Cove titleholder finalist for National Lemonade Day Entrepreneur of the Year
Special to Leader-Press
When life gives you lemons, you make lemonade. That is the motto of Briana Liles, Preteen Miss Copperas Cove Five Hills, and she has taken these words literally. On Thursday, she will learn if her perseverance has made her the best young business owner in the country.
The shy 10-year old hosted a lemonade stand over national Lemonade Day Weekend in May using her proceeds to benefit children with alopecia, an auto-immune disorder that Liles also battles daily.
“I wanted to make lemonade with the lemons that life dealt me,” she said.
Liles is a finalist for the National Lemonade Day Entrepreneur of the Year after being selected as the Fort Hood awardee in June. The winner is announced on Thursday in Houston at the National Lemonade Day Conference.
During Lemonade Day Weekend, she sold regular lemonade, pink lemonade, sweet tea, lemon cupcakes, lemon bars, lemon crinkle cookies, hot dogs, chips and her mom’s famous pulled pork sandwiches. After working a cumulative 24 hours, Liles earned $975.53 from her lemonade stand. Once she paid back her investors, her total profit earned was $561.53. Liles then reviewed her spending, saving and sharing goals. She worked hard for her money and spent $93.20 on herself, saved $177.71 for next year’s stand costs, and shared $290.62 to the alopecia foundation. Based on her profit, Briana calculated that she was “getting paid” $23.40 an hour.
Amanda Sequeira is the local Fort Hood Area Lemonade Day director.
“Even though a large sum of her total revenue was paid back to her investor, Briana learned valuable lessons from her experience. She learned the importance of spending, saving and sharing. Lemonade Day taught her the value of a dollar and how you have to work hard to achieve your goals. It opened her eyes to what earning a paycheck means, along with paying a loan back to your investors,” Sequeira said. “Most importantly, Lemonade Day developed her communication skills by helping her branch out of her comfort zone.”
The winner of the National Lemonade Day Entrepreneur of the Year Contest is announced on Thursday morning in Houston. If selected, Liles will be the second Fort Hood Area winner to capture the national title. Katrina Lawrence of Fort Hood won the honor in 2015. This is the fifth National Lemonade Day Entrepreneur of the Year Award given by Prepared 4 Life, founding organization of the Lemonade Day program. The award was created to celebrate the budding spirit of entrepreneurship in youth.