Unit 1 · Grades 9–12 · 2026–27 first edition
How real companies make money: a free unit for grades 9–12
How real companies make money is a free unit of four 50-minute lessons and an optional capstone. It's for high school personal finance, economics and business classes, grades 9–12.
Students use real numbers from companies' Form 10-K annual reports to see how a business earns, spends and keeps money. No lesson asks students to pick, rank or value a stock.
A question to start with
Of every $100 that came in during FY2026, Nike kept $6.7 as net income, including a one-time tariff benefit. Costco kept $3.04 of every $100 that came in during its own FY2026.
Why are the two so different? Lesson 1 lets students work it out from each company's $100 receipt.
Nike's FY2026 ended May 31, 2026, and Costco's ended Aug 30, 2026. Sources: each company's FY2026 Form 10-K, via Nike's page and Costco's page.
What will students be able to do?
By the end of the unit, students can:
- explain revenue, costs, taxes and net income with a real company's numbers (Lesson 1);
- turn a company's yearly figures into "per $100" amounts (Lesson 1);
- tell revenue, profit and cash from operations apart, and give one reason profit and cash differ (Lesson 2);
- explain how two companies in one industry earn money differently, without ranking them (Lesson 3);
- find facts in a real Form 10-K and cite the Item and page (Lesson 4);
- research one company and explain how it makes money, with sources (capstone).
What's in each lesson?
| Lesson | Students will… | Time | Companies (fiscal year) | Standards supported |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Where did $100 go? | Estimate each line of a company's $100 receipt, then compare with the real one. | 50 min | Nike (FY2026), Costco (FY2026), McDonald's (FY2025), Apple (FY2026) | Investing 8-4; 7.RP.A.3, HSN.Q.A.1 |
| 2. Revenue, profit and cash are not the same thing | Fill a table for three real cases and explain the gap between profit and cash. | 50 min | Netflix (FY2021 and FY2025), Chipotle (FY2025) | Investing 12-2a, 12-5a (partial) |
| 3. Same industry, different business | Read short 10-K excerpts and sort what is the same and what is different. | 50 min | Coca-Cola and PepsiCo (FY2025); extension: McDonald's and Chipotle (FY2025); advanced: Costco and Walmart (FY2026) | RH.11-12.7 |
| 4. 10-K scavenger hunt | Solve ten clues in teams, each answer with an Item and page. | 50 min | Nike's Form 10-K (FY2026); Costco's 10-K (FY2026, exit ticket) | RH.11-12.1, RH.11-12.7; Investing 12-5a (partial) |
| 5. Capstone: How ___ makes money (optional) | Make a one-page explainer, poster, 3-slide talk or 60-second video about one company. | 2–3 periods plus homework | Students choose from a list of well-known companies with Cityfort pages | Investing 8-4; RH.11-12.1, RH.11-12.7 |
"Investing" codes are from the National Standards for Personal Financial Education (2021). The other codes are Common Core, for states that use it. See how each one fits.
What order should I teach it in?
Teach the lessons in order if you can, because each one uses words from the one before.
The capstone fits after Lesson 4. It takes 2–3 class periods plus homework.
What should students know first?
Students should be comfortable with percentages. They don't need to know anything about stocks or finance.
If your course has an investing unit, this unit fits right after the lesson on what a share is.
How long does the unit take?
Lessons 1–4 take one 50-minute period each. Every lesson splits into two shorter blocks for 45-minute periods.
Which words does the unit teach?
- Revenue: the money a company takes in from what it sells.
- Cost: money a company spends to run its business.
- Net income (profit): what's left after all costs and taxes.
- Margin: how much of each $100 of revenue a company keeps.
- Cash from operations: the cash a company's day-to-day business brought in during the year.
- Form 10-K: the yearly report a US public company files with the SEC.
- SEC: the Securities and Exchange Commission, the US agency that requires these reports.
