Posts from — April 2008

"The hardest thing in the world to understand is the income tax."

    Author Unknown 

We have been working with our six year old the old hard way of remembering our phone number, but these days we have to also teach them our cell phones.  Wish I would have read this post earlier.

Teach your phone number by setting it to song | Parent Hacks

"If you are not working for yourself, always have an exit plan and be ready to take it at a moment's notice.–"    

    "Ed Bacchus"

Mommy Bacchus was having a yard sale this past weekend and BJ was kind enough to give up many of his toys he no longer used. As a consolation, I agreed to set up a lemonade stand so he could raise funds to buy new ones, and below are things he learned while engaging in this entrepreneurial endeavor. Please keep in mind that BJ is in kindergarten.

You Need Customers and You Need Lemonade

Supply and Demand became very real to him. If I didn’t have another pitcher of lemonade waiting in the wings, he lost sales. So he asked me to always have a pitcher ready just in case he ran out.

Sometimes You Have to Ask for Business

How and when you ask, can determine if you make the sale. After about an hour I showed him how to wait until the customers walked close enough to the stand before asking. This was a problem because people were primarily stopping by the yard sale and he would scream at them as soon as they pulled up to the sidewalk. Ask nicely and you may receive a reward in return.

Money is a Tangible Thing

Making change became a real process other than completing a worksheet in school. He struggled with making change from a dollar most of the day (cup cost 25 cents), but finally saw the need to get it right. The big benefit was recognizing dines and nickels as being different from a quarter.

Check Your Product

We made a couple of practice pitchers before we got the right combination of Kool-Aid and sugar. We had fund testing it the night before. A bad batch could leave a bad taste in your mouth.

You Can’t Make Money if Your Not Available at Your Stand

After losing a couple of customers while playing with some friends in the yard, he was afraid to go to the bathroom without someone watching the stand for him.

The Wonders of Cross-Selling and Developing your Sale

After hearing me offer a free glass of lemonade to entice someone to buy some baby clothes, he starting doing it with some of his toys. He also heard me ask someone if they were thirsty and then suggest a glass of ice cold lemonade to satisfy that thirst.

A new toy fund is a great motivated for your kids, but I also found other ways to use a stand.

Take a Stand

Sunkist, with proud supporters Rubbermaid® and Domino®/C&H® Sugar, will soon be inviting kids 7 to 12 years old across America to Take a Stand® for their favorite charity. It’s a rewarding way to squeeze some fun into summer and give back to the community.

Last summer over 15,000 kids from every state in the U.S. and every province in Canada signed up to Take a Stand.

Alex’s Lemonade Stand

A unique foundation that evolved from a young cancer patient’s front yard lemonade stand to a nationwide fundraising movement to find a cure for pediatric cancer. Since Alexandra “Alex” Scott (1996-2004) set up her front yard stand at the age of four, more than $18 million has been raised towards fulfilling her dream of finding a cure for all children with cancer.

Overall, we had a blast and to top it off, he made $24.31. Just enough to get a new Pokemon DS game cartridge. I loved watching him act like a little business man and he was so excited about it. People liked what we were doing and the new toy fund got a great start. Watch out Donal Trump, BJ from Texas is on your tail…..

"EXCUSES are the tools of the incompetent and they build bridges to no where and the people who use them build monuments to nothingness……….."

    "Author Unknown"

This is an interesting article discussing the portrayal of Black Fathers in advertising.

Fathers & Families Blog » Blog Archive » Black Fathers in the Media (Part II)

Electronic Village publishes a ranking list of black bloggers each month and it has grown substantially. Right now I am ranked #612 out of #1046, but it is still exciting to see your blog’s name among many others. Stop by his sight and click some of the other sites on the list. My friend Shawn at Dallas South is listed at #105 so visit him and share some link love to help get him into the top 100 next month.

Electronic Village: Top Ten Black Blogs (Apr 2008)