operating your stand

Pricing should take into consideration the quality and size of your product, what your potential customers would be willing to pay, and what you are trying to achieve.  We highly discourage nostalgia pricing - that is, pricing at less than $1 - as it likely will result in you losing money on each sale. In our experience, lemonade stand customers are generally not very price sensitive and if you have a premium product and have put a lot of effort into your stand, you should charge a premium price. You should also determine what your cost per cup is so you know how much you would be making on each cup sold. When you consider the cost  of lemonade, cups, lids, straws, stickers, and ice, it is very possible that your cost is close to $1 per cup.

Picking the right location is critical to the success of your stand. If you live on a quiet street or cul-de-sac consider setting up at a relative or neighbors house that gets more traffic. Too busy of a street can be a problem too if there is nowhere to stop or park. An ideal location is near a corner with a stop sign that sees moderate traffic. 

Setting up shop at an event that will bring in traffic is a great option. Setting up at a garage sale, rummage sale,  or swap-meet,  neighborhood or church event will provide access to a lot of potential customers - just be sure to get permission first!

Having good signage and making people aware of your lemonade stand event date and time can help a lot if you won't be in a location with a lot of  traffic  or if your stand isn't obviously recognizable as a lemonade stand. Consider placing directional signs with balloons or streamers at the cross street or handing out flyers to the neighbors and letting friends and relatives know about your event.

This isn't  your dad's lemonade stand - you  don't have to be limited accepting just cash -  payment apps and card processing are viable even for lemonade stands now. We have accepted payments via Zelle and Venmo when potential customers don't have cash on-hand. Have an adult set up an account and print the payment QR codes to place on your pricing sign. 

Most transactions will still be in cash so make sure you have a way to manage cash, and change on hand and are prepared to make change for your customers - keep this in mind when pricing your product. 

Should you squeeze your own lemonade or buy pre-made or a mix?  Some people believe that squeezing your own lemonade is part of the experience and customers will definitely ask about it but in our experience it isn't worth the effort. Pre-made or mix-based likely isn't more expensive and it greatly simplifies your operations and leads to more consistent results. We like to use Simply Lemonade brand pre-made which is available in multiple sizes up to a gallon. The downside of pre-made and mixes is you have less flexibility regarding flavors  and you can't call it "fresh squeezed."

We have never sold bottled or canned lemonade at our stands but it could be a good option in some circumstances. The benefits would be guaranteed product consistency and no customer concerns around product handling. You could consider having some on-hand in bottles or cans for people who might buy for later consumption, but in our opinion the bottles and cans option is missing some of the charm and probably isn't your best choice.

The two big plusses of squeezing your own lemonade are being able to call your lemonade "fresh squeezed" and having complete control over the recipe. This gives you the opportunity to offer unusual variations or to rotate flavors. There are more lemonade recipe variations than we can begin to cover but we have included links to a few options below:

• Strawberry
• Strawberry Rhubarb
• Maple
• Mango
• Mint (lower sugar)
• Raspberry
• Watermelon

You need ice to serve "ice cold lemonade"!  We recommend buying a few bags of ice, both to serve in drinks and also to keep the lemonade cold in your dispenser or cooler. If you are going to make your own ice, start making it the day before and store it in a cooler to make sure you have enough because it goes fast!

ou will obviously need cups to serve lemonade and we also recommend having lids and straws as most customers will take their drinks to-go. You can find generic options in every size for both paper and plastic cups and the same is true for straws, but there are plenty of decorated and lemon theme options to choose from - we have included our favorites on the Supplies page.  An alternative option we have seen work well is using blank or generic cups and then putting a lemonade themed or custom sticker on each cup. We like to use 16oz cups and serve drinks with a generous amount of ice which results in 8-10oz servings of lemonade.