Lemonade Stand Start-Up Kit by Bizainy

Unplugged Fun that Builds Responsible Business and Financial Habits for Life! Available April 1, 2014

I promise you that even though the first of April is also April Fool’s Day it also kicks off Financial Literacy month which is no joke! If there is a big item I would really like to instill in my daughters’ lives, it would be the importance of understanding and having healthy financial relationships. We hear the statistics that have been jammed in our head for decades. FIFTY percent of marriages in the United States end in divorce due to FINANCES. Either people who are getting married are just super bad at communicating and keeping a budget or we Americans are just generally not taught how to build a financial future together. Finances just don’t affect relationships with others, it directly affects the relationship you have with yourself. What you can accomplish and how you feel about yourself are directly connected to your financial life. I think it is very important to place emphasis on teaching business and financial habits to our children for their own healthy future.

How can you teach your kids to follow their hopes and dreams while still living in their financial reality? That’s a tough question and one I struggle with as a parent and even as a person. I was taught and have lived in a way to not take financial risks or incur debt yet there are limitations to those standards. I will readily admit I have always been afraid to start my own business because I like a certain financial stability that keeps me working for others. I will also adamantly say it was not a very good work/life balance when I was working three jobs while going to school full time to not incur debt. I don’t want my daughters to limit themselves, but I want them to be responsible with their money and not extend themselves into unnecessary debt. What’s a good way to teach kids about business, money management and leadership skills so they are better prepared to make those financial decisions in their life? Mom and marketing executive, Carolyn Stone Enenstein, has a way to help!

BizainyTM, founded in 2012 by Enenstein, provides really cool educational toys and experiences so that kids can gain financial literacy. Bizainy offers classes and camps to kids on the importance of business but for those of us not living around Los Angeles, her activity kits for children are really awesome. The Lemonade Start-Up Kit is for children in the age range of five and up as an educational kit to start up their own lemonade business. The information book provided in the kit is something I would have purchased on its own and has such great advice about how to actually budget your money instead of just the focus of selling. I love that! It may sound a little strange to us to start teaching these concepts to kindergarteners (we seem to be afraid of these things, don’t we?), but building these notions even while just setting up a fun little business is such a great learning tool.

Have Older Kids? If you have older children who may have outgrown the lemonade stand, there are activity boxes on Charity Bake Sales and a Babysitting Start-up Kit, too!

Lemonade Stand Start-Up Kit includes:

“Fresh and Delicious” Lemonade Banner
Sign to spin
Decorate-your-own money box
Sales pad
Decorate-your-own price sign
Information-packed 20 page book with marketing plan, budget, sales strategies, recipes and more!

Fun Facts! If you want a healthy financial example, don’t look to these past American Presidents!

Even some of America’s founding fathers were no strangers to being bad at their own finances! In fact, Thomas Jefferson -who was quite vocal about the problems with debt- had substantial monetary debt his entire life that even led to his owing several months of his quite handsome presidential salary at the end of his term due to his poor budgeting. D’oh!

So, who were the five poorest U.S. Presidents? (Source: investopedia.com)

Harry S. Truman. Bad business investments and financial decisions left this president in debt and living at his mother-in-law’s house after leaving the White House. Truman and his wife were the first Medicare recipients after it was signed into law!
Ulysses S. Grant. A bad business investment that caused him to go into bankruptcy coupled with living well beyond his means, Grant was never able to give his family financial stability until after his death.
William Henry Harrison. A farmer that could not keep up with his financial obligations, Congress had to set up a pension for Harrison’s wife after he died penniless.
Thomas Jefferson. I could write a book on Jefferson’s financial troubles! Jefferson never got out of his debt and when he died his daughter was left penniless and had to live off charity.
James A. Garfield. Garfield grew up in poverty in Ohio yet was able to work his way through school and pass the bar exam. Unfortunately, he never made much money as a public servant and was penniless when he was tragically assassinated while in office.

Lemonade Stand Start-Up Kit by Bizainy

www.bizainy.com

List Price: $ 30.00