The Acton Children’s Business Fair was founded in Austin, Texas USA, and has ignited such events around the world. You will be inspired to see children, as young as 7 years old, discover their inner entrepreneur. 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.

An application must be submitted online. Please submit one application for each business.

The application asks young entrepreneurs 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.

Each business will be given a booth with an 8-foot table both, a plain white tablecloth, and 1 chair.

We have limited electricity booths available. At this time, they are all full.

Eligible ages: 7-17 years old.
This event is designed to give children the experience of selling a product or service. Children must show readiness to complete all takes on their own. Parents/Guardians must commit to non-interference in their child's business.
If a parent is found selling or promoting a child’s product or service, their child’s business will be disqualified and will be asked to shut down.

Parents should not be hovering or lingering around their child's booth. Children between ages 7-8 may have one parent available/nearby, however, the children should be responsible for set up, customer interaction, and sales.

Parents may help their children fill out the application, but we expect the children to do the work necessary for participating 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.