Wonka is a children’s movie, but it also has some valuable economic lessons to take into account. If you love chocolate, chances are you’ve seen it. If not, at least for the actors, especially since they play, among others, Rowan Atkinson (Mr. Bean), Hugh Grant or Timothée Chalamet. Even if you don’t like musicals, you might want to give it a try. You won’t get Hugh Grant’s song and dance out of your head for days.

Returning to the topic of this article, there are some very important economic lessons. It can be said that he is a little engaged in financial and entrepreneurial education.

What economic lessons do you learn from Wonka

• 1. Always read contracts carefully and try to understand them

Wonka was tricked into practically becoming a slave because he didn’t read the contract when he checked into the place. Although the little girl whispered so to him. Thus, for one night’s stay, he owes a thousand times more.

His problem was that he could not read. In Romania, we have a problem with a population that knows but does not understand what it reads: functional illiteracy. PISA tests show just over 40% of young people. These are future clients of banks.

Thus, if there was a contract in front of them, many would not understand what was written there.

“The devil is in the details” when it comes to some contracts.

• 2. Invest in what you know

Wonka knew how to make one thing very well: chocolate. So his business idea, his dream was in this field. He succeeded because he knew how, he was a good chocolatier. That’s all he knew how to do.

Many say they want to start a business in the future but have no experience in any industry. Thus, they create small businesses that quickly fail. Knowing the area in which you invest is the starting point in business. Even on the stock exchange.

Many end up switching to cryptocurrencies. Only those who understand them or know the market well succeed. That is, they are good at technical analysis.

In the case of the capital market, you need to understand how it works, what are the risks, know fundamental and technical analysis, learn about the companies that interest you. If you jump right into short investing, you will most likely lose all your money.

• 3. Look for like-minded people or partners if you lack experience or money

Wonka is joined by other slaves in the laundry who help him raise money and sell his chocolate to open his chocolate shop. In the beginning, he was something of an Uber of chocolate, meaning chocolate went to customers, which gave him flexibility and helped him avoid being caught by the cartel-controlled police.

It is important to look for partners when you see that you cannot succeed on your own: due to lack of funding or experience in the supply chain, tax issues, etc.

Try asking experts to help you and be flexible to other people’s ideas. It can give a business a dimension you wouldn’t have thought of, or lead you to a new product, a new market.

• 4. Try to come up with an innovative product

Wonka sold magical chocolate, much better than the chocolate cartel. He had a product that no one else had that was the foundation of his success.

The lesson is to come up with an innovative or high-quality product, find that need in the market or create a new market, even in an already existing niche.

• 5. Collusion kills competition and raises prices

Wonka confronts the chocolate cartel. 3 entrepreneurs control the quantity and price of chocolate. Even the quality. Because of them, no one can enter this market anymore. This is how they built real empires.

This is usually a problem when there is a cartel in the market. If there is no competition and the price is dictated by hidden deals, we end up paying more money for the products. The more players in the market, the more chances we have to get better and cheaper services/products.

Going further, if the government decides to intervene in a competitive market, for example to force a local producer to sell a product at a certain lower price, it begins to produce less in order not to lose or reduce quality.

Under these conditions, if the demand is high, the corresponding products will come from abroad (imported). The government has no power over these producers, so expensive products still end up on the market: the price problem is not solved.

Photo source: Dreamstime.com