It鈥檚 summer. It鈥檚 hot. It鈥檚 lemonade-stand season once again.
But that nostalgic picture of Americana got a 21st-century overhaul last month, as 11-year-old Jemma Walker rolled out a red carpet in front of a Krogers grocery in southern Indianapolis and set up an elaborate mermaid-themed stand. She had scoped out potential spots for weeks, haggled over ingredient prices with her suppliers, and taste-tested recipes for a new 鈥渂lue raspberry鈥� lemonade made to match her undersea decor.
鈥淏efore we did it, I thought it was easy. You just set up a stand, have lemonade, and sell it,鈥� Jemma said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 much harder than that. You have to think about a lot of different things, like design and start-up costs. ... There鈥檚 a lot of math involved.鈥�
The rising 7th grader and her 9-year-old brother Miller were just two of more than 1,000 students who planned and built stands this year in Indianapolis for Lemonade Day!, a nationwide program that teaches students entrepreneurship skills through a club-based curriculum and selling events scheduled throughout the year. Business education advocates are seizing on extracurricular programs like this one to create a pipeline for skills that may not get noticed and nurtured in the classroom.
鈥淲e are seeing kids who are very well taught in how to be the best employees, but there鈥檚 nothing teaching them to be their own boss,鈥� said Nathalie Virem, an entrepreneurship professor at California State University, Los Angeles. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 why many entrepreneurs don鈥檛 get educated in school, and don鈥檛 like school.鈥�
A New 鈥楶ipeline Problem鈥�
Business leaders argue that the nation鈥檚 economy could benefit from a K-12 鈥減ipeline鈥� for young entrepreneurs that mirrors ongoing efforts across the country to interest students in the science, technology, engineering, and math fields.
鈥淚 think sometimes there鈥檚 an assumption that entrepreneurs are born, but in a lot of cases, it鈥檚 really about having the knowledge and influencing their attitude fairly early that affects a kid going on to become an entrepreneur later in life,鈥� said Ed Grocholski, a senior vice president for Junior Achievement USA, a nonprofit that promotes youth entrepreneurship.
The finds that from 2011 to 2016, the percentage of U.S. students in grades 5-12 who said they plan to start their own businesses fell steadily from 45 percent in 2011 to 41 percent in 2016. Students from racial minority groups saw a particularly dramatic drop in interest, from 54 percent to 42 percent during that time.
Those numbers mirror a ; the Small Business Administration estimates that at age 30, fewer than 4 percent of millennials were mainly self-employed, compared to 5.4 percent of Generation X and 6.7 percent of baby boomers at the same age. Grocholski said he has seen high school and college students become more 鈥渞isk averse鈥� since the Great Recession began in 2008.
鈥淲hen they are interested in entrepreneurship, they want it to be in a group and want a mentor involved,鈥� he said.
The Gallup-HOPE study also found that students鈥� interest in entrepreneurship declines over their school careers. More than half of children in grades 5-8 said they wanted to start their own businesses, a rate that held steady from 2011 to 2016. But by high school, interest in entrepreneurship dropped to little more than a third of students in 2011, and an even smaller share, 27 percent, in 2016.
The skills needed to develop and run a business鈥攊ncluding creativity, fast problem-solving, leadership, comfort with risk, and especially resilience after failure鈥攎ight be more likely to be noticed and nurtured outside of school, according to Jessie Jones, the director of K-8 programs and partnerships for the Young Entrepreneur Institute in Ohio, which supports youth business competitions and other programs in and out of schools.
鈥淲e frequently have teachers come to us and say they have kids who were poor performers in a testing environment that did really, really well in the entrepreneurship activities,鈥� Jones said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 very difficult for teachers to predict that spark, because those kids have different skill sets that aren鈥檛 rewarded by the traditional classroom environment. And so I think we are sidelining those kids, instead of celebrating and helping grow their strengths.鈥�
鈥楶ee-Wee Entrepreneurship鈥�
Programs like the nonprofit seek to fill that gap.
In more than 63 cities and communities across the country, local clubs and classes use the program鈥檚 curriculum to teach students from kindergarten to 8th grade business concepts like profit and expenses, advertising, and finding a good location. In many cities, local banks and businesses provide to students who present business plans for the stands. The national organization鈥檚 curriculum can be taught over several weeks in the run-up to sales days, but individual lemonade clubs can run for a semester or all year long. Some cities, like Indianapolis, hold multiple sales days during the spring and summer.
