The Children’s Business Fair (CBF) inspires children to discover their inner entrepreneur in a one-day market setting that gives children the opportunity to showcase their very own businesses.

We will accept up to 75 kid ran businesses. Child must sign up, organize, produce and sell with minimal adult assistance. We ask that parents allow the child, realistic age of child ability, to do all the work related to their business to include products to be created or made by the child; that store bought items to be decided on/purchased with the child, and creation of business stand, signage and all aspects to have full participation of the child.

All participates must register on this website and answer all questions in the signup forms. When you register online, you will receive a personal email from the event host, Children's Museum, with further event information and confirmation of your child's spot.

Application must be submitted online. Please submit one application for each business. Children working as a group should submit one application that includes each child’s information. However, no more than 3 participants per business.

Each participate has a $10 registration fee that is their business booth rental. Registration fee is due the day of the event before you set up. DO NOT pay this fee to anyone online as we have had spammers on the site. All registration fees will be paid directly to the Children's Museum the day of the event only.

The application asks kids to think through some simple, but important elements of their business:

What product or service do you plan to sell?
What price will you charge for each product/service? How much will each product/service cost you?
How will you pay for your startup costs? If someone is helping you with your startup costs, how will you pay that person back?
How will you advertise/market your business before the fair?
At the end of the fair, how will you determine if your business was a success?

Great! Now let's get your business idea approved and begin putting your child's big idea into reality! After you register online, your application will be processed by us, your host the Children's Museum and you will receive an email from us within a week.

Two jewelry businesses? Not a problem. In general, we will let market forces play out, though we will let entries know if we get a lot of applicants with similar ideas and the child can decide whether or not to duplicate that business model or adjust their own.

The fair will be run alongside the Ridgewood Street Festival which is an outdoor event with the Children's Business Fair as the spotlight event along North Ridgewood Drive. Each business will be given a booth space to decorate as they wish. Vendors are responsible for their own tables, tents and chairs. There is NO electricity at any of the booths. Booth sizes are approx. 12x12 square shaped space.
The morning of the event you will check in with Children's Museum staff, pay your registration fee ($10) and begin setup. Setup and check in will begin at 11am. The street will be closed to ALL vehicles so plan your setup with portable wagons or carts to bring in all materials. We ask for all booths to be ready by 12noon. All participates are asked to stay with their booths until 3pm; even if you sell out of product. Judges will come around and speak to all CBF tents from 12-2pm.
Participates will be judged in age categories for a small, fun prize at the end of the event. Awards ceremony will be announced shortly after 3pm.

The Children's Museum of the Highlands is hosting a series of learning workshop to answer questions, help with online signups, brainstorming ideas and more! Some of our workshops will be class style learning environment and others a drop-in style where you can come, ask questions, get help anytime during the workshop. We'll be glad to help!

This event is designed to give children, ages 4-17, the experience of selling a product or service. Younger siblings or friends may partner with an older child and assist in the business.
All food oriented businesses MUST follow Florida's Cottages Rules. Any child that decides to operate a food business must let us know their products, sign a waiver that they will follow Cottage Rules, and include ingredients on labels. A good rule of thumb is that if your product needs to stay hot or stay cold, it's NOT allowed. It must be shelf-stable.
If a parent is selling or promoting a child’s product or service without the child, their child’s business may be disqualified from the competition. The goal of our event is for the child to take ownership of their business and depending on age of child needs to be done by the child alone. Parents of younger children are asked to sit in the booth, but the children should be responsible for set up, customer interaction, and sales.

Parents may help their child fill out the application, but we expect the children to do as much as possible by themselves.

Remember this event is for fun. We encourage the kids to explore their hobbies, interests and creative minds to make their products. Home made crafts and product sell very well at our fairs. We encourage you to be creative! Ask us for assistance, we are here to help guide you!