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Matthew Noel is the Lubbock Lemonade Day 2017 Entrepreneur of the Year. Matthew’s love for business and creativity helped him rise to the top. In September of 2017, he was presented the top Lemonade Day Scholarship during halftime of the Texas Tech VS. OSU football game.

The first year Matthew participated in Lemonade Day, he split his profits with a business partner and friend who helped run the stand. Along the way, they learned how to run a business and all the things that come with opening a lemonade stand. Since then, Matthew has continually worked to find new ways to make his lemonade stand even better than the year before. In 2017, Matthew offered three different types of lemonade at his stand: regular lemonade, strawberry lemonade, and a special “Unicorn Lemonade” (which are all top secret, of course!) Matthew also offered a variety of items on his menu beyond lemonade. He sold an array of cookies ranging in size and price. His stand was even equipped with a variety of treats like brownies and cotton candy, which sold out within 3 minutes!

Matthew takes pride in knowing the results of his business inside and out. From calculating his net and gross revenue, to taking percentages of profit for different goals, he shows a knack for numbers that most people don’t get to practice until much later in life. Beaming with excitement, he explained that Lemonade Day enabled him to donate about $5,000 to the Burkhart Center, his charity of choice. Matthew picked the Burkart Center because he is passionate about autism education and research. The rest of the money he earned was saved for the next Lubbock Lemonade Day and for his future car!

After four years of participating in Lemonade Day, 11-year-old Matthew proved that if you stick with a plan, hard work truly pays off! Lemonade Day has been an excellent outlet for Matthew to use his creativity and learn about what goes into running a successful business. One strategy that set him apart from the rest was his method of seeking out his own personal stand sponsors that agreed to match his profits from Lemonade Day. This means that he found businesses in town to agree to donate the same amount of money he earned on his own. This doubled his initial profits which helped Matthew donate even more money to the Burkhart Center.

Matthew says his favorite thing about business is being able to make his customers happy. After attending college, Matthew plans to continue his love for entrepreneurship by owning a business. Congratulations Matthew, we are very proud of your accomplishments and we know you will continue to do great things!