Opening a lemonade stand is more than just a typical summer activity. This activity can also be a great opportunity for young people to learn the basics of business and finance. As well as being fun, opening a lemonade stand can teach you how to be responsible for your business and manage the flow of money in and out.
Step
Part 1 of 3: Setting up the booth
Step 1. Choose a location to open your booth
If you open your lemonade stand in front of your house, only your neighbors will see the stand. Therefore, choose a location where a lot of people pass so that more people know about your business. A city park or beach can be a good location choice, especially on sunny days.
- You can also ask your church or local grocery store for permission to open a booth near the entrance. Make sure you get permission first before you set up your booth on someone else's private land.
- Make a schedule of events held in your area. If there are festivals or sporting events (such as sporting events) taking place in your area, try setting up your booth there.
- Think of places where people will feel very hot and very thirsty. People who are already lounging on the beach or playing 18 rounds of golf in the hot sun will likely buy your lemonade.
- Pay attention to the weather on the day you open your booth. If it's very hot at that time, make sure you open your lemonade stand in a very shaded area.
Step 2. Set up your booth
You need, at the very least, a good, sturdy table and a chair so you can sit down. Make sure you place your table and chairs on a flat area so your booth doesn't shake and your lemonade doesn't spill and soil the booth. You can also cover your table with a tablecloth or towel in a bright color to attract attention.
- Make sure the cloth (tablecloth or towel) you are using is long enough so that one side can cover the front of the table. This way, you can 'hide' your supply of lemonade and other utensils under the table, without being seen by customers.
- Arrange pitchers (glass jugs), glasses, napkins, and straws neatly on the table. The tidier your booth is, the more people will want to visit.
Step 3. Make yourself comfortable
If you work at your booth for a long time, make yourself as comfortable as possible while working. Provide drinking water (mineral water) if you are tired of drinking lemonade to refresh your body. You can also put soft pads on your chair to keep your buttocks from getting sore or sore. If the weather is hot, prepare a battery-powered fan to cool off, or use paper as a fan.
- If you've been outdoors long enough, you've probably noticed that as the earth rotates, areas that were originally shaded end up getting sunburnt. If this happens, close your booth for half an hour and move your booth to a more shady area.
- Also make sure you protect your skin from sunburn by using a sunblock cream (sunscreen).
Step 4. Decorate your booth
There are no specific rules for decorating a lemonade stand. The most important thing is that the decorations that you make can beautify your booth and that you feel happy when you decorate them.
- You can print out lemonade-themed decorations that you can find online, and then glue the decorations to your booth.
- Try drawing your own booth decorations. You can draw limes, glasses, and pitchers of cold lemonade, or the sun, the beach, and anything else to do with lemonade.
- You can put flowers in your booth, or use colorful straws and napkins instead of white ones.
- Make sure you make a big, pretty signboard. The signage will tell people what you are selling, as well as the price of your product. Put it in the right place so people walking by will read it. The front of your desk (covered by a tablecloth) can be a great place to attach the board.
Step 5. Create a flyer ad for your booth
Even if your booth is in a good location, of course you want everyone who lives near your home to know that you are running a business. Create an advertisement for your lemonade stand and place it around the booth to boost your business.
- You can use plain white paper or colorful construction paper to attract people's attention.
- Use markers of different colors to create your lemonade stand ad.
- Make sure you include the price per glass of lemonade and directions or your booth address in the ad you create.
Step 6. Spread the word about your booth
Ask your friends to not only visit your booth, but also tell other friends about your booth and invite them to come. You can also post about your booth on your Facebook page or your parents so that more people will know when and where you will be opening a booth.
Part 2 of 3: Running the Lemonade Stand
Step 1. Show a friendly attitude
Nothing catches people's attention more than a big smile and a cheerful personality. Talk to passersby and ask them to buy your lemonade. You'd be surprised how many customers come in just because you're friendly.
Encourage your customers to come back again by letting them know when you will reopen: “Our booth will reopen tomorrow afternoon! Don't forget to come back!”
Step 2. Keep your booth clean and tidy
If a cheerful personality can attract people's attention, a messy booth can actually keep them from coming. Make sure you pour the lemonade carefully so the lemonade doesn't spill and make the stand sticky. Arrange the napkins in neat piles and place the straws in a glass so they don't scatter on the table. Also, tidy up the glasses in a stack or two, but make sure you don't stack them too high so they don't fall over.
