Lemonade Day Expands to More Licensed Markets

BY DEBBIE NAZARIAN, LEMONADE DAY NATIONAL DIRECTOR

City Directors Conference

 

Expansion is exciting for most businesses. Here at Lemonade Day, it is super exciting.  While companies deal with many moving parts and some anxiety when they expand, Lemonade Day expansion is different. We see expansion as an opportunity to mentor more young entrepreneurs and empower them with knowledge, experience, and confidence to be the future business owners and leaders in their communities.

Since 2007, Lemonade Day has grown to 78 licensed markets across the U.S., Bermuda, Canada, Puerto Rico, and South Africa. That equates to 1 million kids who have learned about business ownership by participating in Lemonade Day and hosting a lemonade stand in their community. 

The licensed markets added since the 2018 Lemonade Day season are: Sacramento, CA; Yorba Linda, CA; Fairfield, TX; South Metro Regional, CO; La Grande, OR; Washtenaw County, MI; Birmingham, AL; Bermuda; Fort Atkinson, WI; Giles County, TN; Calgary, Alberta CAN; Stillwater, OK; Dickinson, ND; Ohio State University; Laramie, WY; Richmond, VA; Northwest Alberta CAN (expansion to more cities); and Puerto Rico. Our goal is to have 220 licensed markets by 2023.

The exciting growth of new city programs is a direct result of Lemonade Day’s impact in cities where it has been established. We have many cities that truly “paint the town yellow” on Lemonade Day with young entrepreneurs all throughout the city running their lemonade businesses in high customer traffic areas. The impact of Lemonade Day is four-fold: 1) promote entrepreneurship, which is key to jumpstart economic growth and even address poverty and other community issues; 2) teach financial literacy to kids, which is currently absent in most public and private school curriculum; 3) teach kids to be responsible, self-reliant, and believe in themselves; and 4) foster mentorship and bring families and communities together.

Lemonade Day is a community-wide event that is hosted by a local non-profit in each licensed city. There are many models of how the Lemonade Day program is implemented- many are hosted by Chambers of Commerce and universities, and others are hosted by local community non-profits. We look for City Champions in each of our licensed Lemonade Day cities to “champion” youth entrepreneurship and Lemonade Day by supporting the local program through their influence in the community. We provide new City Directors (program directors) with new city training and year-round support by the national office team.  In addition, we provide a national City Director Conference every year where we celebrate successes together, share best practices, and learn about the exciting new initiatives for the following year.

I receive requests on a daily basis from cities and countries all over the world who want to bring Lemonade Day to the children in their city, region, state, or country.  They understand the importance of entrepreneurship education for children.  According to a Gallup Organization impact report in 2017, 72% of kids who have participated in Lemonade Day plan to start their own business, compared to 40% of kids who have not benefited from the program.  In addition, 64% of Lemonade Day kids said they will invent something that will change the world, compared to 29% of kids who have not done Lemonade Day.  And finally, 31% of Lemonade Day kids are running their own business today, compared to only 4% of kids who have not done Lemonade Day.

Youth entrepreneurship is gaining momentum around the world. Studies have proven that introducing kids to entrepreneurial experiences at an early age makes a measurable impact on their future decisions related to education, training, life, and work.

If you are interested in bringing Lemonade Day to your community, you can contact me by email at debbie@lemonadeday.org.  I would love to share more information with you!

Please share this blog with your friends, family members, and co-workers. All of us at Lemonade Day National Headquarters appreciate your support!

For more information about Lemonade Day, please visit lemonadeday.org.

back to blog
@LemonadeDayNational