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7-year-old is Roseburg’s youngest registered business owner By By Will Geschke | The News-Review Dec 23, 2022 12:15 AM A A Isaiah Barnett wears a T-shirt decorated with a custom logo designed for his company, Best Lemonade in Town, based in Roseburg. At 7, he is possibly the youngest registered business owner in Roseburg. [Will Geschke/The News-Review] Isaiah Barnett poses with Tyson and Milo Goff after receiving his business license in May. [Courtesy photo] Isaiah Barnett is just like any other 7-year-old kid in Roseburg. He loves spaghetti, riding dirt bikes, playing with RC cars, collecting Pokémon cards and playing Xbox. He does have one thing, however, that sets him apart from most of other second graders — a registered business license with the Oregon Corporation Division. A year ago, Barnett wanted some money. Instead of simply giving it to him, his parents, Jacque Barnett and Tyson Goff, encouraged him to get a job, and, being 7, Isaiah decided to start a lemonade stand — it’s his favorite drink, after all. His first day selling the lemonade was during last year’s Jog-A-Thon at his school, Fullerton IV Elementary. He made over $200, donating all of the proceeds to the Jog-A-Thon event. After the first day, Isaiah, along with his parents, went on a tour of events across Douglas County, selling lemonade — complete with a variety of flavors like raspberry, lavender, strawberry and blackberry. “I just thought it sounded fun,” Isaiah said. He’s shy — a man of few words, his dad, Tyson Goff, said — but Goff hopes that working at the lemonade stand will bring his outgoing side out. “He’s got to face forward when people are trying to hand him dollars,” Goff said. Isaiah, along with his mother, Jacque Barnett, filed for the business license in May of this year, a few months after starting the lemonade stand. He paid $75 — half of the normal price of registration — and became the owner of Best Lemonade in Town. “The city said he was the youngest registered business in Roseburg,” Jacque said. “So they cut him a deal, and let him pay half of the cost.” Not knowing what to charge, Isaiah just accepts donations for the lemonade, and customers can pay what they want. He gives away drinks to kids — he even traded away lemonade for a rock another child had — but generally, his parents said, he makes pretty good money from his endeavors. “It’s hilarious, because if he does a little more business, he’ll have to start filing taxes,” Goff said. With money he earned from the lemonade stand, Isaiah even started hiring employees — friends of his and family members of his — to help run the business at events. On one occasion, Isaiah was able to set up a booth at an event without even being there, paying six of his friends and cousins $20 each to run the lemonade stand. By the end of the day, he made $75 in profit, without being present. “That gave him the idea, hey, why can’t we make another lemonade stand and send my cousins out to two spots at once?” Tyson Goff said. “He was basically trying to describe a franchise.” His parents say Isaiah has saved around $1,000 so far, money he hopes to reinvest into a trailer to bring the lemonade stand to different events. During the winter months, he doesn’t sell the lemonade — too cold for people to want any — but he’s thought about selling hot chocolate too. “We’ll have to drink a bunch of hot cocoa to try it,” Tyson Goff said to Isaiah Barnett. “It’s called research and development.” Isaiah went to a lot of events selling lemonade over the past year, but he said his favorite was when he sold lemonade at the Ride for 22 event held in Stewart Park this past summer, raising money to donate to the organization. He wouldn’t elaborate as to why — he was being shy again — but his mom, Jacque Barnett, thought she might know the answer. “My mom’s friend, her son was a veteran, and he took his own life,” Jacque Barnett said. “She invited us to go there because she’s a big part of Ride for 22. I think that’s why he liked it so much, because it’s really close to her heart, and he loves Nana.” Isaiah’s parents are proud of him. Not just because he’s made some money, but because he already understands the importance of giving back, working hard and being a great older sibling for his 18-month-old brother Milo Goff. When the sun returns in the spring, Isaiah said he’ll go back to selling lemonade. By then, he’ll be 8. “It’s good to see somebody young with ambition these days,” Tyson Goff said. “We’re biased, because he’s our son, you know, but he’s a good boy. He’s genuinely got a bright path in life.” Will Geschke is a multimedia reporter for The News-Review. He can be reached at [email protected].