Let the good times roll ... A 12-year-old from Broomfield has signed a deal to sell his organic lemonade at Colorado's Good Times locations.
Jack Bonneau is taking his lemonade stand business to the next level. The 12-year-old Broomfield resident spent nine months developing and testing his organic lemonade recipe at Colorado food facilities and is now partnering with Good Times Burgers and Frozen Custard to sell the finished product at the state's 35 locations through Labor Day."At our house, we tried dozens of different measurements of organic cane sugar and organic lemon juice concentrate," Bonneau told Broomfield Enterprise, adding that he tested the original recipe on neighbors and had to tone down the sweetness level. "It's been a really great learning experience for me to see how it's made at the actual facility."His lemonade has several available flavors, including classic lemonade, cherry, strawberry, and mango. If it becomes a hit at Good Times over the summer (and you know we'll be trying it!), the company will consider making it a regular item on the menu. But Bonneau's latest "deal" with Good Times is just the tip of the iceberg. He started a lemonade stand business called Jack's Stands and Marketplaces four years ago while looking for ways to earn money to buy Legos. He and his dad brainstormed and decided a lemonade stand was the perfect business model. [gallery type="rectangular" ids="37549,37552,37548"] "Our first decision was instead of putting it out front of our house, we decided to see if I could do it at our local farmers market," Bonneau explains on his website. "I had to learn about working with the farmers market, insurance, building a lemonade stand, how to much to charge, supplies, expenses and how to sell. After several weeks last summer (2014) I earned enough to get my Lego Death Star."
He decided to share the concept with friends and other kids who also wanted to do a lemonade stand but lacked the resources needed to sell successfully at a farmers market. He now has 12 stands that operate at various malls throughout the summer and during the holiday season, with kids between the ages of 7 and 12 working three-hour shifts that they sign up for at jacksstands.com.
In 2016, Bonneau and his dad Steve appeared on ABC's Shark Tank, where he accepted a $50,000 loan with 2 percent interest from Chris Sacca.
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Courtesy of Forbes[/caption]
And on June 1, he will open his first permanent Jack's Marketplace location in Cherry Creek, where other products developed by enterprising youth like him will also be sold.
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Courtesy of Facebook[/caption]
Bonneau will be an eighth-grader at Northglenn's STEM Lab in the fall. But in addition to school and business commitments, he keeps busy with speaking engagements.
So what advice does he give to other kids with big dreams and goals?
"I just put a stand out there and created my own website, and it worked," he told Broomfield Enterprise. "I wanted to create my own lemonade, and I did. Now I have a partnership with Good Times. So my advice is 'just do it.'"To see a full list of Good Times locations, click here. To learn more about Bonneau's journey to entrepreneurial success, visit his website or Facebook page. What do you think? Will you try his new lemonade creation at Good Times this summer? Tell us what you think of it in the comments below!
