Spencer came home one day all excited about the new plans that had hatched in his head. He announced to me that to earn money for the summer he would sell Lemonade. I responded as any mother would, "Oh, OK honey." Thinking that it wouldn't last beyond the first try. But then as he started to put some time into it, I realized that if he was going to put all this time into this money making scheme, I would get behind it too. Not only would I get behind it, but this mean Mom made him fill out paperwork so he could use this scheme as an Eagle Scout merit badge, so he really had to follow through with all of his imaginings. After begging me to save milk jugs for weeks, he experimented first with different types of lemonade. He purchased his own supplies. He tried sugar lemonade, sugar-free lemonade, fruit punch mixed with lemonade and just fruit punch. He liked the fruit punch lemonade mixture and wanted to call it "fremonade," but figured people wouldn't stop for something unrecognizable, so just opted for the sugar-free lemonade because that's what we drink at our house. Last year I bought PVC pipes and had Mark drill holes in the ends so screws and bolts could hold them together with material (old sheets) for walls. So Spencer used these supplies to make a Lemonade stand. His first stand had two rooms, one folding over the other, but after the first try on our front lawn, in the wind, he nearly gave up in frustration and wanted to scrap the whole project. After much convincing, he decided not to give up and see the project through, after all Grandma and Grandpa paid a bunch of money for the first few cups, he might as well try again. I tried to help him think through the location of the stand and his price (he was certain the $.75 was a bargain for a 12 oz cup and even pointed out the size of the cup on his signs. After receiving some helpful hints about price from others, he lowered the price to $.50. He called our neighbor, the Pierces on the corner to ask for permission to set up his stand on Main Street.
Here is his first try on Main Street and he did rather well (around $20 on the first day).
As the summer wore on, I helped him make goals, keep records and involve employees. He set up the stand at least once a week for two months and kept financial records. He employed James, D.J., and three friends, Seth Larsen, Tanner and Jessie Nelson, who were happy recipients of a piece of the financial pie for sitting at the stand with him, holding signs on the corners, helping to pour the lemonade and also snip tops off of otter pops, which were later added to the inventory. Spencer was very good about dividing up the earnings evenly. James and D.J. manned the booth for the 4th of July parade on Main Street and made $16 dollars!
Toward the end of July Grandpa Wheeler suggested that the boys go to Great Grandma Wheeler's house to pick plums off of her tree and sell them at the stand, a great plan that helped many parties. So we traveled to Springville for a BBQ and plum-pickin'.
The boys sold "baby plums" for $2/pound and sold about 8 pounds. After a few day of sales, the inventory was past it's prime, so I made plum jam to sell and advertised it on Facebook. They sold seven bottles to happy recipients, because it was really good jam!
All in all the boys made about $150 from this business enterprise, which helped finance Tae Kwon Do and a huge amount of Magic the Gathering cards. Spencer learned a lot about running a little business and the details a business owner has to think of. I learned (again) that it takes a lot of work (walking the stand up and down the street, nagging to keep records, convincing not to give up, helping them think like a customer, figuring out cost analysis, proper placement and timing, etc.) to help kids learn this kind of stuff, but it really is worth it. Especially because Tae Kwon Do fees and Magic the Gathering costs didn't come out of my pocket!
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