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I have always liked selling things and have always wanted to have my own business. When my mom told me about Lemonade Day I was super excited to participate and to be able to own my own lemonade stand. I told her that I wanted to sign up right away so she talked to her friend Bonnie, who was one of the mentors, and made sure that I had all the information I needed to sign up. Once I signed up I received some great material about Lemonade Day that told me how to start a business. I also got a cool backpack with a bunch of goodies from the different sponsors. I started designing my stand right away and then talked to my mom about making some aprons with my stand name and slogan. I designed the aprons using some of my mom's stencils and then my mom and I sat down to make the aprons. I loved how they came out. After that my mom helped me make an Instagram account so that I could start posting pictures of my lemonade stand journey. I wanted to be able to share all that I was doing with friends and family. Then my mom told me that it was also a great way of advertising for the event.

I started posting and soon had lots of followers who were watching my story unfold. I had a lot of very encouraging comments from everyone. It has been great to read them all.

As the days passed my mom and my mentor Bonnie made sure that I was doing everything I needed to have a successful stand. They told me that I had to find a location to set up. After talking to my mom about a few different places I told her I wanted to set up outside of her work so I talked to Dr. Adam, the owner of Adam Chiropractic (and one of the sponsors of the event) He asked me a few questions about my plans and goals and then said yes to me setting up in front of the office. I was a little nervous but he was great.

After finding my location, my mom helped me put my stand on the map. Knowing that I had taken that step was exciting because it felt like I was letting everyone know that I know had a place for my business.

After that, my mom told me about pitching my product to South Bay Credit union and applying for a micro loan. This was definitely a little scary because I had never done anything like that. I've always been kind of shy and was nervous about having to talk to someone and ask for a loan. When I went to the credit union I was helped by a really nice person. She asked me about my plans for my business. Asked my why I wanted to do it, and talked to me about the process of getting a loan. After I filled out my paperwork and answered all her questions she approved my loan and I walked out of there with my money! Ready to start buying materials for my business.

I sketched the stand that I wanted to build and I asked my dad if he would help me. Of course, he said yes. I'm so happy that my dad is in construction and was able to help me build my stand. I was also happy to build because I love it and it had been a long time since I had built something. I went to the store to but the materials for my stand with my dad and he told me that he would be an investor and pay for the materials since I didn't have enough money for them. He explained to me how investors work and told me that sometimes you have to pay them back with interest, but he wasn't going to charge me interest. We worked on my stand for several days once he was home from work. I loved building with my dad.

During this whole time my mom told me toake sure I was posting stuff to help with my marketing. I made fliers too and asked her if we could pass them out around the neighborhood. She went with me to hand the out to neighbors, friends, local businesses, and even set them up at her office (Adam Chiropractic) Dr. Adam also made sure that he told all the patients about the event. He is so great. I also got to go to the farmers market with my mom and Bonnie to set up and hand out my fliers. Bonnie has been amazing! She helped me promote so much. She also talked to me about selling other items at my lemonade stand and taking preorders to have some extra money. I decided to sell necklaces, hand made bracelets, and lemon scented slime ( my sister and I made the slime). I started taking preorders and did really well. Then I posted the stuff and had even more orders.

I was also invited to participate in a Quartermania at our local Kiwanis. That was so much fun! I had never been to a Quartermania and I was so excited. I loved being a part of it. All the people that were there showed me so much love and support. It was amazing! I showed my hand made bracelets there and gave out more fliers. I met a lot of people who ended up coming to my stand. I am do grateful to have been able to be at that event.

After that I was also able to set up with my mom and Bonnie at National night out. It's an event that the city put on for the community. I met a lot more people there and gave my information to everyone that I saw. I had a great time. Myom and Bonnie talked to me about the importance of networking when you have a business. I know that one of the reasons my stand was so successful is because I was able to network, market, and promote so much. I also had some help with all of it. At the beginning of everything I had chosen to give my profits to a place that rescues animals. My mom talked to me about giving a percentage and keeping a percentage, even though at first I wanted to donate all of my money I understood that I had to keep some to keep growing my business so that I could also continue to help other causes in the future. I decided to donate 80% of my profits to the Marine Mammal Care Center in San Pedro. I have been there many times since I was very young and I love that they rescue seals and sea lions and help them heal then release them back to their home. When I started sharing on my Instagram account that I was going to donate to them someone from the Marine Mammal Care Center saw my post and started sharing my stuff on their Instagram page! This was huge for me! The place that I loved was sharing my posts for all of their supporters and followers to see. I couldn't believe it.

As Lemonade day came closer my mom and Bonnie kept making sure that I was doing everything I needed to. They made sure that I had my recipe for my frozen lemonade and that I bought everything I needed for it. We always make from lemonade at home but I told my mom that I wanted to make different flavors so we also made frozen strawberry lemonade, peach lemonade, and mango lemonade. They were all delicious. My mom took me to buy all of the supplies I needed to make and sell my lemonade. She also took me to buy the decorations I wanted for it. I talked to my grandma and my mom's friend Katie about the frozen lemonade and they both offered to loan me their blender. Now I had more than just the one I was taking. My grandma also loaned me some of the other things I needed for my stand. Her and my grandpa also bought me fruit and helped my chop it and freeze it so I could use it in my lemonades.

I wanted to only use locally grown lemons so I talked to Dr. Adam who has lemon trees and he said I could pick as many as I wanted. We went to his house and he helped me pick 3 huge bags of lemons. I also talked to my mom's friend Pat who also has a huge lemon tree and she helped me pick lemons and even pre-squeezed th for me! Then we froze it. I asked them both how much they were going to charge me for them but they both told me that it was their donation to my cause. I am so thankful for the people in my life that are so generous and willing to help.

I had originally set my sale times to be from 11am to 4pm but I was told that a news reporter from Spectrum News was going to feature me in their story! I needed to set up sooner to make sure that my stand was ready to go when she was there. So we went to ribbon cutting ceremony at City Hall and then went straight to the office to set up my stand. The reporter was great. I was so excited and nervous. She hung out for a while after she interviewed me and recorded me making the lemonades, taking orders and selling. I was so excited. Later on during the day I was actually interviewed by another camera person. I couldn't believe how big this event had gotten. My stand was packed all day! Even though I started early I had tons of people showing up. I sold over 200 cups of lemonade and lots of my necklaces and bracelets. My profit goal at first was $300. But I made a total of $1,621! This included my lemonade sales, my preorders, and my tips and donations. I still can't believe that I made so much. After my mom helped me make the deductions for my expenses I ended up with a profit of about $1,121. I told my mom that I want to continue my lemonade stand and she looked into the actual permits for this. We took the cost of one of the permits from my profits and then took an 80% so I could donate to the Marine Mammal Care Center. I was able to go this weekend toake my donation. It was one of the best days of my life. I love knowing that I was able to help so many animals. The people at MMCC were so great and so thankful. They gave me some goodies as a thank you gift and they gave us a tour of the place. At the end of the tour we saw that they had several checks from other donations (much bigger than mine) but I left my check next to those and have made it a goal to be able to donate more one day.

I am so thankful for this program. It has taught me what I need to start a business. I am also thankful for the amazing mentor that I had. I could not have gotten a better mentor.

I have talked to some of my aunt's, uncle's, and friends who have their own businesses and I am now going to actually start my lemonade business and set up at local pop-ups and events as soon as I get my permits. I can't wait to continue raising money to help the causes that I love.