Kim Kardashian, an American media personality, socialite, model, businesswoman and actress. The Kardashians haven’t always been in the spotlight since the beginning. Many people believe that they are talentless and are just making money out of no where. But it is not entirely true. They are making money because they know how to or at least Kris Jenner does. Her marketing skills and business savvy nature has a major role in the success of the Kardashians.

Kardashian’s early life

Kimberly Noel Kardashian was born on October 21, 1980, in Los Angeles, California, to Robert and Kris Kardashian.She has an older sister, Kourtney, a younger sister, Khloé, and a younger brother, Rob.
After their parents divorced in 1991, her mother married again that year, to Bruce Jenner. In 1994, her father represented football player O. J. Simpson during his murder trial. Simpson is Kardashian’s godfather. Robert Kardashian passed away in 2003 of cancer.
In her 20s, she was a close friend and stylist of socialite Paris Hilton, through whom Kardashian first gained the media attention.

Career growth of Kim Kardashian

First media attention

Kardashian got her first stint in show business as friend and stylist of Paris Hilton, appearing as a guest on various episodes of Hilton’s reality television series The Simple Life between 2003 and 2006.

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Keeping up with the Kardashians’ success (2006-2009)

The reality television series starring the Kardashian Jenner family got a huge attention from the audience and became a turning point in the life of Kim Kardashian and her family.
In 2006, Kardashian opened the boutique shop D-A-S-H in Calabasas, California with her sisters. In February 2007, a sex tape made by Kardashian and Ray J in 2002 was leaked.
Kardashian filed a lawsuit against Vivid Entertainment, for distributing the tape as Kim Kardashian, the superstar.
She later dropped the suit and settled for a reported US$5 million, allowing Vivid to release the tape. Several media outlets later criticised her and the family for using the sex tape’s release as a publicity stunt to promote their upcoming reality show.
In 2007, she along with her family began to appear in the reality television series Keeping up with the Kardashians.
This was the beginning of her journey of becoming a billionaire. In 2008, she made her feature film debut in the disaster film spoof Disaster Movie, in which she appeared as a character named Lisa. That same year, she was a participant on season seven of Dancing with the Stars, where she was partnered with Mark Ballas. Kardashian was the third contestant to be eliminated.

In January 2009, Kardashian made a cameo appearance during an episode of the sitcom How I Met Your Mother, in the episode “Benefits.”
In April, she released a workout DVD series through her television production company Kimsaprincess Productions, LLC which has seen the release of three successful workout videos, Fit in Your Jeans by Friday, with trainers Jennifer Galardi and Patrick Goudeau.

Kardashian played Elle in four episodes of the television series Beyond the Break.
Kardashian became a guest host of WrestleMania XXIV and guest judge on America’s Next Top Model in August of that year. In September, Fusion Beauty and Seven Bar Foundation launched “Kiss Away Poverty“, with Kardashian as the face of the campaign. For each LipFusion lipgloss sold, US$1 went to the Foundation to fund women entrepreneurs in the US. The following month, she released her first fragrance, self-titled “Kim Kardashian.” In 2010, Kim Kardashian ventured into several endorsements including food products for Carl’s Jr.

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Business ventures

Kim with her sisters has already been involved in fashion and retail industry since the opening of their boutique DASH which is located at many different places. They also have launched several clothing collections and fragrances.
In November, Kardashian served as producer for The Spin Crowd, a reality television show about Command PR, a New York City public relations firm, run by Jonathan Cheban and Simon Huck.
That month, she also appeared on season ten of The Apprentice. Kim, Kourtney, and Khloé wrote an autobiography titled Kardashian Konfidential, which was released in stores on November 23, and appeared on New York Times‘s Best Seller List.
In December 2010, Kardashian filmed a music video for a song titled “Jam (Turn It Up)“. The video was directed by Hype Williams; Kanye West makes a cameo in the video. Kardashian premiered the song during a New Year’s Eve party at TAO Las Vegas on December 31, 2010. The song was produced by The-Dream and Tricky Stewart.

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That month, the International Business Times reported that Kardashian’s 2010 earnings were the highest among Hollywood-based reality stars, estimating them at $6 million.
In April 2011, Kardashian released her third fragrance “Gold”.
In March 2012, Kardashian debuted her fourth fragrance, titled “True Reflection”, which she worked with the company Dress for Success to promote.
In April, E! renewed Keeping Up with the Kardashians for two additional seasons, in a deal reported to be worth $50 million.
In November 2011, she released a novel Dollhouse along with sisters Kourtney and Khloe.
In October 2012, Kardashian released her fifth fragrance, “Glam”, which was made available through Debenhams.
In summer of 2012, Kardashian and her family filmed a music video in the Dominican Republic to Notorious B.I.G’s song “Hypnotize“.
In the romantic drama Temptation: Confessions of a Marriage Counselor (2013), produced, written, and directed by Tyler Perry, Kardashian obtained the role of the co-worker of an ambitious therapist. While the film was a moderate box office success, with a worldwide gross of US$53.1 million,critical response was negative and Kardashian won the Razzie Award for Worst Supporting Actress.

In June 2014, Kardashian released a mobile game for iPhone and Android called Kim Kardashian: Hollywood. The objective of the game is to become a Hollywood star or starlet. The game supports a free to play model, meaning the game is free to download, but charges for in-game items. The game was a hit, earning US$1.6 million in its first five days of release. In July, the game’s developer Glu Mobile announced that the game was the fifth highest earning game in Apple’s App Store. Kardashian voiced the role of an alien in an episode of the adult animated series American Dad!, in season 11 (2014–15) in the episode titled “Blagsnarst, A Love Story” on September 21, 2014.

In May 2015, Kardashian released a portfolio book called Selfish, a 325-page collection of self-taken photos of herself.
In December 2015, Kardashian released an emoji pack for iOS devices called Kimoji. The app was a best-seller, becoming one of the top 5 most bought apps that week.
In August 2015, Kardashian was the cover model for Vogue Spain.
As of November 2016, as per CBC Marketplace and interviews with celebrity endorsement experts, Kim Kardashian was paid between $75,000 and $300,000 for each post that she made on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter endorsing various beauty products.

By 2018, according to Business Insider, Kardashian was charging $720,000 per Instagram post.

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KKW Beauty and Skims

In June 2017, she launched her beauty line, KKW Beauty, and in November 2017 she launched her own fragrance line, KKW Fragrance.
In June 2019, Kardashian launched a new range of shapewear called “Kimono” for which she was heavily criticized over the name of the brand, which critics thought was disrespectful for Japanese culture. She later replaced the shapewear company to the name Skims.
In June 2021, Kardashian revealed that her brand Skims would provide undergarments, loungewear and pajamas and other clothing items with American flags and the Olympics rings with a Team USA branding printed on them to the Team USA at the 2020 Summer Olympics and Paralympics.
In October 2021, it was announced that luxury fashion house Fendi would do a capsule collection with Skims.

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Conclusion

These are just some of the major business ventures and deals she was involved in. God knows how many more are there. As we see, kardashians might be famous for all drama and the entertainment they bring along with themselves. But the reason they are rich is because they are business savvy. They keep working and looking for business opportunities. They are clearly not a one night sucess but a combination of hundreds of endorsements and business ventures.