In an effort to relieve some of the guilt for not bringing in any income, I agreed to help the kids with a lemonade stand today. This was not to be a Pottery Barn stand, with the lemon shaped ice cubes and matching straw dispenser and awnings, but an old-fashioned run-by-kids-using-mom's-card-table affair.They did come up with a business plan, though: make enough money to buy an ipod. Well, either an ipod or a smoothie.
Grayson took charge of profit maximization, carefully coaching the 6-year-old wait staff on number of ice cubes and ounces allowed per cup, as well as drilling the girls on "cute faces" to coerce new customers. Lucie wanted to be the main squeezer, but when her hands proved too small for the task, settled for sign publicity. It was really important to Violet that she be responsible for the necessary job of stacking and sorting cups. And also looking cute (reference profit maximization tactics above).
I was touched by the number of neighbors who came out to support their little efforts. The cyclists who stopped along the bike path to refill their bottles with lemonade, the Hispanic gardeners who didn't speak English and then left a $5 tip, the friends who responded to my Facebook ad. The lemonade was gone long before the kid's enthusiasm. And the smoothies were delicious.
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