Anderson students’ lemonade stands earn $4K with national entrepreneurship program
A group of fifth-grade students in Anderson recently had their first experiences running a business, as part of a national program that teaches entrepreneurship through lemonade stands. IPR’s Thomas Ouellette asked them about running a small business and handling real money.
Audio Transcript
“We made this galaxy lemonade that we made the lemonade first, he said. “Then we put blue raspberry flavoring in it. And then we would ask them, what type of edible glitter would you like in your thing?”
Austin Nealis was part of the team running Luscious Lemons. He attributed earning more than $300 at the stand to their outside-the-box product design. His teammate, Allison Owens, said the experience furthered her desire to run her own business someday.
“I’ve always been really interested in running a business, but I think this has definitely like gotten me more invested into it and how it actually is, because we’re actually doing more,” said Owens.
Through the National Lemonade Day program, the students spent several weeks planning everything about their lemonade stands – pitching to investors, establishing product prices, and coming up with selling points. The stands were open on a Saturday for three hours, and it was up to the kids to pick a location and advertise their business.
Read More: Children’s lemonade stands protected under House-approved legislation
Like any business, a lemonade stand comes with certain challenges. Annie Tran was part of the Citrus Lemons team. She had concerns that her team wouldn’t be able to stand out with such a common drink.
“It was definitely a challenging thing. Going into it, we didn’t think we would make that much money, because lemonade is not the biggest drink.”
Her teammate Branson Williams says running a business is a lot harder than it looks.
“When you look at a business, it looks like it’s perfectly flowing. It doesn’t take that much effort,” he said. “It was hard to find actual customers to buy the lemonade.”
Eastside Elementary teacher Andrea Meadows says 75 students worked in groups to open several stands and earned just over $4,000 in total.
The kids get to keep those profits and use them however they like, though they are encouraged to donate a portion. For some, holding onto it might be the biggest challenge, as the students are headed to Louisville, Kentucky, on a field trip.
Brittan Holloman was part of the Juice Bros lemonade stand, which led in profits at more than $500.
“I’m bringing $150 because I’m just going to see stuff and be like, oh, yeah, I want that,” said Holloman.
Meadows says Eastside plans to run the program again next year.
Investments for the student groups and other program support was provided by the Anderson Madison County Black Chamber of Commerce. President Tamie Dixon-Tatum praised Eastside Elementary for developing youth financial literacy, entrepreneurship and community responsibility.
Thomas Ouellette is our reporter and producer. Contact him at thomas.ouellette@bsu.edu
