Lemonade & Baklava: Young Entrepreneurs get serious!

Summertime is synonymous with lemonade stands. It was no different in our house. The girls had asked one day if they could do a lemonade stand (last minute, on a Wednesday at 5 pm..with no supplies). I said that I would help them, but only if we planned it from a business point of view. That meant planning, location, supplies, a cash drawer, etc. If they were serious, I was there to offer support…and baklava.

After much discussion, we realized that our house did not provide enough exposure for their business. A pop up Lemonade stand at the empty Starbucks on 15&15th in sugarhouse would be perfect on a Saturday! Location: Check!

Next,  the girls wanted baklava, Lemon cookies, and Del’s lemonade. Plan: Check!

A trip to the dollar store provided all our supplies. We saved the receipts because we were going to do a profit/loss sheet at the end of the day. Their color scheme was blue, yellow and green. Cups, napkins, and a nice dispenser would put the stand together and make it stand out on the corner.  Supplies: Check!

I told them that they needed to start with a cash drawer so that they could easily provide change for their customers. The littlest counted the coins and wrote them down, while the older one recorded the cash. They asked how come we needed to count the drawer ahead of time. I told them that they needed to know what they began with in order to know what they made at the end of the day. We would later count the drawer and subtract the opening amount.

In 2 hours, they sold about $87.00 in lemonade and food. Not bad! Next, they subtracted their cost for supplies ($30) and divided the remaining $57.00 between the 2 of them. By the end of our profit and loss math, they both looked at me and said: “UFF! Having a lemonade stand takes a lot of time and money to start!! When can we do it again?!!”

Our intention is to have a pop up food and beverage stand each month, but next time they want to do tattoos. It would be great to have a little kids market for all the neighborhood kids to try their hand at Entrepreneurship! Stay tuned for their next Pop Up Lemonade stand and place your orders early before they run out!