Drinking ‘the Kool-Aid’ versus Lemonade
I don’t know what it is about me and kids and their lemonade stands, but I stopped by another one yesterday afternoon; this time while on my way out of town to speak at Utah Business Week.
“How long have you guys been out here?” I asked. “Since this morning,” one of the older kids replied, ” adding, rather dejectedly, “and you’re our first customer“.
It didn’t occur to me until I drove off that I could do something to help their business (aside from paying a quarter for my own cup of their delicious lemonade). The traditional lemonade stand business model is this… set up shop and wait for people to come to you. Simple enough, and depending on weather, location, and cuteness factor, you may or may not experience success. I thought to myself as I drove away, if it were me, and I’d been standing out there for most of the morning and early afternoon without generating any business whatsoever, I’d hope I’d have the wherewithal to conceive a new business model.
Realizing that these were 10-year-olds, and that most 10-year-olds have the wherewithal of, well, 10-year-olds, I sprung into action. I called our Chief Marketing Officer’s assistant, Lindsay, from my car, and told her that there were a group of kids on the corner of 1200 North & 500 East selling lemonade, and that I bet if she drove over there and asked to speak to their parents, that they’d agree to let their kids come to the Doba office to bring everyone at company a nice refreshing glass of lemonade.
The rest, as they say, is history:
A special note of thanks to Lindsay, Cindy, and Meagen (they’re the big kids in the back row of the picture on the right) for helping to pull this off. I think we showed some neighborhood kids what sorts of possibilities exist when you rethink your distribution model. That, and you can make a whole lot of money by pouring lemonade at Doba.
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