Step 3. Offer a wide selection of products
While lemonade is a typical product sold at lemonade stands, your customers may be more attracted to them if you can offer more than one product. On a hot day, some people may prefer a glass of cold bottled water, so it's a good idea to have a cooler (a covered basket to keep drinks cold) with plenty of cold bottled water in stock. You can also sell treats so customers can get 'friends' for their fresh lemonade.
- You can make your own snacks to increase profits. Cookies, brownies, and lemon bars can be a choice of homemade cakes that are suitable as a companion to a glass of fresh lemonade.
- Some people may prefer salty snacks to sweet ones. A bag of pretzels, potato chips, or nuts can balance the sweetness of the lemonade.
- For a healthier snack alternative, provide fresh fruit. Sliced apples, oranges, or watermelons make a refreshing snack to complement cold lemonade on a hot day.
Step 4. Determine the right selling price
Make sure you set the right price for all the products you sell. If you're opening your booth in a crowded place, with lots of thirsty people, try selling your lemonade for around seven thousand five hundred to ten thousand rupiah per glass.
- Make attractive offers to your customers, such as “Buy 2 Get 1 Free!” You may not make a profit for a glass of lemonade, but with this offer you can attract more visitors, both parents and children!
- Also have a tip box or jar ready so that you get an added advantage.
Step 5. Prepare money in various denominations as change
Even if you're trying to 'earn' money by opening a lemonade stand, you'll still need to prepare your own money to break up large bills. You don't need to prepare money with denominations above (for example) 50 thousand rupiah or 100 thousand rupiah, but prepare money in twenty thousand, ten thousand, five thousand, one thousand, and hundreds denominations. It would be very upsetting if you lost a customer just because that customer didn't get a change when paying with 100 thousand rupiah notes!
Prepare envelopes for storing change and money your customers give you. Make sure the money doesn't disappear
Step 6. Record your sales results
Opening a lemonade stand can provide good lessons about business and finance. Always record and know the income you get by recording each sale.
- Make five columns on a sheet of paper, and label each one as follows: 'Day', 'Amount of Lemonade Sold', 'Price per Glass', and 'Total'.
- Fill in the fields each time your lemonade is sold.
- At the end of the sales week, add up all the numbers in the 'Total' column to see how much money you've earned.
Step 7. Calculate your profit
You may have already made money selling lemonade, but don't forget that you've previously spent money to open the lemonade stand. Try to find out if you managed to recoup the capital you put out in the beginning. Hopefully, you get a lot of benefits!
- Write down the price of each item you buy for your booth, including the basic ingredients for lemonade, glasses, straws, napkins, advertising flyers and booth decorations, and more.
- Add up the prices of these items.
- Subtract your sales from the total price of the items you purchased (start-up capital). If the result is negative, then you incur a loss that week of selling. If the result is positive, then that result is the profit you get from selling the lemonade.
Step 8. Reorganize your booth
When the booth is about to close, collect the trash around the booth, either empty glasses, used napkins, or grated lime peels. When people see you tidying up your booth, they will get the impression that you are a clean and tidy person, so they will be encouraged to come back to your booth.
Part 3 of 3: Making Lemonade
Step 1. Decide whether you want to make fresh lemonade from real limes or from instant lemonade powder
Lemonade made from real limes is healthier and has a fresher taste than lemonade made from instant lemonade powder. There will be more customers who are attracted to the advertisement of fresh lemonade or homemade lemonade. However, lemonade made from instant lemonade powder is easier to make and less expensive. Instant lemonade powder is a food ingredient that is processed using a machine, so it is not as healthy as lemonade made from real fruit. Consider the pros and cons of each base material and then decide which base material you will use.
Step 2. Make lemonade from instant lemonade powder
You won't have much trouble if you use instant lemonade powder. The lemonade process is quick and easy to do.
- Purchase instant lemonade powder from a grocery store.
- Follow the directions on the package to mix the lemonade powder with the water. Stir until evenly distributed until the powder is completely dissolved.
- Try the lemonade to see if it's too strong or too bland. If it's too strong, add more water and if it's too bland, add more instant lemonade powder.
- Once you are satisfied with your lemonade, you are now ready to sell it.
