He Made $6K in 3 Hours Selling Lemonade - Ep. #309

Don (0:00)

In three hours, we did almost like $6,000.

Chris Koerner (0:02)

$6,000 in lemonade in three hours.

Don (0:05)

Lemonade.

Chris Koerner (0:06)

Have you seen that YouTube video of the guy that makes like $7,000 a day selling lemonade?

Don (0:09)

Yeah, yeah. I see how he does it too.

Chris Koerner (0:11)

And all the commenters are like, there's no way.

Don (0:13)

And you're like, no, there is.

Chris Koerner (0:15)

You tried it and you made 12 grand in profit.

Don (0:17)

Yeah, for that one time.

Chris Koerner (0:19)

And you had never done it, you had no experience?

Don (0:20)

No, no. He just watched a lot of videos.

Chris Koerner (0:23)

It's crazy because like a lemonade stand is what kids start. It's 20 bucks in the summer.

Don (0:27)

It is.

Chris Koerner (0:28)

And so people overlook it. Like I'm too good for that.

Don (0:31)

I mean, I will be middle-aged lemonade stand entrepreneur all day long.

Chris Koerner (0:36)

Oh yeah.

Don (0:36)

Because also the same time like my kids are involved in it. It's a great weekend gig, but then you know, it's like we kind of turned it more into this is all we do.

Chris Koerner (0:43)

Yeah. What are your startup costs in this business?

Don (0:46)

It wasn't much. You could technically do this with a muddler and a knife and a cutting board. A lot of corporate events, especially a lot of family events too. It's committed to two, three hours. We'll be anywhere from minimum of like about $1,000 to $3,000 usually.

Chris Koerner (1:01)

Wow.

Don (1:01)

I've had a lot of people just use it for cocktail hour, for wedding. We'll do that for $500.

Chris Koerner (1:07)

Yeah.

Don (1:08)

Just straight up rental for four, I drop it off.

Chris Koerner (1:12)

What advice would you give people wanting to start this business in their markets?

Don (1:15)

Oh, just do it. Stop overthinking it.

Chris Koerner (1:17)

Yeah.

Don (1:17)

How should I do this? Should I do an LLC or? It's like, no, just get a table, get a tent.

Chris Koerner (1:23)

Yeah.

Don (1:24)

And then just post up. Last year, we hit about 250,000.

Chris Koerner (1:28)

250,000?

Don (1:28)

Yes.

Chris Koerner (1:29)

At farmer's markets?

Don (1:30)

Yes.

Chris Koerner (1:31)

Selling lemonade?

Don (1:32)

Selling lemonade.

Chris Koerner (1:32)

That's crazy.

Don (1:33)

Yeah.

Chris Koerner (1:34)

And your margins have to be stupid.

Don (1:35)

Yes. Yeah.

Chris Koerner (1:36)

How big do you think you could get this business?

Don (1:38)

Think we can get it to half a million. Wow. Like in a year or two.

Chris Koerner (1:44)

Well, Don, why don't you tell me about your business?

Don (1:47)

Well, I know the reach out about the lemonade cart, lemonade stand, but we actually, that's just an addition to our current lemonade stand business right now. So we actually started three years ago doing farmers markets.

Chris Koerner (2:02)

Okay. Lemonade?

Don (2:03)

Yeah.

Chris Koerner (2:03)

Like fresh?

Don (2:04)

Yeah. Fresh squeezed lemonade, sugar, water, lemon.

Chris Koerner (2:06)

Okay.

Don (2:07)

Yeah. That's it. And then I'm doing it with my kids.

I used to have a catering business a long time ago and then I left that. And you know, it all really just started from the day I made my kids a fresh squeezed lemonade and they just went nuts.

Chris Koerner (2:21)

So it's literally water, cane sugar, lemons.

Don (2:25)

Yeah. So ours is like we do, we wedge the lemon and then we squeeze, we smash it all the way in there. So you get all the oils and everything. And then you put it in the 32 ounce cup and then we use simple syrup. So yeah, so it's like a one to one ratio.

Chris Koerner (2:41)

Oh, so there's no graininess. You don't have to dissolve the sugar.

Don (2:44)

You know how sweet tea is? Like they never, it's not really sweet tea if it's like sugar. Yeah. So yeah, we put the simple syrup in there and then pump it, shake it with filtered water and then that's it. And then we do add some flavors to it too for anybody that wants like strawberry or mango. But we started that up at Frisco Fresh Market. So three years ago and it really just grew.

Chris Koerner (3:08)

Really?

Don (3:08)

Yeah.

It was more than, it was supposed to be just a side thing. Because my wife and I had our own business, and then we decided to leave it because of this. And then now we're at the Dallas Farmers Market and we're at Frisco Fresh Market and then we do caterings. And then we added our cart. Yeah. Because and then we're expanding that so that we can do weddings, and also just people who want to just rent it out because it's such a big hit. Yeah.