The Triad Children’s Business Fair inspires children to discover their inner entrepreneur. This one-day market gives children the opportunity to showcase their very own businesses and learn so many valuable skills. 

We will accept up to 40 businesses

Who to contact with questions?

Text Grace Johnson 336-686-5859

What ages can participate?

Ages 5-14 can participate. Younger siblings may help an older sibling.

Is this child led?
Yes!Your child should be coming up with their own product or idea. Depending on the age parents may need to guide and support more or less but ideally as little as possible.

Example: lemonade stand
5 year old would use moms money to go shop for ingredients. Would need help spelling words for a sign and help reading recipes. But they should make the lemonade themselves, serve it themselves, decorate their table themselves.

10 year old with same lemonade stand would earn money to buy ingredients. Find their own recipe. Make their own sign and exchange change themselves etc. Much less parent involvement. 

Who wins?
 
We will have winners in each age range.
5-7
8-10
11-14
We will have reward for best display, best business idea, best sales pitch, and peoples choice. 
 

 

Who chooses the winners?

We will have a couple secret shoppers who will judge based on a rubric. For people's choice we will have ballots for all guests to fill out.

Cash prize?
 
Best overall in each age category will win a cash prize! Other winners will get swag. Everyone will get a certificate of participation. Cash prize amount is still being determined based on what sponsorships and donations I am able to get. 

Start with our resources page. Read inspiring stories about other young entrepreneurs. 

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. No more than 3 participants per business. The first 40 applications will be accepted if they meet the requirements. 

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

Two cupcake businesses? Not a problem. In general, we will let market forces play out, though we will let later entries know if another applicant has a similar idea so the later entrant can decide what to do.

The fair will be a tabled outdoor event. Each business will be given a booth with an 6-foot table and 1-2 chairs. Table cloths will not be provided. We are not able to accommodate businesses requiring electricity.

Unfortunately, we are not able to provide electricity. 

This event is designed to give children the experience of selling a product or service. If a parent is found selling or promoting a child’s product or service, their child’s business will be disqualified from the competition.

Parents of younger children may 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.

Jeff and Laura Sandefer and a few other families wanted to spark a sense of wonder and entrepreneurship in their children so they created the first Acton Children’s Business Fair in Austin, Texas, in 2007. That year, there were seven entrepreneurs and around 25 attendees. Now, there are over 115 entrepreneurs and 1,500 attendees at the Acton Children's Business Fair in Austin. Grace took their model and used Acton as a sponsor to create a fair for homeschoolers in the triad.