Have you ever been an entrepreneur? A freelancer? An Uber or Lyft driver? The owner of a rental property? Did you know those are actually all the same thing – you were in charge of your own business.

Why be a business owner?

As employees today are harder hit by burnout, lack of wage increases, and an uncontrollable schedule, one of the ways to fight for a better life can be by starting your own business. Contrary to popular culture’s opinion, a business doesn’t have to become a multi-million dollar enterprise with thousands of workers to be a success. Success is in the eye of the business owner. Your own goals for defining business success could include:

• Working part time
• Working on your own schedule
• Working from home
• Working location-independent, so you can move or travel as desired
• Managing work plus child care, or work plus elder care
• Managing work plus a family member’s medical appointments
• Dealing with limitations of your own chronic conditions
• Involving your children in the work, for their own sake of learning about the business or so you can spend more time with them while you work
• Starting up a business that your children can grow as adults
• Living on a farm
• Controlling your income
• Controlling who you work with
• Not having to report to a boss/supervisor/manager
• Not having to dress up in dress clothes, or in a uniform
• Having gross earnings of $100k/year, $500k/year, or $1M/year
• Having net earnings of $100k/year, $500k/year, or $1M/year
• Employing family members who have struggles being employable in a typical job system, such as having chronic health issues that make their ability to report to work inconsistent
• Providing employment to members of the community
• Ability to speak freely about issues you feel strongly about
• Ability to have more passive income
• Becoming more well known in your community
• Deciding what’s important to you, and changing your business to suit as needed

And I’m sure there are many more.

Why National Lemonade Day?

Today, Saturday June 11, 2022, is National Lemonade Day. It’s a day when a lot of the logistical hurdles of running a standard kids’ business of a lemonade stand can be handled easily by registering to participate via lemonadeday.org . These days, it’s not as easy as just buying supplies and setting up a stand; normally businesses have to register with their local government, doing paperwork and potentially paying fees, even for a curbside stand business, and National Lemonade Day helps smooth that road.

If you want to support a lemonade stand near you

Find a local lemonade stand here, or if you’re in Rochester, MN try here. KTTC reports that there are over 250 young entrepreneurs to support!

Adult extensions

And for adults to tie the entrepreneur lessons their kids are learning via National Lemonade Day to the necessary business skill of accounting, considering reading the book “The accounting game : basic accounting fresh from the lemonade stand“, which is available through inter-library loan at the Rochester Public Library. It walks you through various scenarios in running a lemonade stand to help explain the principals of accounting.

Have you tried exerting more control over your life, by being a business owner?