Lemonade Stands -- Our Future Real Estate Entrepreneurs

I've got to share this. I always do my best to stop at these stands in my neighborhood. I respect any person of any age or situation that's willing to hustle to make a dollar.

If you're looking to set yourself (or the kiddies) up a lemonade stand don't make the same mistakes that were made with my last cup.

1) They had a sign that had to be the size of a 4x6 index card that was written in pencil. You don't have to go overboard. A simple poster board in black marker will do. The lesson for real estate investing is to make sure that those signs (if hand written) have legible handwriting with minimal wording. See my post on bandit signs.

2) When did lemonade become $1.00 per shot glass? (these were no regular sized cups) 2 weeks ago I bought a nice sized glass of lemonade in the same neighborhood for only $.50 and it had more than 2 sips in it. The lesson here is to do your homework on your competitors. Now if your price is similar to your competitors (or even slightly higher) you can put yourself over the top by providing added value. Can you save them time? Can you provide a more complete service than the competition? This is very important. A customer is willing to pay for a higher priced product as long as you can justify your price.

3) If you say that your lemonade is cold, then put ice in it! You can't expect to last very long in business if you tell people you're going to do a certain thing and you don't perform. Keep your word! Do what you say you are going to do, even if it means losing in the short-term. We recently sold a renovated property where we had to actually pay money (a lot of it!) at the closing table in order to pay back the person that lent us the money. The long-term relationship was much more important to us than the short-term loss that we incurred.

So, if you're selling lemonade then have a big sign (and cup), don't charge $1, make it cold, and I will buy it EVERY TIME! If you're selling properties, then have a clear marketing strategy, keep up with your competition for prices and services, and keep your word and you will be successful EVERY TIME!