- Fiscal year: the 12 months a company uses for its yearly report. It doesn't always end in December.
- Franchise: a deal where an independent owner runs a restaurant under a company's brand and pays it fees.
- Segment: a part of a business that the company reports on separately.
- Risk factor: something the company says could hurt its business. It's the company's own list, not a prediction.
Where do the numbers come from?
Every company number comes from an SEC filing (mostly a Form 10-K), through its published cityfort.co page. One Lesson 3 count comes from a Form 10-Q, a company's quarterly report, and the capstone's Starbucks card comes from its fiscal 2026 earnings release (Form 8-K). In Lesson 4 students read the 10-K itself. Every filing is on EDGAR, the SEC's free filing site.
| Company | Fiscal year in the unit | Year ended | Form 10-K filed | Used in | Cityfort page |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nike | FY2026 | May 31, 2026 | Jul 15, 2026 | Lessons 1 and 4 | Nike |
| Costco | FY2026 | Aug 30, 2026 | Oct 7, 2026 | Lesson 1; Lesson 3 (advanced); Lesson 4 (exit ticket) | Costco |
| Apple | FY2026 | Sep 26, 2026 | Nov 3, 2026 | Lesson 1 | Apple |
| McDonald's | FY2025 | Dec 31, 2025 | Feb 24, 2026 | Lesson 1; Lesson 3 (extension) | McDonald's |
| Chipotle | FY2025; Q3 FY2026 (Lesson 3 restaurant count) | Dec 31, 2025; quarter ended Sep 30, 2026 | Feb 4, 2026; Form 10-Q filed Oct 29, 2026 | Lesson 2; Lesson 3 (extension) | Chipotle |
| Coca-Cola | FY2025 | Dec 31, 2025 | Feb 20, 2026 | Lesson 3 | Coca-Cola |
| PepsiCo | FY2025 | Dec 27, 2025 | Feb 3, 2026 | Lesson 3 | PepsiCo |
| Netflix | FY2025 and FY2021 | Dec 31, 2025 and Dec 31, 2021 | Jan 23, 2026 (FY2025); Jan 27, 2022 (FY2021) | Lesson 2 | Netflix |
| Walmart | FY2026 | Jan 31, 2026 | Mar 13, 2026 | Lesson 3 (advanced) | Walmart |
Fiscal years differ: Nike's ends in May and Walmart's in January. That's a good teaching point in itself; see Fiscal years that don't end in December.
When do the numbers change?
Each edition keeps its numbers fixed, so the worksheet, slides and answer key always match. Data checked Nov 7, 2026.
Older PDFs stay online. Each one says it's an older edition and links to the newest one.
What do I need to know before teaching it?
Each teacher guide includes a 2-minute background box. For more, these short Cityfort Learn guides explain the ideas in plain English:
What if my class runs a stock-market simulation?
If your class runs a stock-market simulation, these lessons can come before it: they explain what a company does and how it reports results. They do not suggest which companies to choose, and Cityfort does not run, rank or judge simulation picks.
Optional further reading
These cityfort.co pages go deeper on the unit's companies. No lesson step needs them.
- Company pages: Nike, Costco, Apple, McDonald's, Chipotle, Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, Netflix, Walmart
- Side by side: Coca-Cola vs. PepsiCo, Chipotle vs. McDonald's, Costco vs. Walmart, Disney vs. Netflix
Company and comparison pages are part of the main site. They can show ads and a cookie choice, so the lessons give students everything they need on the student pages.
Edition and license
2026–27 first edition, v1.0. Data checked Nov 7, 2026. Lessons by Cityfort, shared under CC BY-NC 4.0.
Personal finance standards codes are from the National Standards for Personal Financial Education. Copyright © 2021, Council for Economic Education and Jump$tart Coalition for Personal Financial Literacy. All rights reserved.
Company names are trademarks of their owners; Cityfort is not affiliated with or endorsed by them.
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