MANY people dream of becoming a millionaire – but one girl became CEO of her own multi-million dollar business at the age of 11.
Despite her young age, Mikaila Ulmer, from Texas, created her own brand of lemonade and scored a sweet $11million deal from Whole Foods back in 2016.
Mikaila, now 17, first thought up the idea for her company when she was four years old and received an old cookbook from her great-grandma.
Although the book was in tatters, the young girl found a 1940s recipe for flaxseed lemonade and decided to give it a go.
She started selling it on a stand outside her house and even added her own twist; honey.
The inspiration came after she was stung twice by bees and was left terrified, according to NBCBLK.
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After doing some research into bees with her mum, Mikaila soon learned about their importance and the implications if they were to become extinct.
She decided to add honey to her 1940 recipe and also promote the protection of bees at the same time – and so Mikaila's Me & the Bees Lemonade.
On her website, she wrote: “I decided to give her beloved lemonade a new twist by adding honey from bees, instead of only sugar.
“That's how Be Sweet Lemonade was born!
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“However, we had to change the name due to a copyright issue so we decided to call it Me & the Bees Lemonade because we give a percentage of sales to help save the bees.
“We are now celebrating more than 10 years in ‘buzzness!’”
The lemonade proved popular, and she started bottling it up when a local pizza shop asked if they could stock it for their customers.
In 2015, Mikaila managed to secure a $60,000 investment on the TV show Shark Tank, and later served her drink to President Barack Obama.
After signing the deal with Whole Foods, her drink was stocked in 55 stores in Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas and Louisiana.
For each drink sold, the young entrepreneur gives 10 per cent of her profits to bee rescue foundations.
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In 2017, her lemonade was being sold in 500 shops and they were producing 500,000 bottles a year.
This has risen to being in over 1,500 stores nationwide, and Mikaila has also branched out into other ventures too.
She has her own line of lip balms, written her own book and does regular talks on saving bees – all alongside studying in school.
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