From a student to a Lemonade seller...

Well I am actually a student studying in Navi Mumbai and live a life that is not very unusual or different than others. But in the summer vacations of 2016, I did something very different than what normal students do. I didn't just loll around or go somewhere to visit a place. I actually went to my maternal home, partnered with my two elder cousins, Pranit and Mohak; and started preparing a lemonade stall! Of course I owe the idea of this summer activity to my mother but we didn't let her come in between, well actually none of the elders.

At first, we divided the work in 3 halves - Financial, Sales and Marketing - which I took up, Designing, bringing the supplies and Preparing (well we all 3 prepared the lemonade, but Pranit contributed the most) - which Pranit took up, Service, Delivery and Marketing (we divided marketing into 2 halves, Mohak spread the word in his friend's circle and the people nearby, I took it as 'What will be the perfect location for this stall?' or made some catchy phrase like 'Thanda, thanda; Cool, Cool' and spread the word in the family side, as there was almost whole of my mother's family living there) - Mohak, the eldest brother took up the job.

Now we started to brainstorm that how do we start the stall, what is the necessary foundation required for it? After some time, we realised that we needed ₹200 for it as an investment, which included purchasing the ingredients and for designing posters and charts. Since my mother had also laid down some terms and conditions to follow, we could neither take the money from our pockets nor would they give money to us for free. They said that they would lend us ₹200 either if we would give ₹15 as interest on it or if we were not able to repay it, we would need to do whatever they said, all the daily chores, everything for the remaining holidays! Mohak said that it was not worth a risk and we were dejected. Later I went and accepted their terms and got the money. Mohak was not very happy with my decision but looking at Pranit and me, who were very excited for it and were ready to risk anything for it, he finally joined us.

We started by bringing the supplies, which as I remember was the toughest task. We roamed in the whole city searching for the cheapest bargains. Roaming on your own is quite a gruesome task and especially whilst purchasing groceries. Later a old, helpful vegetable seller told us that we can get cheaper vegetables in the morning at 6 in the main wholesale market. We didn't like the idea of getting up early in the morning to go to bring lemons but we had no other choice. Pranit left for the main markets and bought 100 of them for a rupee a piece. Then we bought 4 kg sugar from my grandmother at a rate of ₹12/kg and we also got a kilogram of salt for ₹17, and 100 cups for ₹35.

Now for the designing part we had only ₹10 left. We were running a bit low on funds. To save some money, we tore of 4 pages of Pranit's drawing book, stuck them from the back with some cello-tape and we got a full sized chart! We now required a name for our stall, which we gave as "Thanda, Thanda; Cool, Cool Lemonade Stall" and wrote it on the chart and drew a glass of lemonade on it. Then we wrote the prices on it in a corner.

Full glass - ₹10

Full glass with ice - ₹15

Half glass - ₹6

Half glass with ice - ₹8

3/4 glass - ₹7

3/4 glass with ice - ₹9

After a preparation stage of 1 week, we were ready to hit the streets. In the evening, we set out to find a perfect place for our stall. After some time we decided that the main entrance of our gate would be perfect as it was on the main road and there was a bus stop just in front of us. Next day we woke up at 7 and started preparing the lemonade. At least the utensils and drinking water were provided free of cost to us! We first made the lemonade in a small quantity, just to check the taste. By trial and error, in the end, we came up with just the perfect taste. Then we started making the lemonade.We kept the ice in a big cylindrical steel box which acted as a thermos. At 10 we were ready with everything. As we were leaving we were still getting ideas, like of taking an umbrella to provide some shelter from the scorching sun as we did not have a roof above our place. We all 3 left for the place carrying a big container each and an umbrella or a money bag or the cups on top of the containers. 2 were filled with lemonade and 1 filled with ice. Finally we started the stall at 11 am. It was a big hit. As soon as we reached, and stuck our poster, people started gathering. They were quite relieved to have a lemonade stall there as there was only 1 other juice shop nearby but it was way to expensive. As soon as a bus will approach one of us will go and tell the people who were alighting the bus about the stall and bring more customers. I was managing the cash, Pranit was serving and Mohak was holding the umbrella as he was the tallest. After an hour 1 container was totally empty! But our ambitions were not fulfilled yet. We were getting most customers from the buses, as they were tired and weary, and some were passers-by. We could not just rely on the bus, so we came up with the idea of shop and home delivery. But we were getting out of human resources. There were many shops nearby, thus we hired a friend of our age who had not much work to do and sent him from shop-to-shop for collecting orders and another for delivering them. Now we were a super hit! Sales started rocketing! There were huge amounts of orders from almost every shop. In only half an hour, our second container also drained out! We sold more than 40 full cups! Each cup was of 150 ml. We were now even out of debt. But we did not stop. Mohak and Pranit ran back home and bought two more containers of lemonade. The idea of shop and home delivery was an instant hit. To boost the income we added a minimal charge on the delivery of each glass.We were getting out of glasses and Mohak went away to bring more. Sales were boosting so much that we needed to hire one more boy. Some people liked our lemonade so much that they came back to drink it again with their whole families! At 4 in the evening, we were out of supplies and more lemonade so we had to shut our stall down, but with handsome profits. We sold more than 100 glasses and had a profit of around ₹900! We gave ₹50 each to the hired employees and divided the rest among ourselves. It was actually the best learning experience of my life and I would surely look forward for another one like this.

Thank You!