Archive for social entrepreneurship

Me & the Bees – Innovated Lemonade

It all began when four-year-old Mikaila Ulmer was stung by a bee twice in only one week. Naturally, she grew scared of bees, only until she realized how useful and crucial they were to the prosperity of human life and health. She learned about the amazing things bees do for our ecosystem. Once she was inspired by the bees, she was determined to somehow raise money to help save them and promote a boisterous population of bees around the globe. Shortly after she was stung she was encouraged by her family to create a product for two children’s business competitions. They were the Acton Children’s Business Fair and the Austin Lemonade Day. That same year she received a cookbook from her Great Granny Helen which inside included a very special homemade flaxseed lemonade recipe. As a young, talented innovator, Mikaila was prompted to think about how she could bring her newfound passion for bees and business together with her Great Granny’s iconic lemonade recipe. A lightbulb went off in her head. She thought up a plan to use honey from bees in a lemonade recipe that made the taste of that famous sweet summer drink more natural and enjoyable for consumers. At that point she began calling her lemonade brand, “Be Sweet Lemonade,” but due to copyright issues, changed it to “Me & the Bees Lemonade.” The goal of Mikaila’s business is to donate a percentage of the profits to local and international organizations that fight for the growth of the honeybee population worldwide. This young-innovator is now a 15-year-old entrepreneur who has grown her small, humble, Austin, Texas ideas into a profitable venture that has grown by over five hundred percent in just ten years. Her success does not stop there, she even appeared on the hit TV Show of entrepreneurs, Shark Tank in 2015, striking an impressive sixty-thousand-dollar investment from the famous shark, Daymond John. Even now “Me & the Bees Lemonade” is flying off the shelves of Whole Foods Market, The Fresh Market, H-E-B, World Market, and many other stores and sales venues across the state of Texas. Today, Mikaila is a known social entrepreneur, author, public speaker, social media presence, and a hard-working high school student. She is determined to grow her business, continue to raise awareness about the importance of bees, and bring delight to lemonade consumers. More than anything, Mikaila wants to teach everybody how to save the bees, and how to promote the prosperity of their kind. She went even further than just “Me & the Bees,” and established The Healthy Hive Foundation, a 501 (c) 3 non-profit that has the mission to save all bees through educating people of all ages and fields about bees, donating to bee researchers, and protecting the resources bees need to survive and thrive. She serves as an inspiration to young people by influencing them to become social entrepreneurs, just like herself. She turned her dreams into reality through innovation and social entrepreneurship. As always, we need more young women entrepreneurs like Mikaila Ulmer in the world. Take risks, you might just prosper more than you would have ever imagined you could.

Better Life Bags

What started as a personal craft project grew to an Etsy store, to a Pinterest phenomenon, and then to a full-scale business- helping people all along the way.

Rebecca Smith made herself a diaper bag, posting the images on Facebook; she was very unaware of what an impact those images going public would have. She received many compliments suggesting and inspiring her to start an Etsy shop selling these bags. The shop is called Better Life Bags, in reference to 10% of profits being donated to people in third world countries helping them start their own businesses. The bags, in addition to being practical and cute, allow the customer to pick from a wide variety of fabrics and leathers letting one totally customize the accessory.

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BLB allows you to chooses the leather and fabric colors to create a bag perfectly matching your style. [via]

When a well-known blogger, and then her  many followers, saw the brilliance of this customization and pinned one of her bags, orders flooded in. The number of orders far exceeded what Rachel’s one-woman operation could fill.  Faced with the decision to either quit the business or expand, she rejected the idea of moving production overseas reaching out instead to women in her neighborhood. Smith lives in a neighborhood swirling with diversity and filled with women who have “various barriers to employment,” whether they be cultural or religious. A neighbor from Yemen, Nadia, who is unable to leave her home to work, became Rachel’s first employee. As the business has grown, Rachel has been able to hire many other local women allowing them to provide simple necessities like food and furniture for their families.

These charming bags with cute, customizable colors & choice craftsmanship really live up to their name. Not only will they make your life better, they help Rachel Smith employee those in her community with barriers to employment.