OUR 11 BEST TIPS FOR THE ULTIMATE LEMONADE STAND
It’s summer! Our top tips will help your girl be the boss of the best lemonade stand in town.
The perfect summer activity, a lemonade stand is one of the best ways for your girl to start a business and drink in its lessons: entrepreneurship, money management, customer service, self-confidence, and resilience. Plus, hosting a lemonade stand keeps your girl busy, entertained, and free from summer boredom. And our tips below can help your girl find success in her summer business venture!
We updated out top tips to include 11 tips to help your girl run the ultimate lemonade stand and get the most from the experience.
SET YOUR PRICE, OR MAYBE DON’T!
If your girl wants to set a price for her lemonade, make sure she accounts for all her costs to ensure she’ll make money on each cup. It’s not just the lemons and sugar that cost money, don’t forget to factor in the cost of the cups, signs, and stand decorations.
But a totally different strategy is to not set a price at all. By asking people to pay what they want, she may raise even more money than if she sets a price for each cup. If your girl is raising money for a good cause, or a local charity, this strategy can supercharge her revenue!THE BEST LOCATION MAY NOT BE THE CLOSEST ONE
A lemonade stand starts strong if it’s located in a safe, accessible area with high foot traffic. Foe example, your front lawn, stoop, or driveway might be ideal if you live in a busy place. But if you live in a quieter location, think about partnering her with a friend who lives in a busier area or setting up somewhere else in town. But be sure to check with your local government to ensure that she won’t need a permit. Add your area’s latest social distancing and mask-wearing guidelines to the checklist, too.
MAKE IT FUN FOR THE CUSTOMERS
How can your girl create memorable lemonade stand experiences for her customers? Think social media hashtag challenges for new and repeat buyers, incentives (like, free upsize on one’s birthday), and posters of lemonade puns that change daily (such as, I’m a young girl entrepreneur with this lemonade stand because it just makes cents). By making every customer interaction fun, your girl will have no trouble engaging new customers and welcoming back loyal regulars.
THE MORE EYE-CATCHING THE BETTER
Streamers, balloons, big signs, and cute pets are all great ways for her stand to catch people’s attention. Check out some of the bright and colorful lemonade stands on Pinterest and Instagram for inspiration. Or better yet, encourage your girl to let her imagination fly and practice her creativity with her own ideas about how to get people’s attention.
PRACTICE THE PITCH
What will your girl say to potential customers? Most kids get nervous talking to adults or strangers. Have your girl figure out what she’ll say to potential customers, write it down, then practice her pitch. The more she practices her pitch the more it will feel like reciting a line in a school play instead of talking to a stranger. Eventually, she’ll be so good at her pitch that she’ll stop being nervous and may even exude more confidence beyond her lemonade stand.
GET THE WORD OUT
Aside from making a big, eye-catching display, get her a few customers by asking friends and family to stop by and support your girl. And don’t forget to spread the word on social media. You and your daughter can also create flyers and pass them out around your neighborhood. You can also tag us on Facebook and Instagram. We feature lemonade queens and their businesses from time to time.
OFFER PAYMENT OPTIONS
Cash is king. But joggers, walkers, and cyclists usually don’t have cash on them. Let your girl borrow your phone to use your PayPal and Venmo accounts to collect money from her more active customers. Even if she never collects any e-payments, a child with a sign that says “We accept Paypal and Venmo” will catch people’s attention and gain her some serious entrepreneurial cred.
MANAGE THE PROCEEDS
Have your girl do the math to figure out how much she sold (her revenue), how much she spent (her expenses), and what is left at end (her profit). Make sure to let her know that while it’s great to raise money for a cause she believes in, there is nothing wrong with working hard to make money for herself, too.
PLAN AHEAD
Two words. Business plan. It answers the ‘what’ and ‘how’ of a business. Need a template? Your girl can use our kid-friendly Startup Roadmap, and learn how to plan out her business and achieve the goals she sets. Our third book in The Startup Squad series, Party Problems, also has business planning tips your girl can apply to her lemonade stand.
FIND INSPIRATION
Encourage your girl to do her research and be inspired by other girl bosses of lemonade stands. And we can help with the research! Check out our Girl CEO gallery and learn about the many girls who are already lemonade queens!
PIVOT AND ADAPT WHEN NECESSARY
Encountering a few minor setbacks is normal; it’s part of owning and managing a business. Remind your girl about the growth mindset and how she can tap into her inner strength and willpower to deal with failures and pivot to success. She can also be like Sabrina, the award-winning kid entrepreneur behind Fresh’n Juicy, who started to run pop-up events for her lemonade stand and now negotiates with people for a fridge or showroom at different locations to keep sales active.
If your girl needs even more top tips for the best lemonade stand, we recommend the startup stories of these lemonade stand girlpreneurs. They have other tips and tricks that your girl can apply to her own lemonade stand business. And if she needs a lemonade recipe, our favorite (from the back of The Startup Squad Book #1) is: juice from 6 lemons, 6 cups of water, and 1 cup of sugar. Yum!!
