It just feels like you're walking around in the dark and bumping into everything. "It's always been just me, looking for help that wasn't coming," she added, while fighting back tears. I was so happy and proud, and now I feel like a failure," Bailey, a single mom to four children, told CNN. "I was so excited to finally have my own business and it was going so well, then all of a sudden everything just stopped. But as the pandemic spread, her list of clients quickly dwindled - and now she has none. The time spent together will be even more valuable than the money earned and the lessons learned.A Florida mom who lost her job due to the coronavirus pandemic has been relying on her children's lemonade stand to make ends meet.Įrin Bailey owned and ran a successful lawn care business in Palm Springs.
So is the fun!Īt this point, you may feel like opening up a lemonade stand whether your kids are interested or not! Channel that excitement and energy into helping them see the fun-filled potential of the idea, and don’t be afraid to get in there and help them when they need it.
Could they provide a sugar-free alternative? Maybe offer an iced coffee alternative to appeal to more customers? How about spreading the word with a social media post? Should they accept payment through Venmo or PayPal? Like a child’s imagination, the options are limitless.
#HOW TO RUN A LEMONADE STAND FOR KIDS FREE#
But beyond that, feel free to offer creative suggestions. This focus is understandable, since making the sign is half the fun. (Of course, this may be hypothetical competition since modern-day lemonade stands are few and far between.) Depending on their age, your little one may focus on colorful sign design at first.
#HOW TO RUN A LEMONADE STAND FOR KIDS HOW TO#
And let’s be honest, we can all use this reminder from time to time, can’t we?Ĭhallenge your child to think about how to separate themselves from their competition. While it may be frustrating (for you and them), this scenario provides an excellent opportunity to teach them that you can’t just walk away when you get bored. Like many things in life, lemonade stands are super fun at the beginning! But after a few hours sitting in the sun, there’s a pretty good chance your little entrepreneur will want to close up shop. Positive or negative, the lessons they learn from experience will help them with future planning. As they plan their drink prices, let them decide what to charge. Understanding economic concepts like cost of goods and profit margins will give your kids a valuable perspective with real-world applications. Operating a lemonade stand is an excellent way to help your children learn that it costs money to create something. When they finally save up enough to buy what they want, the sense of accomplishment will be something you can build on for the rest of their life. It may be a video game, a bike, or new clothes, but whatever it is, their motivation won’t be hard to find. If you ask them what they want to do with the money they earn, they’ll probably have at least one goal already in mind. What lessons? Glad you asked!īelieve it or not, this one comes pretty naturally to kids. The venture can be fun, and the lessons they learn from operating a small business can last a lifetime. So, don’t worry that encouraging your children to work will somehow rob them of their weekend fun.
When you were young, running a lemonade stand didn’t feel like a job – it felt like freedom. It’s time to bring back the lemonade stand. You have a perfect opportunity to shake up your child’s routine with a little old school entrepreneurship. Thanks to the latest technology, it’s easy to let your kids spend their weekends drifting along on a digital stream of Snapchat streaks and Fortnite marathons. If your enterprise was especially successful, you might even hear a faint “cha-ching” as you reminisce.įast forward a decade or two, and now you find yourself juggling the demands of family, friends and career. Either way, the memories of ice-cold refreshment probably ride on a warm wave of nostalgia. Perhaps you had a lemonade stand of your own, or maybe you just knew someone who did. Long before Beyoncé transformed it into a cultural touchpoint, lemonade was the commodity of choice for childhood business ventures.