Step 3. Make fresh lemonade from lime juice
If you decide to make lemonade from real limes, you'll have to work a little harder, but the resulting product will be tastier and healthier. Start gathering the materials you need. This recipe makes about 4 liters of lemonade.:
- 8 limes
- 400 grams of sugar
- 250 milliliters of hot water
- 3, 8 liters of cold water
Step 4. Mix sugar with hot water
By adding sugar to the hot water, more sugar will dissolve so that later there will be no sugar granules left in your lemonade. Stir until the sugar is completely dissolved.
Step 5. Roll your limes
If you roll your limes before squeezing them, they tend to produce more juice. Place each lime on the table, then press it with the base of your hand. Roll it back and forth until the lime is no longer firm.
Once you're done rolling the limes, cut the limes into two halves
Step 6. Squeeze the limes to get the juice
Each whole lime can produce about 60 milliliters of juice. You should get 500 milliliters of lime juice. If the juice collected is less than 500 milliliters, squeeze more limes until the juice collected reaches 500 milliliters.
- Squeeze each lime wedge over a bowl and let the juices fall into the bowl. Open the palm of your hand under the lime as you squeeze it to remove the seeds or grains you don't want to put in your lemonade.
- You can scrape the inside of the lime so that more juice is released.
Step 7. Mix all your ingredients in a large pitcher
Pour the hot water and sugar, lime juice, and cold water mixture into a pitcher large enough to hold your lemonade. Stir until smooth and chill in the refrigerator. Once cool, you are ready to serve your fresh lemonade.
Step 8. Don't mix the lemonade directly with the ice
If you put the ice directly into the lemonade pitcher, the ice will melt while you're guarding the booth. Eventually, there will be too much water in your lemonade.
Alternatively, refrigerate your lemonade before selling it. Bring a bag or cooler filled with ice and keep it near your booth so customers can add ice to their lemonade when they buy it
Step 9. Offer more than one choice of lemonade flavors
Once you have the real lemonade, you can make a few extra flavors to give your customers a choice of different lemonade flavors.
- Finely chop 400 grams of strawberries and add 100 grams of sugar. Let it sit for 45 minutes at room temperature, then separate the strawberry syrup from the fruit. Add a tablespoon of the sweet strawberry syrup for each glass of lemonade.
- In addition to strawberries, you can use other fruits such as raspberries, blueberries, or other types of fruit to make the variety of lemonade flavors you want.
- Put the watermelon pieces in the blender and turn on the blender. When you're done, add the watermelon juice you made into the lemonade to make a watermelon lemonade.
- Get creative! Try experimenting with as many lemonade flavor options as you can think of for the summer.
Tips
- Ask some of your friends to help out at the booth, but make sure they get their fair share of profits.
- If you want to run your business year-round, you can replace cold lemonade with hot chocolate in the winter.
- If someone is very busy and can't stop at your booth, don't force them to come. If you are polite, he may come back later.
- If you're upset that you don't have a lot of customers, don't show it, and make sure you're still having fun.
- Make a beautiful poster to attract more people.
- Be friendly to your customers.
- Don't set the price too high or there won't be many people buying your lemonade.
- Make sure you look presentable. Don't let your hair get tangled and your clothes dirty, or people will think you've mixed lemonade with your dirty hands.
- If people haven't bought your lemonade, try giving them a free drink sample. If they like it, they'll probably buy a whole glass!
- The lower the selling price of your lemonade, the more customers you get. Make sure you don't set a selling price below five thousand rupiah and above ten thousand rupiah, but if your lemonade has a very delicious taste, you can sell it for ten thousand rupiah. If the selling price is too high, you won't get many customers.
- Ask about your customers.
- Advertise your booth to attract more people.
- Pour your lemonade when people buy it, not before people buy it. If you prep your lemonade in glasses from the start, it can attract flies and make your booth look messy.
- Don't force people to buy your lemonade, just ask if they want to.
- Place the cooler under the table as a spare lemonade storage.
- Give your customers a sticker with a child (this can impress the parents and they may tip you).
- Prepare treats for the dog. You can try selling homemade treats for dogs as an additional source of income.
- Shout “Lemonade!” and the selling price or homemade lemonade. Or, you can say “Fresh cold lemonade! Fresh cold lemonade is here!”
Warning
- Keep the money close to you or under the table. Don't keep your money where it's easy for thieves to take it.
- Don't leave your booth without someone to look after it. Your money and lemonade can be stolen!
- Make sure you have permission to set up your booth if you choose private property.
- Wear sunscreen to make sure your skin doesn't get sunburnt.
- Ask an adult to help you cut the lime.
