By Megan and Chris

To most, lemonade stands represent one of the most primitive ways to test out entrepreneur skills, even from a young age. The thought of making money excites young people for whatever reason, and a $40 dollar profit makes them feel like millionaires (at least that’s how it made us feel). Case in point, we decided at the ages of 7 and 11 to try out a lemonade and cookie stand behind the tee on hole 14 at a nearby golf course during its annual Labor Day golf tournament. With minimal set-up, low start-up costs and a few volunteers to run supplies back and forth, we were up and running. Being the young, impressionable kids that we were, we also had a cursing fee along with our lemonade and cookie sales. Whether it was the cursing fee or our sign that said “Tipping is not a city in China”, we made some solid tips that day.

Older and wiser now, we are still wondering if we could have made even more money that day. Here is the experiment we want YOU to try:

• For two hours, sell your lemonade at normal price
• For the next two hours, advertise “free” lemonade, but with a sign that says “tips accepted” (or in our case, “Tipping is not a city in China”)
• Keep statistics: how many purchases, average revenue per purchase, total revenue

Send in your complete results to us,  and we’ll post again later on to see who found the most Benjamins!

Inc.com is also holding a Lemonade Stand Contest. Check it out to see how other kids are finding success with their lemonade stands, and submit your own story!