Stop me when you've heard a similar story before: a group of kids in Montgomery County, Maryland opened up a lemonade stand to raise money for pediatric cancer. Realizing that they didn't have a vendor's permit, authorities shut down the charity lemonade stand and issued a $500 fine.

It's easy to be outraged at these kinds of stories (cupcakes, anyone?); after all, these children are showing an entrepreneurial spirit and doing something productive with their time instead of causing trouble. Enforcing permits on lemonade stands sounds counter-intuitive when there are bigger fish to catch and fry.

But then again, it's also easy to see the other side: business is regulated in this country, as is food distribution and safety. Permits are important because they help control fraud and food-related health issues, whether at a lemonade stand or a streetside hot-dog vendor.

Today, I'd like to propose a solution that the provinces here in Canada can take up so we don't have the same kind of reports north of the border: a "my first weekend small business" permit.

I haven't thought through the specifics of the permit just yet, but the concept is simple: children looking to open up a lemonade stand or other small business that lasts for a day or a weekend go online to apply for the permit. The permit is limited to children under the age of 13, and the form asks them some basic questions: what are you selling, where are you getting the goods, where will your stand be set up, and where will the money be going? They answer four or five quick questions, enter their parent or guardian's contact information, and get a page that they print out and put on their stand with all the details and disclaimers necessary. The whole process shouldn't take more than a few minutes.

This works for a few reasons: first, it ensures that all the necessary disclaimers (particularly around food safety issues) are printed and posted predominantly at the stand. Second, it teaches kids about the process of creating a business — and how the government interacts with the way businesses operate — without bogging them down in all the details. Third, it makes enforcement easy: if an authority sees a stand without a permit, they can just point them to a simple URL to print out a permit in minutes.

There may be many reasons why this may not work; I'm just thinking out loud, and I'd love to hear your thoughts on the idea. What's clear is that while business and food safety regulation is important, it also doesn't make sense to be fining children $500 for setting up a lemonade stand.

It's time to come up with new solutions. I've proposed one, but would love to hear about yours.