Hey hey, Flux fam!

Here's everything you need to know today - in under 3 minutes.

Today's big stories

💸 Officeworks buys stake in World's Biggest Garage Sale

🍼 Baby Bunting profits soar (and so do dividends)

📱 YouTube launches new creator tools (hint hint: NFTs)

Oh and get this...

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Officeworks teams up with World's Biggest Garage Sale to save the world...one recycled printer at a time

Background: Officeworks is the Aussie office supplies company that's owned by Wesfarmers. It launched back in 1994...and has been saving school-kids and WFH-ers ever since.

What happened: World's Biggest Garage Sale are tackling the issue of waste by trying to create a circular economy. Their mission is to repair, repurpose and re-sell goods to help the environment.

What else: Officeworks just bought a 21% stake in the profit-for-purpose company with plans to help it grow.

So what's the key learning?

💡 The circular economy is an alternative to the standard linear model we know well. So, instead of the:

• take, make, use and dump model.

We've got the:

• take, make, use, recycle, repurpose, reuse model.
  

💡 The linear model works well, but as the price of raw materials increases...the cost of producing items also increases.

💡So, if companies get their used products back...they can recycle and remanufacture them. It's better for the environment and it reduces their dependency on raw materials. Good for the planet...for business...and for Officeworks.

Baby Bunting gives shareholders a V-Day gift to remember (in the form of $$)

Background: Baby Bunting is Australia's largest baby goods store. It sells prams, bouncers, booster seats...you name it. In 2015, the company went public.

What happened: The baby lords have had a stellar start to the 2022 financial year. Total sales for the first 6 months reached $239.1 million (up 10% on the same time the previous year).

What else: With net profits after tax also up 12.2%, Baby Bunting's shareholders are set to receive a juicy...chunky...fully-franked dividend of 6.6 cents per share for the first half 🤤🤤.

So what's the key learning?

💡There are two main ways a company can pay a dividend: a fully-franked dividend...and an unfranked dividend.

💡Let's break it down:

• An unfranked dividend is where a company makes a profit, hasn't paid tax on that profit and then pays a dividend to shareholders.
• A fully-franked dividend is where a company makes a profit, pays tax on that profit and then pays a dividend to shareholders from the profits left over. FYI, shareholders also pay tax on dividends.

💡However, when your dividend is fully-franked (like Baby Bunting's) it comes with a franking credit. This offsets the tax the shareholder would pay (because the business has already paid it) and reduces your taxable income.

YouTube pulls out all the stops (*cough* NFTs *cough*) to take on Instagram and TikTok

Background: TikTok is the social media app known for the Telephone re-make - and it's fair to say it has attracted a tonne of creators and influencers from other channels (ahem Insta and Youtube).

What happened: YouTube is looking at including a whole new set of features (mainly involving NFTs) to help level the playing field and (re)attract creators.

What else: Youtube wants to see NFTs used as a way to manage communities...to help people crowdfund...or to help creator's mint and sell their own work.

So what's the key learning?

💡The creator economy and user-generated content is where the action and 💰💰💰 is at. And TikTok - being a hotspot for user-generated vids - already has this down pat.

💡So, if brands want to be get in with Gen Z, they need user-generated content - and they'll pay big bucks to get it.

💡 YouTube has always been a bit behind the 8 ball in this respect, so by introducing new features, they might get back on the front foot.