Business Opportunities Weblog

Please Sir, Don’t Kill My Dream

By on November 5, 2012 in Featured

A 7-year-old entrepreneur named Julie Murphy set up her lemonade stand at the monthly art fair in Northeast Portland. Julie had become enamored with the idea of having a stand after watching an episode of cartoon pig Olivia running one, said her mother, Maria Fife.

The two live in Oregon City, but Fife knew her daughter would get few customers if she set up her stand at home.

Julie worked on a sign, coloring in the letters and decorating it with a drawing of a person saying “Yummy.” She made a list of supplies.

With gallons of bottled water and packets of Kool-Aid, they drove up to Portland last Thursday. They loaded a wheelbarrow that Julie steered to the corner of Northeast 26th and Alberta and settled into a space between a painter and a couple who sold handmade bags and kids’ clothing.

According to The Oregonian, even before Julie had finished making the first batch of lemonade, a man walked up to buy a 50-cent cup.

They wanted to support a little 7-year-old to earn a little extra summer loot,” her mom said. “People know what’s going on.”

Even so, Julie was careful about making the lemonade, cleaning her hands with hand sanitizer, using a scoop for the bagged ice and keeping everything covered when it wasn’t in use, Fife said.

After 20 minutes, a “lady with a clipboard” came over and asked for their license. When Fife explained they didn’t have one, the woman told them they would have to leave or possibly face a $500 fine.

Surprised, Fife started to pack up. The people staffing the booths next to them encouraged them to stay, suggesting that they give away the lemonade and accept donations instead.

That’s when business really picked up — and two health inspectors showed up. Julie started crying, while her mother packed up and others confronted the inspectors. “It was a very big scene,” Fife said.

The government regulation she violated? Failing to get a $120 temporary restaurant license.

‘Technically, any lemonade stand — even one on your front lawn — must be licensed under state law,’ said Eric Pippert, program manager for the state’s public health division.

**Editor’s Opinion: This happens every summer. Kids showing their entrepreneurial skills trying to make a little pocket money and some branch of government kills their ‘dream’. How will this affect them when they grow up and want to start a business?
What they should do is amend the ordinance requiring the temporary restaurant license so that if you are under the age of 18, the license doesn’t cost you anything. The kids would still have to sign up for the license but wouldn’t have to pay the $120. This would show the kids that businesses are regulated by governments and sometimes need permits. The kids learn a lesson in government, the city gets great PR, and everyone wins.

Photo by The Oregonian.

beverage entrepreneur kids sales teaching

Rich Whittle has added 6,226 posts to Business Opportunities Weblog.

Another Idea: How to Start a Motor Vehicle License Bureau Business

  • http://wahm.business-opportunities.biz Angela Shupe

    It’s too bad about that girl. I can only imagine how she must have felt. You came up with a brilliant alternative though. If they made it possible for kids to sign up for the license without the fee (or even an extremely low fee, such as $5 — something attainable by kids), they would have the opportunity to learn a little bit about how business works and what needs to be done.

  • http://www.sellhousefast.co.uk/ Christopher Jennings

    I believe in that situation, the governement officials should have just created a temporary license for the kid since she was doing clean business. The temporary license may have had a small fee of about $5 or 10 which may be renewed within a month if the kid continues to do business cleanly.

  • http://n/a angie childers

    120.00 is too much for a kid to pay for a small temp. bus. She probably won’t make on tenth of that after expenses. I suppose we could all learn a lesson here, the government is always first, you never actually own anything. If your house or car is paid for, there’s still taxes, tags, and insurance. There should be a small 5.00 – 10.00 fee for all new business start ups especially the first year, and after that increase the fee accordingly, as to whether your in the red, charge nothing else until the business starts making a profit, there are a lot of people in this country that pay no taxes at all because they are not legal citizens, they come here and work, have nice homes, cars, send their money back home and sometimes get away with murder. I think we don’t live in a fair society and the sad part is no one is doing anything about it.The ones fortunate enough to have a job or own their own business, in reality are the ones keeping these people up. It’s sad to say, but America is not the land of the free, expect to some.

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