nothing says summer like a lemonade stand. and i’ve never seen a cuter little shop than this one that we found on block island. the young proprietress even added fresh mint from her garden.
{side note: as tempting as it is for me to sit here dreaming up what my picture-perfect adult lemonade stand would look like (wooden cart, handkerchiefs, fresh flowers, berries, etc.), i’m resisting the urge. when i was little, my sisters and i had two businesses. well, two that were successful anyway. shockingly, no one bought into our “neighborhood newspaper” scheme, despite the fact that it was printed on legal sized paper on a real copy machine. One of our businesses was selling cans of soda (and found golf balls) to golfers on the course, and the other was selling bouquets of cut flowers from my mom’s garden to passersby on the street. things were really hopping for a little while, but in both cases adult neighbors joined in on the fun and began their own adult-sized stands that effectively shut down our shops. i swear i’m not still as bitter as i sound, but i do think some things should be left just for kids only…}
what about you? what were your first forays into the business world?
15 Comments
I love a tall glass of lemonade in the summer!! xoxo
my parents set us up a roadside vegetable stand every summer morning. they (we) charged neighborly prices, but we still did pretty well. our take… a trip to friendly's at the end of the summer.
they might owe us some back pay.
Whoa. You were a way more business savvy child than I. I usually tried to run an origami business (selling folded paper cups) but I never branched out much and my parents weren't willing to buy enough cups to sustain it long term. Sad.
I started a card company in 4th grade. Mary-fairy Card Company sold hand drawn Christmas cards to one very easily persuaded grandmother.
super sweet, indeed
My sister and I sold art that was taped to the garage door. 🙂
ha! keep the stories coming. i love these!
i remember selling brown lunch sacks full of flower petals and other smelly things like pine needles door to door, in our red radio flyer.
what fun memories.
I went door to door selling bracelets made out of my mother's embroidery thread… very kind neighbors to buy them too. Ten cents!
Funny to hear that adults would butt in on your thriving flower business!
hHppy Wednesday :^)
i once went door-to-door and asked neighbors to buy raffle tickets to win a box of nutri-grain bars. i kid you not.
i made about $4 and i was only 8. to be fair, nutri-grain bars were very new to the market then.
really weird about the adults taking over. bummer! and i like your little lemonade-with-mint lady's style.
we were really into lemonade and kool-aid stands growing up, too. can't wait to find the good ones in our new neighborhood now that i'm a grownup. (i'm a grownup?)
finally, you've been one busy and inspiring gal. thanks for the sweet note.
Even mint… I like this stand.
Catering to the golfers was a smart move. Bad adults! They should have let you be.
Our big twist was to serve freshly made popcorn along with our lemonade. We had no adult competitors 🙂
i had quite the babysitting business
It's been so dreary and un-Spring like around here I'm now dreaming of hot days and lemonade (sigh).
hehe that's so sweet that you sold flowers from your garden! I made cards, bookmarks and other little things. I'd collect the money together and send it to animal charities. I also had a monthly newsletter that I'd send to my penpals, but many of them stopped writing to me as they felt it wasn't personal enough. I don't blame them! I think that was an early version of blogging hehe.
those photos are so sweet and definitely make me think summer 🙂 I wasn't much of an entrepreneur as a child which is a shame because my mom's got the bug and I just didn't inherit any of it. my mom used to draw paper dolls with a full range of outfits to sell to her classmates!
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