If you have a budding entrepreneur in the family standing outside selling lemonade (or you're mulling over how to pry him or her away from that video game to do something out of doors), check out Inc. magazine's annual "Best Lemonade Stand in America" contest.
It's open to kids from ages 5 to 12, and offers a $500 savings bond and other prizes for the winner, including a nifty Inc. t-shirt. (Chris and I are partial to Inc., not only because they're such ardent supporters of entrepreneurship and small biz, but because they were one of the first national magazines to cover us, way back in 2000. We had just formed Staffcentrix the year before, and it was a tremendous shot in the arm.)
Last year's winner was the "LemonSharks Lemonade" stand, run by Hunter and Gunnar, 11-year-old twins in North Carolina. It's a pretty sophisticated operation (they had family help), and they even had a business plan! (Chris and I never did.) They made nearly $1,000 in profits, which is so good it makes you wonder if they shouldn't have sold branded t-shirts, Frisbees and beach towels, too! (The stand is in a beach town.) But then, with the odd rip tide on NC beaches, there's a lot to be said for focus!
For more:
- LemonSharks Lemonade stand
- The Inc. Contest (Deadline is August 24)
- The Kauffmann Foundation's Policy Dialogue on Entrepreneurship, whose newsletter covered the contest.
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