The Southport-Oak Island Youth Business Fair inspires children to discover their inner entrepreneur. The Southport-Oak Island Area Chamber of Commerce has partnered with Acton Academy, the Acton School of Business, who organizes the largest entrepreneurship event for kids in North America, this one-day market gives children the opportunity to showcase their very own businesses.

Start with our resources page. Read inspiring stories about other young entrepreneurs and play games to hone your business skills.

Application must be submitted online or paper registration. 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 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?

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 an indoor tabletop event. Each business will be given an 8-foot table and 1-2 chairs. Table cloths will not be provided. We have limited access to electricity.

We will have limited access to electricity. Make sure to indicate if you need access to electricity on your application.

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.
How did the Southport-Oak Island Youth Business Fair get started?
Southport-Oak Island Area Youth Business Fair is one of three youth driven expos/fair in Brunswick County. The Southport-Oak Island Area Chamber of Commerce organizes the November Youth Business Fair in Southport, North Brunswick Chamber of Commerce organizes a May event in Leland and Brunswick County Chamber organizes a August event in Holden Beach.
The introduction of this new event was brought to Brunswick County to provide a forum for the next
generation of entrepreneurs to showcase their passions and talents.