I Scream, You Scream, We All Scream for… Lemonade?

It’s almost summer, which means educators across the country need to find a way to engage their students in creative and fun ways. As a way to teach entrepreneurship, why not have your students engage in a lemonade stand? Spring weather is great inspiration for both student salesmen and potential customers. How should an educator go about teaching entrepreneurship through a lemonade stand? Here are 5 easy steps:

1. Do market research. Is lemonade the right thing to sell? Is there another refreshment that will sell better? Who will their target audience be? How much should they charge for their goods? This step will teach your students the important step of researching a plan before implementing it, and will give them experience asking the right questions.

2. Create the operational and marketing plans. How much supplies will the students need to purchase? How much will this cost them? Where will they set up their stand? How will they advertise their stand? This step will teach students about planning, budgeting, and communication.

3. Implement the lemonade stand plans. Have your students take actually implement the plans that they’ve made. This step will teach students how to problem solve, how to make last minute changes based on what is and is not working, and how to work with customers.

4. Financial planning. Now that money has been made, what will the students do with it? Students should refund their original funder (did they donate money for the supplies? Did the teacher purchase the supplies?), keep some of the money for their own profit, and donate some of the money to a good cause. This step will teach financial literacy and giving back to the community.

5. Review. Once the lemonade stand has been implemented, be sure to take time to review how it went. What did the students learn? What worked well? What could be changed for the better next time? How can the use the skills they learned in other parts of life? This step will teach students how to follow up with their actions and learn through experience.

Lemonade stands are a perfect way to continue the learning process in a fun and innovative fashion, which is exactly what the last few days before summer vacation should be all about.

Further Activities
1. Market Research: Discuss with students what market research is and why it is important. Information about Market Research can be found in NFIB’s Entrepreneur in the Classroom Module 2 PowerPoint and Teaching Notes (slides 27-33). Do Entrepreneur in the Classroom Activity 2.4a–Market Research Role Play. This will get students thinking about the right questions to ask during market research.

2. Operation and Marketing Plans: Do NFIB’s Marketing Plan Activity and NFIB’s Budgeting Plan Activity to get students thinking about how to market and plan for their lemonade stand.

3. Financial Planning: Information about Financial Planning can be found in NFIB’s Entrepreneur in the Classroom Module 3 PowerPoint and Teaching Notes (slides 20-26).

Entrepreneur In The Classroom
The NFIB Young Entrepreneur Foundation Entrepreneur-in-the-Classroom (EITC) supplemental curriculum exposes students to entrepreneurship and the necessary steps to take an idea and turn it into a business. The FREE curriculum can be integrated into classes teaching a variety of subjects including music, art, fashion, business and many more. You must be registered to view the full Entrepreneur-in-the-Classroom curriculum.

More Information
The NFIB Young Entrepreneur Foundation is a 501(c)(3) organization promoting the importance of small business and free enterprise to the nation’s youth. More information is available at www.NFIB.com/YEF. The Foundation is associated with the National Federation of Independent Business; NFIB is the nation’s leading small business association, with offices in Washington, D.C. and all 50 state capitals.

Related links
Follow NFIB Young Entrepreneur Foundation on Twitter
Like NFIB Young Entrepreneur Foundation on Facebook
Follow EITC curriculum author Kathy Korman Frey on Twitter