding female tennis players, but she is also very charming in the business field with the Sugarpova candy brand.
On February 26, female tennis player Maria Sharapova announced her retirement at the age of 32. The Russian athlete may not be the best female tennis player, but is certainly one of the most famous athletes in the world. tennis village.
Starting at the age of 14, Sharapova played professionally and quickly left an impression on fans with the nickname “Russian doll”. During her nearly 20-year career, she won many titles such as 5 Grand Slams and 36 WTA titles.
In fact, Sharapova is not only famous in the sports world, but she is also one of the most successful people in business. Of course, like many other athletes, taking advantage of fame to bring in advertising contracts is not new.
According to business magazine Forbes, the “Russian doll”‘s assets are worth up to 325 million USD, among the top compared to other female colleagues. Assets include bonuses from soccer field awards, media contracts and the Shugarpova candy brand business.
Sugarpova is a portmanteau of her name (Sharapova) and Sugar (sugar). The candy brand launched in the US market in 2012, with 12 different flavors, with names like “flirty”, “silly” or “attractive”.
Later, when sharing about her idea for a candy business, Sharapova revealed that when she was a child, every time she played well (Sharapova started practicing tennis at the age of 4), her parents would reward her with candy. Therefore, candy is the industry she decided to pursue when starting her business.
When starting the business, Sharapova’s representative, Max Eisenbud, met with the client and analyzed that the world candy market by 2025 could reach 19.6 billion USD and pursuing the candy industry is not a bad idea. .
When starting her business, the capital the female tennis player spent was only 500,000 USD. In 2018, during a televised sharing occasion, she revealed that the candy brand bearing her name was valued at up to 20 million USD, an increase of 40 times in just 6 years.
However, Sharapova’s career path is not flat but rather bumpy. She has received a lot of criticism for using sweets with too high a sugar content, which is not good for the user’s health.
“I don’t know if that’s fair or not, but I understand where the criticism comes from. I just want to say that I’m a professional athlete. I know what’s healthy and “I will protect myself seriously. However, I also believe that many people have a hobby of eating candy, including myself,” the female tennis player shared with CNBC.
Besides talking about criticism, Sharapova also gave advice to those using personal brands for business. Specifically, hesitation and indecision are one of the reasons why the business situation becomes more complicated when falling into difficult situations.
When we use our names to associate with brands, the first step is to be proactive in every situation, according to Sharapova. Our decisions are extremely important. And certainly each individual’s decision is worth much more than 25-30 minutes of sitting on social networks.
“When you are young, many successes can come to you. This unintentionally makes many people think that things will continue like that in the near future. However, in reality, no one knows what tomorrow will bring. what”, Sharapova commented.
