There is an old saying about what to do when life gives you lemons. Most people make the proverbial lemonade and stop there. Now entering sixth grade, Olivia Gruner is a Lemonade Day winner, a national competition winner, a charitable giver, and a budding entrepreneur whose latest idea turned her signature lemonade recipe into custom frozen flavors.
Part of the Recipe
From the beginning, Olivia seemed to understand that the lemonade was only one part of the game. She started off strong when she participated in her first Lemonade Day as a second grader, earning “Entrepreneur of the Year” honors. The following year, she placed again, proving herself to judges as a business leader and forward thinker. While lemonade was the centerpiece, she quickly discovered that understanding customers matters just as much as having a good recipe. “I wanted to make frozen lemonade because it was really hot. I wanted people to enjoy it, be refreshed, and cool down,” Olivia says. “I just wanted to bring people joy.”
Alongside fresh lemonade, she created and sold teacher gifts timed around Teacher Appreciation Week. Inspired by her mother’s background in education, she offered decorated pens and handmade earrings, even taking custom orders. Rather than focusing on products she personally liked, Olivia considered what other people might want. She advises, “It’s important to sell stuff that everyone would like, not just what you would like. You gotta have fun and just live your life and do things.”
Bigger than Lemonade
As Olivia’s lemonade business grew, so did her ambitions. Her local success eventually led to national recognition through a Lemonade Day competition associated with entrepreneur and Shark Tank investor Daymond John. After winning Little Daymond’s Lemonade Day at the national level, she had the opportunity to meet him via Zoom and gain access to future mentorship opportunities. “It was crazy, but I was very happy,” Olivia recalls.
Recognition was exciting, but Olivia was equally interested in experimenting with new ideas. Over the years, she developed multiple lemonade recipes and themed flavors, each with its own personality and purpose. One of her most meaningful creations was a blue lemonade inspired by her grandfather, a police officer who died in the line of duty. Called “Back the Blue Lemonade,” the drink helped support the Boerne Police Department through donated proceeds. The project combined creativity, community involvement, and entrepreneurship—three things that continue to shape her approach to business.
Learning to Lead
Along with the success, challenges have also come up. Running a stand requires more than mixing ingredients and collecting money. Olivia learned that leadership can be difficult, especially when working with friends and volunteers. “It’s hard to be a boss,” she says. One of the tough lessons was discovering that managing people sometimes requires hard conversations and clear expectations.
Those lessons gave her an early awareness of realities that many business owners only encounter much later in life. Whether she is creating new flavors, developing products, or imagining future businesses, Olivia approaches each project with the same mindset that helped her win “Entrepreneur of the Year”: pay attention, solve problems, and look for opportunities others might miss.
From Lemonade to Sorbet
That mindset recently led to Olivia’s latest venture: a collaboration with Parker’s Ice Creams. Working from her own lemonade recipes, Olivia helped create and name three custom sorbet flavors. The lineup includes “Squeeze the Day,” a classic lemonade sorbet; “Strawberries and Sunshine,” a strawberry lemonade variation; and “Squeeze the Night,” a boozy version for grownups inspired by her original lemonade recipe.
The partnership gave Olivia an opportunity to see one of her ideas move beyond the lemonade stand and into a local business. The sorbet collaboration showed how far one lemonade recipe could travel once Olivia started asking what else it might become.
The Next Squeeze
While she is stepping away from the Lemonade Day competition for now, she is far from finished exploring new opportunities. “I kind of stepped away from that because I wanted to try other things,” Olivia says. “I want to become a vet, and I want to start my own vet clinic, so it was nice to learn about business and money and inventory and stuff." Whether it’s lemonade or anything else, Olivia sees entrepreneurship as valuable preparation for that future, helping her learn how businesses operate and how to serve customers effectively.
At the same time, she is already brainstorming other ventures. One idea involves a coffee partnership she’s calling “Boston Beans,” named after her Boston terrier. For now, Olivia is keeping her options open. If her track record is any indication, the next idea may be only a matter of time. If the old saying about lemons is true, Olivia may have found a loophole. When life gives her lemons, she makes lemonade, turns it into sorbet, wins awards, and starts planning her next business. Whatever comes next, she seems determined to keep squeezing every opportunity she can find.
"I just wanted to bring people joy... Sell stuff that everyone would like, not just what you would like. You gotta have fun and just live your life and do things."
Experience the fun of Boerne Lemonade Day next May. Join the Greater Boerne Chamber of Commerce as young entrepreneurs set up stands and learn vital business skills, one cup at a time. It’s a community-wide celebration of bright ideas, sweet treats, and future leaders!
local.lemonadeday.org/boerne
parkersicecreams.com