How 13-year-old American created her own brand of lemonade
'28.07.2018'
Source: with the BBC
In the framework of the project The Boss Air force tells the success stories of entrepreneurs from all over the world. This week, we spoke to Mikaila Ulmer, 13-year-old chief and founder of Me & The Bees Lemonade. Mikaila Ulmer's lemonade is now sold in more than 500 stores across America, but the girl's math scores are not the best.
Running a successful business is a full-time job, but Mikaila - founder and CEO of Me & The Bees Lemonade - also needs to make time for her studies. One day, this 13-year-old girl can sit at her desk, and the next day she can speak at an entrepreneurship conference.
“It's not very easy to do, that's for sure,” she says. “Sometimes I skip class to interview or go to a TV show, or have to miss a big show or presentation because I have a big project or test at school.”
Mikaila, who sells 360 bottles of lemonade a year, including at a supermarket chain as popular as Whole Foods Market, is one of the youngest business owners in the United States. Mikaila just recently became a teenager, but has actually run her business in Austin, Texas since she was four years old.
With the constant help of her parents, Mikayla first began selling her lemonade back in 2009. That year, she put a table in front of her parents' house and started selling lemonade made according to 1940's prescription from her great-grandmother. There was honey in the recipe, and approximately at that time, Mikailu was stung twice by bees for two weeks.
The parents advised the girl that instead of being afraid of each bee, she should study them better, learn more about the important role they play in pollination and the life of the ecosystem as a whole. This inspired Michael to give some of the money he earned from selling lemonade to the honeybee organizations.
Soon Mikaila began supplying lemonade to a local pizzeria, and since then her business has begun to grow, but she still donates 10% of her profits to bee protection organizations. Considering that Mikaila D ”'s mother Andra and Theo's father are also actively involved in business, the question arises - who actually runs it?
“At first I did everything myself, made lemonade at my table, but then my parents made some nice labels for the cups,” says Mikaila. “When the business started to grow, I had to admit that I couldn't do everything on my own, and then I started asking:“ Mom, Dad, how can I make a logo? How to become a manufacturer? How to expand your store network? ”.
The fact that the parents are business school graduates should certainly help, given that D'Andra has experience in marketing and sales and Teo has experience in entrepreneurship. However, D'Andra says that she and her husband had no experience in food and drink at all.
According to Mikaila, the main thing is teamwork. “We consider ourselves co-founders, because I make decisions that my parents would not have made, and my parents make those decisions that would not have occurred to me,” she says. “I’m also still young ... I understand that I don’t know everything, and therefore I definitely take their advice into account.”
The big business breakthrough came in 2015, when Michael was nine. Earlier this year, she won a contract for the supply of her drink at the Whole Foods Market supermarket chain.
“Mikaila and her company caught our attention for several reasons,” says Jenna Gelhand, Whole Foods Market spokeswoman. “She had a unique, very tasty product, she herself is a strong, passionate founder and also a social mission,” she says. "We were impressed by Mikaila as a young entrepreneur, her desire to spread awareness about the importance of pollinating bees."
Later that year, Mikaila was seen by viewers across America when she appeared on the reality show Shark Tank about entrepreneurs. Her appeal to a group of potential investors was successful enough to convince one of them - Damond John, president of the clothing company FUBU - to invest $ 60 in her business.
Two years later, a consortium of former and current American footballers invested 800 thousand dollars already.
Mikayila continues to receive numerous awards for young entrepreneurs and African-American company owners, her successes are appreciated by former US President Barack Obama. In 2015, he invited her to the White House, and a year later she presented him at the women's summit.
Jeffrey Soares, owner of the Summit Beverage Group, who started making bottles for Me & Bees Lemonade last year, says Mikaila is a very powerful face for the brand.
“You may have a great product, but if there is no good story, how should you get noticed? This is a very competitive industry, he says. - I'm not sure that they would have made such a breakthrough without Mikaila. It is very serious, but at the same time, everyone needs help - they have a good family, and they strive to build something. "
Mikayil says that now she hopes to start a new business, but she also does not forget about school.
“I want to start new companies - sometimes I get bored with one company,” she says. - I like coming up with new names and logos, this is the most interesting part of the job for me. I'm also nervous about high school, but I'm looking forward to making new friends and also hoping not to have to wear a uniform anymore. ”
