Teaching Entrepreneurship Early with Lemonade Day’s Bailey Kinney
Bailey Kinney, Executive Director of Lemonade Day, joins this week to talk lemonade stands, teaching entrepreneurship early, and making an impact on kids in the community. Since joining Lemonade Day, Bailey has helped reach tens of thousands of kids nationwide and beyond with hands-on experiential education. A highlight of Lemonade Day’s work is helping kids to realize that they have goals, teaching them how to reach them, and then helping them achieve their dreams; it’s more than just a lemonade stand. With Lemonade Day, kids gain confidence early on because, inevitably, life hands you lemons—and with the program, well, you know the rest.
Keep up with our guest Bailey Kinney on LinkedIn.
Learn more about Lemonade Day on LinkedIn and the website.
Connect with Chris Howard on LinkedIn.
Check out Softeq on the Softeq website.Timecoded Guide:
[00:00] Start of episode
[03:58] The need for entrepreneurship education
[04:53] How Lemonade Day started
[06:45] How Lemonade Day works
[14:23] Impact of program on kids
[21:47] Importance of starting entrepreneurship early
[24:25] What can we do?
Did you ever have a lemonade stand?
While Bailey did have a lemonade stand as a kid, her “a-ha” moment came in fourth grade. Her and a friend decided to start a catering business, riding their bikes to stores to gather food for her parents’ coworkers. Bailey says that, early on, she recognized a passion to create and also to find a need that she can fulfill the best that she can. Later on, she owned a small toy store, guided by the same principles.
“To be able to relate all this, and then have the toy store back to children right now is a dream come true. It's a privilege to have this job and to constantly be trying to implement our program”
How does Lemonade Day work?
Lemonade Day is a curriculum, a step-by-step process. It starts out with teaching kids how to set a goal and then writing a business plan to reach that goal. The third module is then taking the necessary steps to execute that plan. Finally, the last module is guiding kids to reach their dreams. In the curriculum, the kids learn the three S’s: saving, spending, and sharing. Bailey says that, with everything, the experience becomes much more than a lemonade stand.
“The program is so much fun. They're experiencing it physically, mentally, emotionally, that they don't even know they're learning all these steps as they are.”
Impact of Lemonade Day on kids
Extending from Houston, the rest of the United States, and to Puerto Rico and Bermuda, Lemonade Day has a wide reach. Their goal for this year is to impact 20,000 children in Houston alone. Bailey says that they want kids to believe that they can invent something to change the world. She says a huge driving force for Lemonade Day is to make such a change while reaching all areas of Houston.
“It has been shown that 57% Compared to 37% believe they can invent something to change the world that have run the program. So that in itself tells you that we need more, we need more people to run this program.”
What can companies do to be a part of the solution?
Bailey says that, number one, companies should encourage kids to participate in the Lemonade Day program. It’s free to sign up and Lemonade Day is raising money to ensure that it’s free. Number two is volunteering and helping to mentor kids. Bailey says that they also need donors and that with every $10, they’re able to offer the program for free for the kids.
“That is what our program is doing: we're giving them that opportunity to think, to be innovative, and to be creative as opposed to just sitting at a desk and doing one subject after another, we have to get them up, get them moving, get them caring about what they're doing.”You maybe interested in:
