Last week, when I was in Denver, my husband called me to let me know that our daughter, Emily, and the little boy next door set up their first lemonade stand in front of our house.

Emily mixed and poured the lemonade while Jude called out, "Lemonade! 25 Cents!"

The next thing they knew, the neighbor kids on the other side of our house set up a stand in front of their house selling popsicles.

Rather than looking at the kids next door as competition, Emily, being the natural entrepreneur that she is, went over to them and asked them if they wanted to partner their popsicle stand with her and Jude's lemonade stand.

What a great idea, they thought! and within minutes the four of them were selling lemonade and popsicles from the one stand in front of our house.

I guess it was quite hot here that day and they made about $10 or so, of which they split it among the four of them.

Not bad for the middle of the week and for their first venture. Of course, a lemonade stand isn't quite as complex as a JV for a new product launch, but I think there's such a valuable lesson here.

The kids are naturals at this and sometimes the adults make things way to complicated. Keep your business simple.

Great work, kids!