What is the Hamilton Wenham Children’s Business Fair?
The Hamilton Wenham 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!
How many businesses will you host?
We anticipate 50 children entrepreneurs to take booths this year.
Where should I begin?
Start with our resources page. Read inspiring stories about other young entrepreneurs and play games to hone your business skills.
How do I apply? Can I apply as part of a group?
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.
What is on the application?
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?
What if someone else has the same business idea?
Two pet rock 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.
How will the fair be set up?
The fair will be an outdoor event with your own chairs and booths and/or tables - it's a BYO party (this means please bring your own everything!) and each business will be given an approximate space of 8x8 feet on the front lawn of the Wenham Museum - cool right? We are not able to accommodate provision of electricity and businesses should give consideration to their method of taking payment - cash is always awesome but most people have and want to use their credit cards or Venmo!
Will electricity be available?
Unfortunately, we are not able to provide electricity to the booths.
What are the rules?
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 any competitions that are held on the day.
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.
Who is the Acton Childrens Business Fair?
They are an amazing national non-profit that supports children business fairs across the country with an awesome toolkit for producing the event, including this website! They want kids to exercise their inner entrepreneur and encourage efforts like ours through amazing support. We are super lucky to have them as one of our sponsors.
