Saturday, April 28th, 2007...9:09 pm
Have You Supported Local Entrepreneurship Today?
Today while driving, I was marketed to by local budding entrepreneurs, probably under the age of ten. They had a pitcher of lemonade (Kool-aid, no doubt), and were flagging my car down from blocks away.
There’s no one more likely to be a sucker for a good entrepreneurial cause, so of course I pulled over & became a customer. Lucky for me, the tiny cup of lemonade was only .05 cents. Lucky for them, I’m a big tipper.
(I splashed two dimes into the changebox– hey, I can afford to splurge on good causes.)
My job at the Eastern Idaho Entrepreneurial Center puts me in a great opportunity to notice & support local entrepreneurs. We work with about twenty companies per semester, helping them with their business plans, market analysis, business development, funding, etc.
It’s a delight to work with entrepreneurs. I love the zest that entrepreneurs have in talking about their products, their building, the latest big news, or even the most recent crisis at their company.
I’ll tell you one thing– according to stereotypes, women supposedly talk “a lot”… but entrepreneurs talk a lot more. I guarantee that is the case.
They’ll give you a tour of the place, tell you everything about the minutiae of the business you don’t even care to know, and evangelize, evangelize, evangelize. And it’s great.
So at any rate, if you’re a keen fan of entrepreneurship, look around you today. Find someone locally that’s out there pounding the pavement for their business idea, and cut them some slack.
Even– perhaps especially– if they’re just ten years old selling you a .05 cent Kool-Aid knockoff lemonade. 
8 Comments
April 30th, 2007 at 10:54 am
If I was a cute kid selling lemonade these days, I wouldn’t list a price. I’d advertise:
FREE Lemonade!
(Donations Accepted)
I bet I could average $1 or more per customer.
April 30th, 2007 at 4:07 pm
Tim,
I definitely agree! Why limit yourself to only .05 cents, when the customer will no doubt pay more!
May 10th, 2007 at 6:43 pm
This is what it is all about…olynnduncan and someday you will be able to tip even more…So did you show the kids how to use any specific technology applications?
May 11th, 2007 at 5:29 pm
Tom,
Lol… indeed!
I should have pulled up wireless on my laptop and introduced them to the powers of blogging, skype, and other virtual collaboration-marketing tactics.
And if they’d been even halfway attentive to my ego talking, I may well have left a dollar or more!
May 12th, 2007 at 3:27 pm
“I splashed two dimes into the changebox…”
the splashing of dimes. that’s a funny image.
May 12th, 2007 at 4:54 pm
Why, thank you!
June 2nd, 2007 at 2:36 pm
This past winter my wife and I stopped and bought some hot chocolate from some little girls on the corner. It was freezing outside so I admired their work ethic. I asked if business was going well and one little girl said, “Eh…okay.” Then her co-worker leaned over and opened up the package of plastic cups.
I laughed so hard…I mean, they h0nestly hadn’t even opened up their plastic cups yet. We still laugh about that one now and then.
June 3rd, 2007 at 11:36 pm
Ryan,
That’s awesome. The “Eh…okay.” cracks me up– it’s all about maintaining a good corporate image in front of the customer, right?
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