The first Neepawa Children’s Business Fair was originally planned to be a relatively small event alongside the weekly Farmer’s Market, but a huge amount of interest meant that double the expected entrepreneurs got to take part even before the rain moved the whole event up to the spacious Yellowhead Centre.

Town of Neepawa Economic Development Officer Marilyn Crewe spearheaded the fair, inspired by similar events in other communities. In addition to keeping their business sales, the 20 young entrepreneurs taking part in the event were up for three awards judged by community members similar to those awarded at the annual What’s The Big Idea entrepreneurship event: Best Business Idea, Best Potential for Profit, and Best Presentation.

“There’s a real excitement in the community around the kids and entrepreneurship,” said Crewe, and mentioned that several local businesses helped to sponsor the event.

In interviewing several of the young businesses about their products and what the experience has been like, there were a few commonalities that emerged. The most common response from the children in terms of what they learned was that running a business was hard work. They also discovered just how expensive it was to produce their products, something most of them have never had to think about before. One pair made a point to mention that it was their parents’ money that paid for the raw materials and they were making sure they could pay them back out of their profits.

Children who participated were required to produce their own product or service, do their own sales, and figure out their own pricing and marketing, so it was definitely a lot to take on.

“It was fun and stressful,” said Laureen Cabrera, who had bookmarks, jewellery, and original paintings for sale at her table. That was a sentiment that seemed to be shared by nearly every young business.

Offerings ranging from cotton candy to jewellery, with the majority being handcrafts like bracelets and slime or food items like baking and yogurt parfaits. At the end of the event, each business got to introduce themselves and share just how much they made over the three hours of the event, with one young entrepreneur even selling entirely out of product.

With the amount of interest she received in the fair, both from children and from shoppers, Crewe is confident that it will become an annual event.