I love “Shark Tank”. The hit ABC venture capital show is a weekly hit in our home. Each week i’m sitting around watching with my children hoping many of the business lessons taught on the show rub off on them. Often times the lessons and the inspiration isn’t missed on my boys and that makes me happy.

However, when 10 year old Mikaila Ulmer walked into the tank, the world started paying attention…including my boys. Her smile was infectious and pitch delivery was flawless. This little lady knew her business, brand and product.

Ulmer is the founder of BeeSweet Lemonade, an idea that began to formulate when she was just four years old.

Ulmer wanted to participate in the Action Children’s Business Fair and Austin Lemonade Day and trying to figure out what she could do. She had been stung by two bees when her parents encouraged her to do some research on bees to find out why they were so important to our ecosystem. She became fascinated with bees through her research.

Her grandmother then sent her early 1940’s cookbook containing Granny’s flaxseed lemonade recipe and the rest is history as they say. The aspiring entrepreneur took Granny’s recipe, mixed with her new found love and understanding of bees and created something special that landed her on Shark Tank and in the hearts of people across the country.

Instead of using mountains of sugar like most delicious tasting lemonade, BeeSweet doesn’t use any sugar. Instead, the young entrepreneur sweetens her lemonade with the honey from local bees. In fact, a portion of each lemonade sale goes towards organizations whose mission is to preserve honeybees, saving our ecosystem and world.

Instead of using mountains of sugar like most delicious tasting lemonade, BeeSweet doesn’t use any sugar. Instead, the young entrepreneur sweetens her lemonade with the honey from local bees. In fact, a portion of each lemonade sale goes towards organizations whose mission is to preserve honeybees, saving our ecosystem and world.

Which Shark joined the BeeSweet Team?

Daymond John gave young Mikaila the $60,000 for 25% of her company to help grow the business to the next level. The Shark Tank investor and founder of FUBU has seemed to make it his mission to take on young black children and mentor them in the business world, something that is more than honorable and he really seems to enjoy.

These deals and situations not only workout for John, but the young entrepreneurs seems to have a great time learning from the business mogul and their products do very well.

“Partnering with Mikaila made perfect sense,” he said in a statement. “She’s a great kid with a head for business and branding. She’s got a great idea and I’m happy to help take BeeSweet to the next level.”

The investment will help the company lower their cost and make larger batches of their lemonade to meet customer demand. “I’m so excited to have someone with as much experience as Daymond on my team,” the young business girl said. “This is a great opportunity to have more people try my lemonade and save even more bees.”

SOUND OFF: What do you think of the 10 year old entrepreneur and Daymond John for taking the time to invest in our youth?

Source: Black Enterprise