Kids and entrepreneurship may not seem like an obvious fit.  Doesn’t an entrepreneur have to be an adult?  Or a millennial in a hoodie?  In short, the answer is a definitive no—kids are capable of so much, including learning the fundamentals of starting and running their own businesses. 

And being introduced to these skills and lessons early in life through programs like Lemonade Day has countless benefits. Here are a few reasons to introduce your child to entrepreneurship:

1. Kids are actually interested in learning business!

A survey by Gallup Poll indicates that many students have a strong interest in entrepreneurship.

85% of students said they had been taught “practically nothing about” or “very little about” business and how it works.

84% of students said that it is “important” that schools teach more about entrepreneurship and how to start a business.

2. Connecting school with the real world

By learning how academic skills connect to real business opportunities and hopes for success, students can be motivated to work harder in school.  It’s no longer just about grades, but a broader understanding of what lies beyond school. Kids begin to connect what they are learning in the classroom with skills needed in the real world.  This is an important connection that can be very motivating for students.

3. An exciting way to channel talent

Being an entrepreneur involves wearing many hats…. Finance, marketing, branding, management, customer service, product innovation and more.  When children have the experience of starting and running their own business, they get to try on these hats and see what they like best. It’s fun and can be a very eye-opening experience that can spark a passion, influencing what kids choose to do with their studies and ultimately career.

4. Teaching innovation

Kid entrepreneurs get to create their own business plan.  Through the Lemonade Day program, they make lots of decisions including what products to sell, what cost to sell them at, how to brand their business, how to reach customers, where to set up their lemonade stand.  They are making decisions at every level, and innovating along the way. This is an empowering feeling for kids. It’s not very often that kids get to be “the boss”, but when you introduce children to entrepreneurship you are allowing them this very special experience. 

5. …and resilience

Part of being “the boss”, is sometimes realizing that you wished you would have done things differently. Lemonade Day kid entrepreneurs learn that this is okay.  Maybe you priced your lemonade product too high. Or perhaps you’re the location of your stand was slow.  Understanding how to learn from experience is a critical lesson itself.  Sometimes you don’t know what will work until you give it a go. It’s what you do with that information that matter.

Do you want to participate in next year’s Lemonade Day? Contact your local city to find out how your child can learn to be an entrepreneur, or learn how you can volunteer in your community.

About Lemonade Day

Lemonade Day is a non-profit dedicated to teaching every child across North America the business and financial skills that are the key ingredients of entrepreneurship. By learning these skills early in life, children will be better prepared to be successful, financially healthy adults. Through our fun, hands-on program Kids K-5 are empowered to start their very own business—a lemonade stand—and experience the feeling of earning real money, using 100% of their profit to spend, save and share based on their own goals.

Lemonade Day is in 62 cities throughout the United States. Over the past 10 years, we have served more than 1 million kids in our kid entrepreneur programs and in 2016 alone, 101,000 kids participated in Lemonade Day.

Visit LemonadeDay.org to learn how to participate in Lemonade Day in your city.