Blessed by the Potato

All summer Blueberry has wanted to set up a lemonade stand. We finally got one set up this weekend.

Lots of lessons in setting up a stand. We didn’t get into the cost of goods sold or turning a profit — all the supplies were donated by us. A big one was about expectations: we did go through two pitchers of fresh-squeezed lemonade (~8 lemons), but did not have to worry about a queueing system for the mob. Lots of down time to contemplate being patient, and that our quiet suburban street only had so many potential customers to reach. However, almost everyone tipped her well above the 25 cents she was charging per cup, so she still walked away with a decent amount of money for her efforts.

Totally of her own volition, she choose to donate half the revenue to Answering TTP (which I matched to hit the minimum donation amount).

There were lessons for me, too: it was funny to see people making solid marketing suggestions, like putting colourful signs up around the neighbourhood to direct people to our sleepy street, and to watch as she just didn’t want to do that. And I could so see myself in that, and I don’t think I would have seen that as clearly if I didn’t see it mirrored in her. “Click-baity subject lines work, you’ll get more people opening your emails that way.” “No, I’ll only use descriptive, boring subjects!”

So I’m going to have to work on my marketing skills…

Anyway, I suspect this is not the last we have heard from our little entrepreneur.