July 5, 2013 By Malla

No job this summer? Start a lemonade stand

Ahhhh the days of summer are upon us.

Does your daughter have plans this summer? Great! Does she want to earn money or find something to do with her free time?

Help her start a lemonade stand.

Running a business is one of the best activities for young people to engage in. And when I think about all of the skills that a young woman gains by starting her own lemonade stand…the list is endless.

She’ll learn about

Marketing – How to pitch a product and get people interested
Production – How to produce the best quality product with the lowest amount of resources spent
Sales and Negotiation: Think about how unafraid she’ll be the first day that she needs to negotiate a job offer if she has had to deal with tough sales before.
Finances: Watch how quickly she can do math once someone wants multiple cups of lemonade or some other creative sale comes in!

So encourage her to get started. It can be as simple as finding a space and selling for one day or setting up several stands over the summer with the help of her friends.

Don’t worry about perfection! She will definitely make some mistakes when she starts but the key is to try, practice and gain skills so that she gets more and more comfortable with her sales skills and ability to find customers.

So think about a good location, help her gather supplies (free is always good where possible!) and challenge her to earn some spending money by starting a lemonade stand.

Send me photos or stories to share with the Mom & Daughters Inc family!!

3 Powerful Steps to Preparing Your Daughter for Life After College

Photo by Andre Hunter

Every year, a new crop of young women graduate from college. Which is wonderful.

But some don’t have a career plan. They start by revising their resumes and cover letters. Practicing interviews. Combing the internet for jobs. Reaching out to friends or family for any leads.

A recent study conducted by McGraw-Hill reveals that only 36 percent of women graduating college believe that they’re career ready. While 50 percent of men surveyed believe that they can conquer the job market.

It pains me to know that young women are graduating from college believe that they are truly not ready for the workforce. And it pains me because this is a process that should have begun in their freshman year of college.

Yessssss #freshmanadvice

But, I ain’t one to judge. So anytime a former student or son/daughter of a friend reaches out, I help. I worked for several years in HR/Career Development so I know a few things about the job search. And I always remember those who helped me out and want to pay it forward.

But there is a hard part of the discussion. Editing the resume and coaching for the interview is easy. It’s understanding how to set up a career plan for a recent college graduate that’s tough. And it’s especially tough because you can’t return these young women back to college and “correct” a few things.

So here is a short list of ideas of how to help your daughter make the most of her college years. This information is less the technical how-tos. Anyone can teach you how to spell check your resume. But if you have reviewed it ten times and are still not getting called, you need additional information.

Your daughter needs to understand how an employer makes their decisions. Our young women need to learn about how to prevent their resumes from going into the “dark hole” where no one calls them for interviews. If we want them to be successful in the…

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Once the young women in our lives understand these principles, they’ll have a much easier time navigating the job search process.

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