4 Years Participating in the (Morgan Hill) Children’s Business Fair, and my Lessons Learned.
For 3 years now, my mom has been hosting an event called the Morgan Hill Children’s Business Fair. An event where kids get to come up with (or continue) business ideas. I’ve participated in all 3, plus another, The Santa Clara Business Fair, which was the one to inspire my mom to host her own CBF.
I’ve learned a lot of lessons from participating in these business fairs, and today I’ll talk about the ones that impacted me the most.
Lesson 1: Don’t Be Shy! Be Talkative.
Volunteering at the 2nd Morgan Hill Children’s Business Fair
The first time me and my sister participated in a Children’s Business Fair was in 2019. It was my sister’s business. She made all the products, and I was just helping her sell them. That year, we were selling acrylic pours on canvases and picture frames. Since it was quite a while ago, I don’t remember much, but I do know that I was being very talkative. I was telling people all about our booth, and I pretty much made the majority of money we got that year.
In my third year, I was a volunteer helper at the CBF informational booth. That year, I was extremely talkative to everyone passing by.
We had a raffle, and I would ask people if they wanted to buy a raffle ticket for a dollar. A bunch of people ended up buying some, and I remember a few people bought 20! I raised a lot of money for the business fair that year.
Finally, in my fourth year, I sold painted rocks. That year I was very talkative and sold a lot! I had these little 3$ ladybug and bumblebee rocks that sold out!
The lesson I learned in those years was that you always have to talk with people to get them to be interested in your booth. You can’t just wait and expect everyone to come to your booth and buy stuff without you even saying anything.
Lesson 2: Have A Range of Prices Available.
The second lesson I learned was from my years running my own business. In my second year, I sold macrame and ended up selling only 1. The reason for that was: My prices ranged from 15$ – 50$. A lot of customers were owners of another booth and didn’t want to spend the money they’d made selling a lot of their products on just one thing.
Still, I made a good amount of money that year even from only selling one because the one I sold was 49$. So, if you’re willing to do a lot of advertising and be very talkative with everyone, and if you have a business you have a lot of experience running, then I bet you could make good money from selling “high” priced products.
If you’ve also just recently started selling a product/service, it might be good to experiment with your prices before setting them so high. Don’t forget that you can also change prices mid-fair if you like.
In my fourth year when I sold the rocks, the more intricate rocks that were bigger and took more time to make didn’t sell. The prices for those ranged from 12$ – 25$.
So the main lesson I learned that year was: to make the prices appropriate for my products and audience.
Start a Business, Help Run One, or Volunteer!!
The Children’s Business Fair is an amazing way to be creative, and productive, and make money off of it! There are so many business ideas to come up with. Just take whatever skills or passions you have and turn it into a way to make money.
You don’t have to be a business owner to participate in the fair though! Like I was, you could be a volunteer helper for the CBF, or you could simply get paid to help run your siblings or friends’ booth!
There are many business fairs throughout California and other countries, so if you don’t live near Morgan Hill, you do not need to fear! Just click this link and it will take you to a website where you can check if there is a Children’s Business Fair next to where you live.
If there isn’t one you can even start one yourself. Like my mom did.
My mom will be hosting our 4th business fair in August, and you can learn about that one by clicking here.
Thanks for reading! I hope to see you at one of the events!
Useful Resources for kids interested in learning about entrepreneurship
- Children’s Business Fair
- Morgan Hill Children’s Business Fair
- Valley Springs Children’s Business Fair
- The Tuttle Twins and their Spectacular Show Business (book) – this is an affiliate link
- The Tuttle Twins and the Messed Up Market (book) – this is also an affiliate link
- My Mom’s Workshops for kids and teens
