By Steven Gordon, Lemonade Day, National President

Michael Holthouse

Many of you may already know that Michael Holthouse and his wife Lisa founded Lemonade Day in 2007. What many of you may not know that Lissa, Michael’s daughter who was very young at the time, provided the impetus for Lemonade Day when she asked her dad for money to buy a turtle. When her dad said no to another animal in the house, Lissa asked if she did a lemonade stand and made her own money, could she buy it then?  Michael liked her initiative and said yes, but she would have pay him back for the money he would lend her to start her lemonade stand business.

Lissa set up her stand one Saturday morning, but the results were disappointing. Knowing her dad to be a successful and smart businessman, she asked him what she did wrong. “What was your goal?  How much did it cost you to make your lemonade? What was your profit per cup?  How did you choose your location?  Did you do any marketing? The blank look on Lissa’s face answered Michael’s questions, and it was at that moment that Michael realized his own daughter did not know the simple steps to creating a successful business.

So, Michael decided to turn Lissa’s disappointing lemonade stand experience into an exercise in helping his daughter learn valuable lessons about starting and operating a successful business. As of now, more than 1 million youth in the United States, Canada and South Africa have benefitted from the important lessons that Lemonade Day teaches: business planning, product development, marketing and promotion, staffing, customer service, financial management, community engagement, and charitable giving.  Regardless of size or type, every successful business operates with these critical functions. 

I invite you to watch and listen to Michael’s TED talk on Lemonade Day.  Hopefully, Michael’s passion and enthusiasm will ignite the same in you and other adults who have the power to help kids become future business owners and community leaders.  Please follow this link to Michael’s presentation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LT-VWKiqu20

Stay tuned for the opening of registration for Lemonade Day in early 2018. To learn more about Lemonade Day or to explore opportunities to host Lemonade Day in a city near you, please visit lemonadeday.org.

All of us at Lemonade Day national headquarters wish you and your family a safe and enjoyable holiday season.

About Lemonade Day

Founded in Houston in 2007 by Michael and Lisa Holthouse, Lemonade Day is a non-profit organization 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, youth will be better prepared to be successful, financially healthy adults. Through our fun, hands-on program Youth 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 hosted in 62 cities throughout the United States. Over the past 10 years, we have served more than 1 million youth.

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