Bow to the princess of the lemonade business
Paige Raino stands next to her lemonade stand that her father Tyrone built himself. Photo by Azhae’la Hanson
By Azhae’la Hanson, Reporter
If you’ve driven around the Northside on a hot summer day anytime in the past four years, you've likely passed a lemonade stand belonging to 9-year-old Paige Raino.
Passersby may assume she's an ordinary little girl. They would be wrong. Paige sits atop a growing empire.
The young entrepreneur behind Princess Paige Lemonade started selling lemonade in front of Real Believers Faith Center on Fremont Avenue when she was just 5.
The little Northsider remembers being the boss of a small group of three consisting of herself, her father, Tyrone Raino, and her grandmother. Dad does the heavy lifting and her grandmother Sherrell Griffin is in charge of the stand's famous homemade taste.
In the past few years, Paige has supplied customers with more than 500 units of bottled lemonade, including the Hennepin County Medical Center, local businesses, and community events, all hand and home packaged by the trio themselves. Princess Paige Lemonade recently got approved to rent retail space inside the Maplewood Mall.
With the demand for their product increasing, Paige and her father felt overwhelmed and decided that it was time to ask for help. Paige is now the boss of a team of 10.
“Every time I give customers my lemonade, they always come back for more.” she said.
They were overwhelmed by the support at first. But Tyrone Raino said it was a great start to the plan he had in mind for Paige before she was even born.
Prior to her arrival, Tyrone Raino was struggling with work and was barely able to pay bills. He decided he didn’t want his baby girl to deal with the same struggles he had. He wanted to do something about their financial situation, so he went to school for business management.
With little money, he researched what
the least expensive self-starter was for new entrepreneurs and he came across lemonade stands. When he completed his program, he graduated with a new mouth to feed and a plan. And he wanted Paige to bea part of it.
“I knew I had a child on the way, and with my financial situation at the time, I knew I had to create something for me and my baby,” Tyrone Raino said.
He hopes to monopolize the lemonade stand game and the newly acquired staff is in every major neighborhood in Minneapolis. He also hopes to use the journey with Princess Paige Lemonade as a guideline to start a non-profit that teaches young children about entrepreneurship. The biggest lesson Tyrone wants to teach Paige however, is to go after the things you love.
“Every time I give customers my lemonade, they always come back for more.”
Lemonade is not just a business. It is also Paige’s love language. The business is going on five years and has only generated about $2,000 in total revenue. But the father-daughter are in it for more than just money.
She makes her lemonade because she gets to spend quality time with family and because she believes it helps others feel better.
She pointed to the shirt she was wearing. It had “Bestie” written in big bold letters.
“I’m wearing it because it's her favorite color, and it reminds me of her,” she said. “My bestie's birthday is coming up. I could probably give her some lemonade as a present.
“My most funnest day of selling lemonade was when we went to George Floyd square. We gave out cold lemonade to a lot of people. And it was very fun because me and my grandma ate some really good pickles that almost turned my whole entire mouth red.”
In the future, Paige hopes to create even more sophisticated elixirs that help people feel better. She wants to make medicine.
“I like it when I can donate my lemonade to hospitals for kids with cancer,.” she said. “I want to be a doctor when I grow up so I can make people feel even more better.”
North News is likely to pay another visit to the father daughter duo in the coming year, as they recently got approved to rent a retail space inside the Maplewood Mall to sell their products.
Although she didn't reveal what goes into the lemonade. There's no doubt that love is the primary ingredient that keeps customers coming back for more.