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Pearl is our Lemonade Day Lomita 2023 Youth Entrepreneur of the Year. She also won 1st Runner Up for 2022 National Youth Entrepreneur of the Year, not only for her business achievements, but for demonstrating leadership and customer service skills, a passion to stand by her idea and put in the work, willingness to improvise, and being open to new opportunities. Here's her story:

Hi! My name is Pearl and I decided I wanted to participate in the Lemonade Day journey, when I first saw kids with their lemonade stands all around Lomita in 2021. My mom had heard news that another Lemonade Day was coming this year and helped me sign up online. I could not wait until the day came to pick up my Lemonade Day backpack at the Lomita Farmer’s Market, because so many ideas of what and how I was going to do my stand were dancing around in my head. I started off by listing all my ideas on paper and my mom helped me create a costing sheet, so I could figure out how to fit most of these ideas within a reasonable budget, come up with a projection of what I wanted to earn on the big day and figure out how I was going to achieve that.

On July 9th 2022, I had the best day EVER! It was a little overwhelming at first because I was nervous and wanted everything to go perfectly. I learned very quickly that I had to roll with the punches. A great example of this was when a customer got upset and was rude to the Heath Department representative in the morning. I calmly reassured the customer that they were actually working with us as part of the program and that it was okay for them to check over my stand. Any problems I had with my stand on Lemonade Day was a great learning opportunity for me and taught me how I could do or fix things to be better the next time. An example of this was when I did not make enough tumblers for the big day. They had sold out within the first hour, but customers kept asking for them, so next time I knew that I would have to make even more for the next time I did my stand.

On Lemonade Day, I ended up making making a lot of money, close to 1,700 in total. When we were counting the earnings from myself at the end of the day, I was really proud of myself. My projected goal for the stand was to make 1,400 dollars and spend about 250 dollars, I made 1,706 dollars and only spent about 49 dollars over my budget. I was able to achieve spending less because I was able to get a lot of things gifted, donated or for free. I feel like I was able to earn more money, than I first thought, because I offered a variety of products and flavors of lemonade besides plain, basic lemonade.

With the money, I’ve earned from Lemonade Day, I plan on sharing by setting aside my donation of ten percent of my earnings (which comes out to about $170) to the Harbor Pregnancy Help Center. They help new moms and their babies. I really wanted to donate here because I see my mom donate here too. I plan to spend some of the money I earned to purchase the new iPhone. I feel that it would be a great investment for my business because it has an amazing camera for taking pictures and videos that I can use for my business social media accounts. The rest of the money, I am planning on saving. I want to save up for my college, as I have big plans to attend my dream school, Harvard.

My goals are to invest and grow my business as much as possible, even beyond Lemonade Day. I did not set out to participate in Lemonade Day because of the money, but to learn more about entrepreneurship and learn how I can create a real business as a kid. My business is called Lucky Lemonade Co. and my slogan is “luck be a lemon I like” that is sung like the song, “luck be a lady tonight”. My business is not just any other lemonade stand because I have chef-crafted flavors from my own ideas like watermelon mint that won first place at the tasting contest, handmade merchandise like scented slime and bath bombs (made by me), and baked goods from two different bakeries to follow Health Department’s guidelines. I also have a tiktok, Instagram and Facebook page that is monitored by my mom, but I create the content for. It has helped me get a lot of exposure.

One thing I loved about my first experience for Lemonade Day that I did was start my social media pages early so everyone could see my journey along the way and can continue to follow my story as my business grows. I also liked that I put out a review book for customers to leave me reviews to see what I did well and what I could improve on. According to my reviews, everyone liked the way I treated them. I got really awesome reviews. For example, someone said “Amazing lemonade and amazing customer service⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️⭐️” I felt proud about what I accomplished. What I learned to do better the next time was create more of my products and also changing some of my prices to sell more products. I was actually able to see how those changes made my business better, as I participated in a pop up today in Lomita. I did not run out of items as quickly because I made more than enough. I was also able to sell more because my prices were more appealing to the customer. It made a world of difference and I wouldn’t have learned that without my first Lemonade Day experience.

Some obstacles I faced with Lemonade Day, were not being able to do all the things I wanted or planned to do. For example, the spinning wheel. I learned that it was okay and that my time management was more important and it’s okay to restrategize when necessary. I realistically knew after doing the lemonade stand on Lemonade Day, that I would not have been able to handle how many customers came and the spinning wheel at the same time. It’s okay to change up what does not work in your business and to not stay with an idea that is going to cause more stress than it is worth. It’s important to always remain flexible and learn how to adjust when things don’t work out how you want them to.

Now that I’m an entrepreneur, I plan on taking my business to the next level and working my lemonade stand to make more money to put back into my business and savings. My mom says it’s important to save money, but also important to buy assets. She says it’s something you put your money into that makes more money for you without having to do extra work. My goal as an entrepreneur and adult is to be comfortable, so I’m not stressed out about money and I can find the things I really love to do.

I appreciate the opportunity to participate in Lemonade Day and am thankful for those that will hear my story. Thank you.