Not going to lie, our daughter had wanted to do a lemonade stand for a solid four years. I on the other hand, did not. [judge away judgy-mc-judgersens]
I thought it was a cute idea, but I did not want to go through all the “work”, that was actually required to do such an activity. It just seemed like a lot. After going on an impromptu Momvaction. [read about that necessity here!] I came back refreshed and ready to take on the world.
Juuust kidding, but I did have a little more willingness + motivation to give different things a try. So we decided to cross that item off of her summer bucket list! Read more below as I have shared how to make the best lemonade stand basically for free!
No fancy set up here. Just a table, a sign + some lemons.
Supplies You Will Need
Scroll to the bottom for a screenshot-friendly version of this list!
Lemonade
Silly to put this on the list, but you ca’tn serve lemonade without…you guessed it, lemonade!
You can choose to make you own lemonade like we did or just purchase a pre-made lemonade mix!
If you want to make your own you can try this lemonade juicer here. We love ours and use it at least once a week !
If you aren’t feeling that advantageous, you can just buy the pre-made mix! There is no shame in that game !
Cups
If you want to serve lemonade you have to have something to serve it in! Cups are super important and to be honest, they are also something we totally forgot when we made our first batch of lemonade.
We found these from our local grocery store but you can be proactive and order these plain white ones for less than $10 on Prime right now!
A Pitcher
Something else that might be obvious, but you may not think of, is having a pitcher to serve the lemonade. Having something to store the thirst quenching drink in but is also easy to pour is clutch!
These are similar to what we used!
Paper Towels
I don’t think this needs an explanation. Having plenty of paper towels on hand is never a bad idea!
A Table
Table [+ chairs ] are pretty important to have as well. You can totally buy or make a fancy lemonade stand or you can do what we did and just use a fold-up picnic table. It worked perfectly!
This table can be used for so many things. We originally bought it to go camping with and have used it for some many other things! Even just around the house!
If you want to go all out, how cute is this little lemonade stand?! You could use this for so many other things too! [Hello photo shoot prop!]
A Good Sign
A good lemonade stand needs a great sign! We didn’t have any actual poster board but we used the back of one of those giant color books!
She had such a fun time creating + drawing the sign herself !
If you wanted, you can get a personalized sign to remember the fun day for less than $10 on Prime!
Container for Money
Having a place to put your money is key, especially if it is a windy day!
This was a little jewelry box my daughter got from my mom but you really can use anything! Even a shoe box with a slit in the top!
Here is a simliar box to what we used!
How to Make it for FREE
So here is where the free part comes in.
If you can bring in some buying customers, then you can bring in a profit, therefore the lemonade stand will in turn pay for itself making it free!
You can even make a larger profit and come out ahead, with a little spending cash afterwards!
Below I have listed several ways on how to attract buying customers.
How to Get Buying Customers
Another screen-shot friendly version of this list is at the bottom of this post!
- Make tasty lemonade
- be sure to taste test the lemonade to see if it is good!
- Use fresh lemonade if possible
- people always love fresh, so if you can, make it homemade
- Make a visible sign
- if possible make extra signs to place a few homes ahead of yours, so people know it’s coming up and can prepare to stop
- also be sure to place the sign in a place that all can see it
- Make a visually appealing stand
- think to yourself, “would I want to stop here?”
- Be close to the road
- obviously be a safe distance back, but do be close enough that people can easily stop and get to the stand
- Add variety
- we had strawberry + regular lemonade
- Don’t be afraid to ask the neighbors
- one of the first things that our daughter did was run over to our neighbors and asked if they would like to purchase a cup
- Text friends + family
- it never hurts to shoot out a text, asking your friends + fam to swing by to support your little people!
- Share on social media
- use social media to your advantage + let people know what you are up to. [have them DM you, so you can give your address privately]
- Price to sell
- $1 is a reasonable price for a cup of lemonade.
- Donate to a charity
- people love to give. donating to a charity not only helps bring people to check out the cause, but you are also helping a charity, which is awesome! #winwin
Give it a Try
I am so glad that we got to cross one of the revolving items off of our daughters summer bucket list. It really was so much fun.
We ended up selling at the stand for over 3 hours that day.
We had neighbors, friends, family, random people + even workers stop by!
This was a exciting experience that created time together but also taught many valuable life skills. Things such as sense of initiative and entrepreneurship, creativeness, business + innovation skills and so much more.
If you are considering making your own lemonade stand or your kid is asking for the 100th time, give these simple suggestions a try and you will not only have a blast but will be teaching life lessons!
Shop More supplies !
Keep scrolling for the screenshot friendly lists!
Supplies Needed
- Cups
- Lemonade
- Pre-Made Mix
- Homemade
- lemons
- sugar
- water
- Pitcher
- Paper Towels
- Table [chairs are optional]
- Sign of Some Sort
- Pens, Marker, Paint, Etc
- Poster-board
- Container for Money
How to get buying cutomers!
- Make tasty lemonade
- Use fresh lemonade if possible
- Make a visible sign
- Make a visually appealing stand
- Be close to the road
- Add variety
- Don’t be afraid to ask the neighbors
- Text friends + family
- Share on social media
- Price to sell
- Donate to a charity
Stay tuned for post on how to make homemade Strawberry + Regular Lemonade!