Me & the Bees Lemonade is a company founded by 14 year old Mikaila Ulmer. She started the business at only 11 years old, after being sent an old recipe book from her grandmother for flax-seed lemonade. She started the business to help save honey bees from extinction. She accomplishes this by donating a portion of all her sales to local and international organizations trying to save honey bees from extinction. She currently sells to whole foods market, plus a growing amount of restaurants, food trailers, andfood delivery companies.
Archive for Cooking – Page 3
At just four years old, Mikaila Ulmer’s parents encouraged her to enter a children’s business competition. So, little Mikaila put her thinking cap on. She said, two significant things happened in that time period. She got stung by a bee twice and her grandmother sent their family her cookbook, which included the grandmothers lemonade recipe.
At first, Mikaila was scared of the bees, but then she became fascinated with them. She started researching them and realized that bees needed help. She thought, “What if I could help the bees by using my grandma’s lemonade recipe?”. Thus, Me and the Bee’s Lemonade was born.
At first, the venture was small and endearing, but now, at 14 years old, Mikaila is participating in large social entrepreneurship panels. She is also educating the public on how to better protect the honeybees. A percentage of her profits goes towards helping organizations fight to save the bees.
Me and the Bee’s Lemonade is now being sold at places like Whole Foods (an 11 million dollar deal) the world’s leader in natural and organic food. There are also a growing amount of restaurants serving her lemonade. Through connecting two very different ideas, Mikaila has been able to create a thriving business while striving to raise funds and awareness for the struggling bee population.
Pinterest is a widely used app and website that allows you to get inspired and find ideas for things to bake, make, wear and use! The idea for Pinterest first came to Ben Silbermann in his years post graduation from Yale. In 2009 the project to build Pinterest officially began, but the app itself never took off running until a year or so late. The phrase “patience is key” comes to mind when thinking about the beginnings of this app, and I think Silbermann would agree. Flash forward to the present, Pinterest is currently worth 1.5 Billion dollars, and is used in several countries all over the world namely the US and Asia. The creators of Pinterest are constantly coming out with new ways to improve the app and cater to the interests and desires of the users. With the most recent update being the ability to purchase things off of their app, Pinterest is now becoming a competitor with online shopping sites. According to an article about the app Pinterest recently passed up Facebook in terms likes gained from adds and promotions. In that same article Silbermann makes a point to recognize the hard work that he and his co-founder Evan Sharp had to put in along with the patience and trust that something would come of it eventually. Along with that he says that it is important to realize there is more to life than the project you are working on and it is good to think about those things in addition to whatever your work might be. It seems as if Silbermann has a good understanding of the necessity of a good work/life balance and how not having too much of one or the other can ruin a person and cause them to burn out. It is unclear what the future holds for Pinterest, but there is hope and motivation to continue impacting the world in a positive way through this app.
In 2004, fourteen-year-old Fraser Doherty of Scotland began a remarkable career. It all started when his grandmother taught him her jam recipe, which contained 100% fruit. In 2007 (using his grandmother’s recipe), Doherty took his jam company, SuperJam, to Waitrose – a UK supermarket company. Doherty went on to become the youngest person to ever supply a large supermarket chain.
By the time Fraser was seventeen, he had generated over $750,000 in sales. Furthermore, he has sold millions of cans of jam since the company’s inception. In addition to this, Doherty went on to invest in many charitable projects and organizations. He has hosted hundreds of free “SuperJam Tea Parties” for the elderly and has invested much of his time into community beekeeping projects.
Fraser has also written many books, from business how-to guides to cookbooks. He has also received many awards, such as the “Enterprising Young Brit of the Year” award in 2004 and the “Global Student Entrepreneur of the Year” award in 2007.
In 2013, Doherty co-founded Beer52, the world’s largest beer club. It has become one of the must successful startups in Scotland, with more than 200,000 customers. Beer52 also produces the UK’s top craft beer magazine, Ferment.
What started as a fun experience with his grandmother has radically transformed Fraser’s life. All it took was acting upon a unique idea: a jam made with 100% fruit.
Brooklyn-based knife maker Chelsea Miller can barely keep her handmade knives in stock. She works all day in her 100-square-foot Brooklyn studio to fill orders for her loyal customers. Her knives have a $800 price-tag, but restaurants, like highly acclaimed Eleven Madison Park, fight to order her bespoke products.
Some of Miller’s most popular knives are made from farrier’s rasps. A farrier’s rasp is a farm tool used to trim horses’ hooves. She takes these old rasps, which are rusted and dulled from use, and she transforms them into bespoke kitchen knives. Miller takes an oxyacetylene torch to grind it down and to blast it smooth in her smithy, which is located down the street from her apartment in New York City.
Initially, she moved to New York to pursue a career as an actress, but her father fell ill, which meant she suddenly started spending more time at home at her family’s farm in Vermont. She found some old rasps on the property, and she turned them into her first set of rugged knives. Her handles are made from beautiful maple trees that are found on the property of the farm.
When she started her business in 2011, she sold her knives for around $250 at the Brooklyn Flea. Now a 10-inch knife costs around $800 online. Knife-making is no longer a hobby; it is her job. However, her love of acting has not faded, and she continues to use that skill to land impressive marketing/press opportunities. She still appears in short independent films, and on wide range of different media outlets for her unique craft. Chelsea Miller uses all her skills to grow and shape her business, which is a mark a successful entrepreneur.