- Martha Stewart earned extra money by babysitting at age 10.
- She started modeling at age 13, featuring in television commercials with Chanel.
- She later started a home-based catering business with a partner.
Martha Stewart achieved self-made billionaire status when her company, Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, went public in 1999. The initial public offering raised $1.9 billion, and the stock climbed to an all-time high of $39.75 per share the following day. At the pinnacle of her career as a prominent media mogul, Forbes included her name among the world’s wealthiest and most powerful business leaders on the Billionaires list.
Early Life and Education:
Martha Stewart, born on Aug. 3, 1941, in Jersey City, New Jersey, began making money even as a child. At the age of 10, she frequently earned extra change by babysitting. By the age of 13, she pursued modeling on the side and regularly featured in television commercials, with one of her clients being the luxury fashion company, Chanel.
Upon graduating from Barnard College at the age of 24, Stewart, a recent college graduate, started earning well over six figures a year as a stockbroker in New York.
Her billion-dollar empire had its origins in a small home-based catering business that she founded with a partner. After the business achieved significant success, Martha Stewart bought out her partner’s equity stake.
Martha’s accomplishments as a writer:
In 1977, Martha catered a book release event where she met Alan Mirken, the head of Crown Publishing Group, a subsidiary of Random House. Following that night, the two initiated discussions about the possibility of publishing a cookbook based on Martha’s catering event recipes. This idea materialized into Martha’s first book, “Entertaining,” published in 1982, which went on to sell more than 625,000 copies.
From 1983 to 1989, Martha published several other cookbooks for another Random House imprint. During this period, she gradually became a household name throughout the United States. In addition to contributing columns on home-keeping to newspapers and magazines, Martha started making regular appearances on a handful of well-watched television programs such as “Larry King Tonight” and “The Oprah Winfrey Show.
Martha’s Billionaire Journey:
By the early ’90s, Martha Stewart stood out as one of the most recognized public figures among the American working class, yet she wasn’t entirely content. To further extend her reach and expand her brand, she inked a magazine deal with Time Inc.
Although Martha was the face behind her magazine and other merchandise, she didn’t possess complete ownership of all the rights to them. For instance, Time Warner-owned and published the Martha Stewart Living magazine.
This situation underwent a significant transformation in 1997 when Stewart raised the money to acquire the rights to all of her related brands. To finance the acquisition of the magazine alone, Martha borrowed $85 million. In 1996, she established Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, the holding company that accommodated all of her projects, publishing, and merchandise.
Two years after the formation of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, Stewart took the company public on the New York Stock Exchange. This move allowed her numerous fans and followers across the country to own a piece of Martha’s media powerhouse. On the day the company went public, Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia’s stock opened at $18 per share. It experienced a significant surge over the next year, with Martha’s 70% stake in the company becoming worth more than a billion dollars.
What’s Martha Stewart’s Net Worth?
In the early 2000s, Martha Stewart experienced a substantial decline in her net worth, but it has since modestly recovered. As of 2020, her fortune is estimated to be around $400 million.
How Did Martha Stewart Get Famous?
Martha Stewart began her career as a model, later transitioning to roles as a stockbroker, cookbook author, publisher, and ultimately, a media icon.
[embedpost slug=”martha-stewart-asked-the-singer-to-remember-thanksgiving/”]
