As an entrepreneur, manager and homeschool mom, I value practical business lessons that I can teach my children. Even though they are young, there are some basics that even little children can grasp like polite customer service, basic marketing and planning, and math.
Lemonade Day Waco City Director Krista Brinser said, “Lemonade Day is an experiential, TEKS-aligned, program that teaches youth lessons in entrepreneurship that prepare them to be future business owners and leaders.”
Children love seeing their hard work pay off and earning their own money. You may think a lemonade stand would only make a little bit of money, but we’re talking $75-200 in just a few hours of sales for these elementary school children.
Brinser said, “Moms seem to love the comprehensive nature of the curriculum. The curriculum is app-driven, and makes the lessons easy to understand in an almost game-like format.”
I couldn’t agree more. The lessons and cartoon video guides are easy to understand and fun! Even my 5-year-old enjoyed it and was very involved in running his stand. It taught him some incredible skills that included planning through detailed steps, consistency, record keeping, customer service, and building confidence in his abilities.
Brinser loves seeing all the creativity of the participants with their recipes, branding and “extras”.
Sarah-Jane Menefee and her three girls have done Lemonade Day for three years and like that it teaches kids “the value of entrepreneurship and gives them that classic childhood business model of selling delicious lemonade.”
A program that I’ve been excited about for years and finally got to use is Lemonade Day. You may have seen that the McLennan County Library teamed up with them this year by providing kits in lieu of seed money, keeping the startup costs very low. By using items on hand with the start up kit, we only had to invest another $10 (and that was because we sold out quickly).
Menefee said, “I like that they get to use their math skills when giving change and learn how to talk to customers, which can be stretching for more introverted kids.”
Participants are asked to set goals and make a strategic plan on their location. The Menefee goal was $145 to cover their American Heritage Girls scout dues, and they almost made their goal in one day by setting up downtown and offering a delicious “Brazilian Lemonade” that customers loved!
The heat was rough on participants and sales, but it’s amazing to see how successful the children are even with set-backs that are out of their control.
Menefee said, “Lemonade Day is an excellent way to teach your kids about working hard to raise money and learning people skills. If your kids have ever asked to do a lemonade stand, it’s a great way to do that with them and allow them to learn about what it’s like to run a business. By working towards the goal of paying for our membership dues for American Heritage girls, it also gives them the opportunity to help pay for an activity that they want to be involved in. I wanted them to feel ownership by helping earn the money.”
You can read more about the Lemonade Day impact here. There are many ways to be involved with Lemonade Day, including mentoring, shopping at a stand, and leading your children through the process of creating their own lemonade stand.
Have you ever participated in Lemonade Day? Let us know in the comments below and be sure to tag @WacoMoms to showcase all of your successes!
