There is an old saying among country folks that you can’t learn to ride a horse by looking at a picture book.
The adage applies to any number of skills that are best acquired through hands-on experience. But even among things that are learned through formal training, exposure through personal experience sharpens those skills.
For generations of American kids, operating a lemonade stand was a fun diversion during the summer months, but not much more.
In 2007, a Houston entrepreneur and his wife used a lemonade stand as a way of introducing their young daughter to business fundamentals. What started in Houston has now reached throughout the U.S., Canada and South Africa. More than a million kids have participated in the Lemonade Day program over the past 17 years.
The program encourages young entrepreneurs to secure a location for their lemonade stand and to account for income and expenses.
While there are any number of publications on work and money geared toward children, the best teacher is experience.
Lemonade Day arrived in the Golden Triangle in 2018 through the efforts of the Mississippi State University Center for Entrepreneurship and Outreach, starting in Starkville then expanding to Columbus and West Point in 2019.
Today’s Lemonade Day is yet another opportunity for kids to learn business concepts and practices in a way they can understand through hands-on experience. For older kids, the more complex aspects of business — cost control, pricing, marketing, even financing (yes, kids can actually apply for a business loan to finance their stand) — are taught through the program.
It also draws the line between work and compensation. Lemons grow on trees, but money doesn’t, after all.
Oh, and not unimportantly, it’s a lot of fun, too.
Saturday will be the biggest Lemonade Day to date, with young entrepreneurs operating in 143 locations throughout the Golden Triangle.
We urge everyone to support this learning experience by dropping by a lemonade stand and making a purchase. You can find the nearest participating location by checking out the map of the local stands lemonadeday.org/golden-triangle/stands-map
The Dispatch Editorial Board is made up of publisher Peter Imes, columnist Slim Smith, managing editor Zack Plair and senior newsroom staff.
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You can help your community
Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 36 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
