Mikaila Ulmer is the founder of Me and the Bees Lemonade. What I find the most interesting about her story is how young she was when she came up with her idea. Mikaila was only four years old when she was stung by a bee. This event drove her to learn more about bees and what they do for the earth. It was around this same time when her family encouraged her to enter a couple children’s business competitions. While searching for business ideas Mikaila’s great grandmother shared her homemade lemonade recipe with Mikaila. It was then that Mikaila had the idea to combine her great grandmother’s recipe with her growing interest in bees together. With the help of her family, Mikaila changed her great grandmother’s recipe to include honey.
Mikaila entered competitions and sold her lemonade outside her house at her lemonade stand. She continued to nourish her idea and sell her lemonade. Now about ten years later Mikaila is 15 and is still working hard to improve and keep her lemonade business going. Today her lemonade has won awards, comes in five different flavors, and is sold in a multitude of different stores. Something Mikaila has done since the beginning is donate a percent of the profits to help save the bees. This is something she continues to do today. Her story really comes full circle as the bees are what gave her the idea for the product and now, she can help the lives of the bees with the product they inspired her to create.
Something I really like about Mikaila’s story is how she continues to embody the spirit of an entrepreneur. Even at her young age and being a part of this business for her whole life she continues to foster it and improve it. When she is not directly working on her lemonade, she does other things to help support the Healthy Hive foundation. Which is just another way she has found to support the bees. I love how her idea is centered around one thing, the bees, and she continues to support them throughout her entire business and life.
It is truly amazing how people can accomplish innovation at such a young age and be able to combine their passions into a product that can produce revenue. While many recipes for lemonade have honey in them is often isn’t specifically marketed for that and most would assume that sugar is in there since that is the most common way to make lemonade. Making a dream into a reality for this little girl has to be so big in her life if giving her confidence and experience for the future.