鈥淲e walk them through the books,鈥� said Erica Gould of the Indianapolis YMCA, which sponsors one lemonade club. 鈥淥bviously [for] some of them, their reading or math skills are not up to par, but we just tell them, we will use our fingers if necessary. Even if they don鈥檛 understand how to do the math completely, they generally can count change. If they are having trouble, we send them to sell.鈥�
On average, children stay with the lemonade-stand program for three years, with the curriculum building as students get more experience with running a business. Some students partner with their families or fellow students, while others run their businesses alone.
鈥淲e鈥檙e the Pee-Wee leagues of entrepreneurship,鈥� said Steve Gordon, Lemonade Day! president.
The program was started in 2007 in Houston by local computer entrepreneur Michael Holthouse.
According to the group鈥檚 lore, Holthouse decided to develop a business training program for children after his own young daughter spent a fruitless afternoon trying to sell lemonade from the family鈥檚 driveway on a quiet street. The program has evolved in the years since to a full curriculum with 64 participating cities.
, in contrast to the Gallup-HOPE poll results, that 72 percent of students who ran a lemonade stand through the program in 2016 said they planned to start their own business. In fact, nearly a third of participants said, like Jemma, they already were running their own business after the program, compared to only 4 percent of students overall in the national poll. Participants made on average $168 in profit each year from the stands.
Social Appeal
Jemma鈥檚 mom, Sherri Ann Walker, said she鈥檚 seen a separate benefit from her children running lemonade stands for the past three years: 鈥淭here鈥檚 a lot she has learned about the value of money that we really appreciate,鈥� she said.
鈥淭hat first year, [Jemma and Miller] were talking about all the toys they could get. But then last year and especially this year, her first thoughts were, 鈥業 want to give half of my profits to my charity.鈥� I was really proud of that.鈥�
Tying business education to social issues has proven especially popular with students. Lemonade Day! and the similar nonprofit Lemon Club recommend students donate a portion of their profits to a charity, and Grocholski said Junior Achievement has shifted the focus of its business education programs to social entrepreneurship.
鈥淚t used to be more about, 鈥楲et鈥檚 produce a product and see if we can make money from it.鈥� Now it鈥檚 more, 鈥楬ow can we try to solve a problem in society and potentially turn it into a business?鈥� So the types of businesses we鈥檙e seeing now are considerably different than what you may have seen two years ago.鈥�
Dotting the I鈥檚
Entrepreneurial organizations also increasingly help provide legal cover for children at a time when kids鈥� pop-up businesses 鈥攁nd even spur police calls from unsympathetic neighbors.
Data by the libertarian Freedom Center of Missouri identified more than 40 incidents nationwide in which city officials shut down child-run stands or refused to give them permits.
鈥淚n Indiana, they don鈥檛 even allow you to put a stand up in your yard without a permit,鈥� said Luke Walker, Jemma鈥檚 dad.
Gordon, the national Lemonade Day! president, said his group has been on higher alert since Memorial Day weekend, when Denver police shut down three elementary-age brothers who had set up a lemonade stand without a permit near a local festival. Later in June, the Internet exploded when a to stop a black 8-year-old girl from selling water in front of her building.
Gordon said his group has since started working with the Denver boys鈥� mother, Jennifer Knowles, to change local ordinances to waive permit requirements for children鈥檚 lemonade stands; it successfully got similar rules changed in Austin, Texas, last year.
鈥淔or the most part, with persistence and education and the help of many of our participating government officials, we are able to persuade agencies to cooperate鈥� by changing rules or providing waivers for single-day student events. But he said the program鈥檚 business curriculum also gives students a crash course on 鈥渟afety, proper sanitation, and advice on following local guidelines.鈥�
鈥淔ailure is a teacher, and I think overall there鈥檚 a lot of reluctance in schools to let kids fail,鈥� Grocholski said. Extracurricular entrepreneurial programs, he said, 鈥渃reate an environment for kids where it鈥檚 safe, where they have that opportunity to fail and learn from it.鈥�
