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Russ: This is the BusinessMakers Show, heard here and online at thebusinessmakers.com. And it's featured guest time on the show, and my guests this morning are like-minded champions of entrepreneurship because I'm with former BusinessMakers guest Michael Holthouse, first on our show way back in January of 2006 where we featured him as founder and former CEO of Paranet, an endeavor with quite an extraordinary exit. But today he's here as the originator and founder of Lemonade Day. Michael, welcome to The BusinessMakers Show.
Michael: Thank you so much Russ, it's great to be here.
Russ: And also we're joined by John Sheptor, CEO of Imperial Sugar and sponsor of Lemonade Day 2009. John, welcome to the show.
John: Thank you, Russ. It's my pleasure.
Russ: Tell us about Lemonade Day.
Michael: Well, Russ, Lemonade Day is just the coolest program ever. It is a community-wide event where everyone focuses on teaching kids how to start, own and operate their very own lemonade business. Let's face it. We're all going to be in business one way or another. It's time that we as a society and a community start teaching our kids how much fun it really can be to be a business owner. And profitable too.
Russ: Okay. What age kids are we talking about here?
Michael: Well, they go all over the board, probably from 3 years old up to 18 years old. Course, there's a bell curve. Probably 5th, 6th, 7th graders are the sweet spot, but our first year we did 2600 lemonade stands. Last year, we grew by 400 percent to over 11,000 stands.
Russ: And now we're mainly talking about right here in Houston, Texas, right?
Michael: Well, that's true today.
Russ: Okay. Okay. Well, really cool. I got to know, though, Michael, what was it that sort of triggered the idea to do this 3 years ago?
Michael: Well, my daughter, along with one of her friends, woke me up at 6 o'clock in the morning jumping on top of me, "Daddy, Daddy, let's do a lemonade stand." And long story short, it was one of the most incredible days that Lissa and I ever had. I mean, we were talking about the ice cooler as capital equipment and variable costs and-you know-what makes a great spot. It was just a mini MBA, and she was listening so intently, and it was an incredible gift between the two of us, and we thought it perfect to share this with everybody in the community.
Russ: And she was how old at that time?
Michael: She was 10 years old.
Russ: Okay. Cool. And that was back before Lemonade Day 2007.
Michael: Well, that was the first Lemonade Day.
Russ: Okay. Cool. I know how big this thing is getting, and it is quite impressive, but obviously to pull this off these days, you have to have some fairly significant sponsor partners, correct?
Michael: We do. As we grow, I guess we become victims of our own success. But we are so blessed to have an amazing partner in Imperial Sugar who has stepped up, taken the title lead in really promoting and pulling Lemonade Day together with us this year. And even though these are challenging financial times, we are doing well in fundraising. Course, we can always do more. So any of your listeners who are interested in getting involved, we'd love that, but it's-it's doing great.
Russ: Cool. Well, John, wow, you stepped up to the plate for Lemonade Day 2009. Tell me what was your first reaction when you saw the opportunity?
John: Well, I met Michael approximately 1 year ago at a event that we both attended, and I was intrigued by the possibility that this program has in impacting the youth of this city and other cities like it. I sincerely believe that you can't teach entrepreneurism. You have to experience it. And by addressing and offering this program to youth, we're planting that seed of the personal business opportunity at a critical age in their lives. And I'm just thrilled that my company can be part of this effort in Houston.
Russ: Okay, before I go back to Michael, though, I got to know this. This seems like it has to be a prerequisite for being part of this program. Did you by chance, John, ever have your own lemonade stand?
John: In fact, I did. As a 6-year-old, Mother escorted me out to the front of the house where she had put up a stand, and she put me in business for the first time in my life. I don't think I was very successful the first time out, but I really enjoyed getting, at that time, the nickel in my jar that they were paying for lemonade.
Russ: Okay. Real cool. We're talking with Michael Holthouse, the founder and originator of Lemonade Day and the key sponsor of Lemonade Day 2009, John Sheptor, the CEO of Imperial Sugar. And we'll be back with more of them after this. You're listening to The BusinessMakers Show, heard here and online at thebusinessmakers.com.
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Russ: This is the BusinessMakers Show, heard here and online at thebusinessmakers.com. And continuing on with our topic, Lemonade Day, I'm here with Michael Holthouse, the originator of Lemonade Day as well as John Sheptor, the CEO of Imperial Sugar and the primary sponsor for Lemonade Day 2009. Well, Michael, give us a little bit more detail on the numbers and what you expect for this year.
Michael: Russ, apparently, kids are loving this because we're registering kids like crazy. This year, we expect to do over 25,000 lemonade stands which is more than double. And to put that into perspective, you know, there's always 2 or 3 kids per lemonade stand working as employees and working together, so we believe that we'll hit almost a hundred thousand kids directly involved in entrepreneurship as well as their family members, parents, grandparents, neighbors, faith-based communities, schools. In fact, last year, based on the kids' forms that they sent back in, we believe they sold 1.2 million glasses of lemonade. Now, talk about an entire community getting around kids and showing them that we care about their future by the simple act of buying a glass of lemonade. Lemonade Day touches every aspect of the community from government to business to faith-based to neighborhoods to schools to youth-facing organizations. It's a way that everyone can contribute and really get a focus on kids for a single day.
Russ: Well, Michael, I definitely feel and applaud your passion. It's real cool. It seems like it might be too much passion for just one city, and you keep talking about this happening in Houston. I hear rumors that maybe this thing is spilling outside of the city limits here.
Michael: Well, it was crazy. We were getting calls from not only all over the U.S. but all over the world, and we had thought about just doing it in Houston. But the demand was so great, we decided to try it, so this year we're in Austin and Bryan College Station, Minneapolis and Richmond as well as in Houston. And next year we intend to go to 10 more cites.
Russ: Wow! That is so cool. Now you mentioned people are signing up. How does one sign up?
Michael: Well, registration can happen one of 2 ways. We have got bunches of community partners and locations all over the city. You can go out to www.lemonadeday.org, and all the information is out there. You can sign up online or though partnerships. But Boys and Girls Club, Big Brothers and Sisters, Junior Achievement, so many of the organizations, they're everywhere. There are lots of places you can do it, and we're at lots of festivals around the city all about registering the kids so that we can provide them the educational materials to truly get an education as to how to be an entrepreneur.
Russ: What about those materials?
John: When you sign up for Lemonade Day, when you register, you will receive a knapsack that has some critical materials in it. One, there is a entrepreneur's handbook that teaches the child what types of considerations they have to analyze as part of setting up their business. They do a business plan. They think about what price they want to charge for their lemonade, where they want to put their stand, how much money they need on the front end in terms of a loan to pay of the materials. They're even encouraged in the workbook to be a good corporate citizen and give back to their communities and to select a charity that they can share some of their profits with.
Russ: Cool. Boy, I hope those banks free up some credit lines for these guys.
John: Well, that's an interesting story in itself. There are a number of bank partners that have actually set up the opportunity for children to go in with their parents to set up their first bank account and to take out micro credit for their new business.
Russ: Wow! As part of this program.
John: As part of the program.
Russ: That is so cool.
John: So the other 2 booklets that they get in the material are one, a caring adult guide that helps an adult steer the child through this process of setting up their business. Michael's very fond of saying that it allows every parent to be Warren Buffett for their job.
Russ: All right.
John: And then the third booklet is an instructional booklet on the 4 Ps of marketing. One of those Ps of course being product, and Imperial Sugar has offered 6 different recipes for making lemonade, that use different products of Imperial, like honey, agave syrup, the classic lemonade made with Imperial sugar, the brown sugar lemonade, also organic sugar lemonade. One of the opportunities for Imperial with this program this year has been to launch a new product. We believe that the sugar market is moving in the direction of convenience, food security and hygienic packaging, and we have put in every bag a pre-measured half cup of sugar, 4 packets, for the families to try and send feedback to us on our products, so we're actually doing some market research associated with the project this year.
Russ: Well, that's cool. Could the kid that's doing this actually use that in their lemonade?
John: They certainly could.
Russ: And therefore reduce their cost of goods sold right?
John: I would be surprised if they wouldn't.
Russ: That's what I would do, too. Well, I'm talking with Michael Holthouse, the founder of Lemonade Day and John Sheptor, the CEO of Imperial Sugar. And we'll be back more with both after this. You're listening to The BusinessMakers Show, heard here and online at thebusinessmakers.com.
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Russ: This is the BusinessMakers Show, heard here and online at thebusinessmakers.com. And continuing on with Lemonade Day, the cool event championed and founded by Michael Holthouse and sponsored by Imperial Sugar. I want to roll back to the question early that I asked you Michael about what triggered this, and you had this experience with Lissa. I really felt like boy there was some sort of real close parenting child thing happening there.
Michael: You know, Russ, Lemonade Day is an extraordinary opportunity for parents to get together with their kids to really have fun learning an entire step-by-step process of what it takes to become successful in life. And so to go through, as John was talking about all of the materials, this whole process, and it's fun and they keep all of the money. And let me tell you something. You know, some of us will give our kids allowance and all that, but when they earn their own money, you won't believe the perspective that they take and a real respect for money. So Lemonade Day is an extraordinary way to pull families together.
Russ: Cool, cool point. Now, we've been talking about it all the time without even saying the day. John, what day is this event going to happen?
John: Sunday, May 3 will be Lemonade Day in all of the cities that participate in the event this year.
Russ: Okay. And it's all day long?
Michael: Well, on May 3rd entrepreneurs start whenever entrepreneurs start. It's about serving the customer and selling lemonade. They pick their own sites. They set their own prices, and some will be wildly successful, and some will be less successful. You know we received some feedback from this one girl that all she wanted was a graduation dress.
Russ: And this is like from last year's event?
Michael: Exactly. It was this little girl who had never owned anything new in her entire life. Both of her parents, sad to say, were in prison, and she was raised by her grandmother. And so she went to her counselor. Her counselor lent her the twenty dollars for the initial investment to get started. Well, this little girl went through all of the steps, she ended up making a hundred and eighty-nine dollars. Not only did she get a new dress, she got new shoes. She went through the entire thing, and the counselor tells us this has fundamentally changed this girl's life. And this will be a life-changing event for many kids where they figure out for the first time that through their actions they can control their own life.
Russ: That is a cool story, Michael. I bet you she's in the-uh-participation this year as well.
Michael: Oh, you bet. She's leading the charge.
Russ: Okay, great. Well, now we talked about sponsorship opportunities, and I know that it's so cool that Imperial Sugar is championing the big title sponsor role, but what other type of sponsorship opportunities are there?
Michael: I've made this point a number of times. This has to be a community event where all of us participate. And so for those people who are moved by this and want to help at-risk kids in our community, if you go out to lemonadeday.org, you can sponsor the educational materials for an individual child. It's twenty dollars per backpack, and we would love to see people support us and really make this a ground swell effort.
Russ: Cool. So an individual sponsor can come on the website and sign up right there and help out the program.
Michael: It's huge. It makes all the difference in the world.
Russ: Well Michael, I really appreciate you sharing this story with us once again and doing what you do and I urge you to keep doing it.
Michael: Well, I love your show, and the listeners here are just the right audience because they get it.
Russ: Great. And John, thank you for being with us and thank you for sponsoring this cool event.
John: Russ, thank you very much. It's been my pleasure to be associated with Michael and Lemonade Day.
Russ: Great. We've been talking to Michael Holthouse, the founder and originator of Lemonade Day and John Sheptor, the CEO of Imperial Sugar. And you're listening to The BusinessMakers Show, heard here and online at thebusinessmakers.com.