Tag Archives: lemonade stand

Sloan’s Savvy Drink Stand Business Model

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I wanted to offer a quick first grade “business model” if anyone is interested…

All summer, Sloan has been asking to do a lemonade stand. She sees them set up across the street from my parents’ house at the neighborhood park and has become a little obsessed. I loved doing lemonade (Kool-Aid) stands as a kid and I think I learned a lot too. However, my thought was that Sloan is still a little too young.

You see, my anxiety was at work again. Will she have the coordination to pour lemonade from a large pitcher into a cup? Probably not. Will she keep the stand organized and sanitary? Doubtful. Will she be able to accept bills, calculate change, and then distribute it correctly? Sloan is smart, but her development isn’t at the point yet to perform those tasks.

Weighing Sloan’s strong desire to do a lemonade stand with the reality that this is the last week of summer vacation, I tried to think of something that would give her a quasi-lemonade stand experience. An idea finally came to me yesterday morning at the gym.

We did a creative spin on the typical lemonade stand.

After my workout, I hustled over to Safeway and purchased cheap soda, bottled water, ice, and poster board. Back at home, I packed a cooler and Sidney wrote a sign. Later that morning, I set Sloan up in the front of our house. I gave her a chair and placed the cooler beside it. I put a bin in front of her that “displayed” the product she had to offer.

Sloan was in charge of her own complimentary soda stand. To bypass the concerns of her spilling lemonade all over the place, I totally removed the need for a pitcher. Sloan would just hand out canned soft drinks and bottled water. As for the possibly chaotic situation of Sloan making change? This business model didn’t charge customers for the refreshments. That’s right, we had a large sign that said, “FREE DRINKS.”

Our target audience was the many workers who are on our street each day building houses, installing lawns, painting walls, and performing every single other activity you would associate with erecting a brand new neighborhood. We figured these folks would appreciate a small reward for their hard work. We explained to Sloan that she was presiding over her first stand as a service to those making our neighborhood beautiful.

However, customers of Sloan felt compelled to leave “donations.” So even though Sloan didn’t go to work expecting to make money, she clocked out with plenty of cash in a plastic cup.

If you have a first grader who wants to do something fun with the last days of summer, I recommend our drink stand model. Provide pre-packaged drinks free of charge and you won’t have to worry about spills, messes, or change. The only thing you might have to worry about is your child becoming money hungry as those donations roll in. Don’t Blink.

Forcing Kids Out of the Lemonade Business

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Over the weekend, I was served the same Country Time promoted tweet on numerous occasions. I scanned the tweet each time but never engaged with it or took it seriously. Basically, the social media advertisement explained that kids selling lemonade all across the country are being forced to shut their stands down.

I initially didn’t give much attention to the @CountryTime tweet that said lemonade stands were being forced to shut down.

I brushed it off as a gimmick. However, this curious case was legitimized earlier today when I saw a tweet from CNN. The tweet linked to an article detailing that children’s lemonade stands are indeed being “forced out of business” because the young entrepreneurs lack permits.

Once I saw the CNN tweet about the issue, I started to take it seriously.

The article also explained that Country Time, in a gesture of good will and sound public relations, is standing up for those boys and girls impacted by silly regulations. The company put together a team of lawyers called Legal-Ade to fight back against counties and cities that are trying to remove driveway and street corner sugary drink stands. Legal-Ade will pay up to $300 to cover the fees of those dedicated children who actually purchased permits after they were told to close up shop.

I understand that many of these lemonade stands don’t meet health code standards and might present safety issues, but really? In a day and age where kids are pulled in so many negative directions, how can we slap them on the wrist for selling lemonade? Not only does maintaining a stand keep our youth out of trouble, it teaches so many worthwhile life lessons — customer service, supply and demand, preparation, money handling, and so much more.

But my biggest issue with telling the kids to go back inside is it totally neglects the spirit of permit laws. You would think that applying for a permit to sell a product falls on the shoulders of adults. You know, the ones who own a business and will be selling goods to the general public in a commercialized area. To think that a kid who wants to pass a summer afternoon setting up a lemonade stand should be responsible for securing a permit is ridiculous.

What disappoints me is that the people enforcing this crackdown were once kids themselves. Now I can’t guarantee this, but I am guessing during their childhoods they probably sold lemonade at least once or twice. Did they have to pay $300 for the right to sell lemon flavored water out of their parents’ driveway? I doubt it.

I hope this trend stops. Not even the ripest lemons are more sour than depriving a kid of running a lemonade stand. Bravo to Country Time for intervening. Don’t Blink.