Sometimes it can be hard to remain hopeful when doing my daily news review. Story after story shows the struggles families and small businesses face as they attempt to pursue their American dream. But occasionally there is a story about lemons, lemonade, balance sheets, and encouraging kids to become entrepreneurs.
As reported by NBC Montana:
“When life gives you lemons, you learn about business. Lemonade Day Flathead teaches kindergarten through eighth graders how to run their own business. Children will set up their own lemonade stands across Flathead County on Saturday [June 24].”
The organizers of Lemonade Day Flathead further explain:
“Help us empower today’s youth to be tomorrow’s entrepreneurs! Lemonade Day Flathead started in 2020 and is a free, fun, experiential learning program that teaches youth how to start, own and operate their own business – a lemonade stand.
The foremost objective of Lemonade Day is to empower youth to take ownership of their lives and become productive members of society – the business leaders, social advocates, volunteers, and forward-thinking citizens of tomorrow.
Each child that registers will learn valuable lessons throughout the Lemonade Day program like creating budgets, setting profit-making goals, serving customers, repaying investors, and giving back to the community. Along the way, they will acquire skills in goal-setting, problem-solving, and gain self-esteem critical for future success. Kids keep all the money they make and are encouraged to spend some, save some and share some.”
This fun story reminds me of a recent business pitch my youngest daughter made to me to sell cookies in our driveway.
If we provide the budding entrepreneurs of today with the tools they need to succeed --- a strong financial literacy education and a favorable tax and regulatory climate as they get older, we can watch their driveway table stands of today turn into the jobs and industries that will drive our economy tomorrow.