For young Mikaila, what started as a lemonade stand in her front yard when she was 4 has since blossomed into an incredible business that helps save the bees.
After being stung by a bee twice in one week at just 4 years old, Mikaila developed a fear of bees. However, after doing some research on them, she learned a lot about the benefits of bees and how necessary they are for our ecosystem. Around that same time, her parents were encouraging her to come up with a business idea for the Acton Children’s Business Fair. As she was brainstorming ideas, she found a flaxseed lemonade recipe in her great-grandmother’s cookbook and decided to make some of that, but add honey instead of just sugar in an attempt to draw awareness to the declining honeybee populations. Thus, Be Sweet Lemonade was born! After some copyright issues, the name of the business ended up being Me & the Bees Lemonade. Today, Mikaila is the CEO and has multiple family members working with her on her mission to help save the bees!
Something unique about Mikaila is her parents urging her into entrepreneurial events and competitions from such a young age. Having entrepreneurial parents was a huge help in helping her get this business off the ground and growing into what it is today. Another incredible aspect of her journey is that she wrote a book about it all: Bee Fearless, Dream Like a Kid. Being an entrepreneur and an author at this young age is quite an accomplishment, and her hard work and dedication have paid off as even today, she still travels around the nation to share her stories of being involved in social entrepreneurship. A large portion of her success can be attributed to the purpose that she’s had from the beginning – saving the bees. It’s inspiring that she found a niche inside a cause she was passionate about and used it to successfully sell something as simple as bottles of lemonade inside such a crowded market while raising awareness for an important cause.
“Bee” sure to check out her website here: www.meandthebees.com
The fact that she started working on this at 4 years old is mind-boggling to me. What is also mindboggling is that this all stemmed from a bee sting. Mikalia’s story shows that there are different ways to make an impact in your community. Growing up in an environment as she did also allows for more freedom of thought and expression, which led her to come up with the idea she did. Excellent Work!
Wow, I never would have thought that Lemonade could help save bees.
Great post! It is kinda crazy how it all began when she was only 4 years old! She then was able to develop it and find a niche to make it a very successful business. This is a really cool and inspiring journey!
Her story is so amazing, and her journey started all because of a bee sting!
I think the most amazing thing about her story is the encouragement she received from her parents. They allowed her to blossom in an innovative environment. We learned in class that the environment your ideas form and are tossed around in, is almost or as important as the environment that your idea finds itself in when it hits the market! Mikalia’s story is so great!
This really goes to show that even at the young age of four, we are able to come up with great ideas and turn them into a business. I also think her business idea was very unique, and it was interesting to see how she tied lemonade to saving bees.