In 2009, 4-year-old Mikaila Ulmer found her great-grandmother’s lemonade recipe. Among the ingredients of this lemonade recipe was honey. This presented an issue. Within the past two weeks, Mikaila was stung twice by bees and now was deathly afraid of them. Wanting to help her overcome her rising fear, Mikaila’s parents suggested studying bees to better understand all that they do for the environment. After some research, Mikaila was inspired to make lemonade from her great-grandmother’s recipe, set up a lemonade stand outside her house, and give 10 percent of the profits to organizations that protect honeybees. Soon enough, a pizza shop wanted Mikaila to supply them with her lemonade. The business only continued to grow. Quickly, Mikaila realized she could not do this alone. She enlisted the help of her parents, who both have business school degrees, to create a logo, get into a manufacturer, and be placed in more stores. Mikaila explains, “We’re considered co-CEOs, because I make decisions that my parents wouldn’t make, and my parents make decisions that I wouldn’t make.” At the beginning of 2015, 9-year-old Mikaila won the contract to supply Whole Foods Market. Later in 2015, she made a tv appearance on Shark Tank and persuaded Daymond John, boss of clothing firm FUBU, to invest $60,000. 2 Years later a group of former and current football players invested $800,000. Business continues to grow, and Mikaila continues to receive awards for young entrepreneurship. She now dreams of starting additional businesses. “I want to start new companies – to me having one company gets boring sometimes,” she states. The story of Mikaila Ulmer is inspiring by displaying not only finding a passion and making a business out of it, but also overcoming fear and capitalizing on it. Her story also shows how important it is to realize we cannot create business alone. From the help of her parents to the funds of football players, Mikaila realized she needed help and guidance. Because of her boldness in seeking help, her business took off and became highly successful.
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Wow only four years old. Anyone can have a brilliant idea. It is really cool that a fear was integrated into the business. I love that they are co-CEOs. Her company started out small but became really successful. What an inspiration.