The Acton Children’s Business Fair inspires children to discover their inner entrepreneur. The largest entrepreneurship event for kids in North America, this one-day market gives children the opportunity to showcase their very own businesses.

We will accept 30 businesses for our holiday fair.

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. 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.  If you have multiple children running multiple businesses, please submit a separate application for each business.

When will I know if my business has been accepted?

An effort will be made to contact all new applicants within a week of applying.

Is there a vendor booth fee?

There is NO fee, yay!

While we will make an effort to not over saturate any business type, multiple vendors will be allowed to sell the same items.  We feel that this will give our young entrepreneurs a chance to get a “real world”
feel for business competition and marketing strategy.

Each booth will consist of a 6ft table and 2-3 chairs. Booths will be set up side by side in 4 rows, plus a stage for talent.

Limited availability of electricity will be provided.

This event is designed to give children ages 6yrs.-14yrs the experience of selling a product or service. 

Parents may sit in the booth, but the children should be responsible for set up, customer interaction, and sales as much as possible.

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.

As a home school mom of then 5 with 1 on the way, I’m looking at my oldest 3 like, “how are the three of you going to make money for your summer activities.”  My children and I decided to incorporate entrepreneurship into our weekly lesson plans so that they could learn about how to start and run a successful business.  

As we searched for different ideas, I started getting popups on Facebook about the Acton Children’s Business Fair.  I kept checking over a period of about 3 months and there wasn’t one in Chattanooga, TN.  There were hardly any in Tennessee at all.  But it sounded like such an amazing opportunity,  I thought “we deserve this in Chattanooga!”  so I clicked the button to start my own fair.

A simple application and video interview later, and we were ready to get started!  Acton provided me with a website to accept applications, a training group for ongoing assistance, and a ton of ideas and templates to get going.  They also granted me a small scholarship at the conclusion of my fair to recoup some of the out of pocket expenses.

How can I help?
The Chattanooga Children’s Business Fair is seeking additional sponsors to help put on our #SmallBusinessSaturday2019 Holiday Edition Fair!

In addition we are seeking volunteers in the following areas: -Marketing rep (handle securing sponsorship and donations)-general photographer/videographer (cover the event) -photo booth photographer -entrepreneurial guest speakers for main event and launch event (to speak about being a business owner/entrepreneur, share inspiration, etc.) -talent (dance, sing, instrument, etc.) -2x registration table attendants (handle sign-ins, answer questions, direct prize entries) -Face painter -cookie decor table attendant DONATIONS in the following areas: Bags and items for swag bags for vendors, volunteers, and guest, cash, gifts, or gift cards that can be used as door prizes, vendor prizes, or to go toward the entire event expense,  Snacks/drinks for participants, visitors, or launch event.  Any help is much appreciated!