Each young vendor at the Abilene Children’s Business Fair showcased their creations while parents supported them and customers purchased the handmade goods.
And it’s not just a chance for kids to earn a few extra dollars.
Elizabeth Gray, Community Development Officer for the Abilene Teachers Federal Credit Union, says the children learn financial responsibility through firsthand experience.
“We have kids accounts and we are always trying to teach financial education. I teach classes in the schools and for adults as well but starting kids out knowing about money and how to manage it. It’s a big deal. You know they have to price their items It just helps them learn the value of money. You know it costs me this much to make to make this product and I made 2 dollars from it or 10 dollars,” Elizabeth said.
And parents say the biggest impact they see is in the confidence of their children.
Jessica Rubio helped her daughter Emma start a baking business. Rubio says the real treat for her has been watching Emma shine.
“I love it her confidence has grown tremendously. She has created a bunch of different flavors as you can see. I’m just monitoring and of course buying everything for her. Supporting the cause. Other than that I love it. I wouldn’t trade it for anything,” Jessica said.
While Emma has enjoyed baking since she was very young, she admits the idea of starting a business was a little scary.
“Well we just started this business this year but I’ve been baking for awhile. So we just started off I’ve been really kinda nervous to do this and once we’ve come out here we’ve had a bunch of customers already I’ve just kinda opened up and I’m confident now,” Emma said.
Emma also enjoyed getting to be creative coming up with unique flavors for her baked goods.
"This is the Cosmic Brownie ones, a mazapan Mexican candy one. These are like churro one. These are lemon ones. These are Oreo ones, chocolate-covered pretzels, chocolate-covered Oreos, and chocolate-covered Rice Krispie treats. I don't know—it just comes to mind. I just wants to bring out interesting new things that people never really do,” Emma said.
Confidence looked different for every young entrepreneur. For some, it meant learning from failure.
Jayden Priest, owner of the crochet company, The Plush Portal, shares that although he is a veteran to the fair he hasn’t always sold crochet chickens.
“I started right after this craft show last year actually. I did a lemonade stand last year and it did not go so well but I saw that a lot of the crocheters were doing really well so I decided to do that and it went really well,” Jayden said.
This year Jayden’s booth exclusively featured plush chickens of various sizes, including a huge “titan” chicken which took five hours of work. He says that deciding on crocheting chickens came about by complete happenstance.
“So at school one day just a kid caught on to the fact that i could I could crochet and he asked me to crochet him a chicken. And I did and it turned out to be really fun and fast so now it’s just all chickens,” Jayden said.
The Plush Portal wasn’t the only business that found its inspiration at school. Moses Lux learned how to create beaded keychains at school. He fell in love with the activity, and eventually decided to start his business: M&E Lux Keychains.
“Mom got us this box that got a starter kit for beaded keychains with a manual for how to do some stuff. I only learned flowers and those smaller beaded keychains from it,” Moses said.
Standing close by- Moses and Elijah’s mom- Natasha Lux smiled with pride while describing how running this small business has benefited her sons.
“I’m loving watching their confidence grow. I’m loving watching their self-esteem and as I said their confidence. Also their life skills of dealing with customers. Also learning about how to manage money and how to give change and take money and things like that so they are learning a lot of life skills through this,” Natasha said.
While some of the young entrepreneurs were motivated by the bottom line, others started with a desire to solve a problem.
Addison Harbin launched her business-Gloss and Glow Nail Company- after she found that designing and wearing press-ons helped her stop biting her nails.
“My inspiration is, I bite my nails really bad. These kinda help me not do it as much. It kinda calms my senses. It helps me and I think it can help other people like it helps me too,” Addison said.
Event Manager, Alessa Goldsmith, with the Chamber of Commerce says that her favorite part of the event is getting to watch the kids reach for their goals.
"Seeing the smiles on all these kiddos faces. They have a dream. Seeing the kids have a vision, have their families help them bring it to life — it's just so rewarding," Alessa said.
The Children's Business Fair may have been designed to teach kids about financial responsibility, but these young entrepreneurs also built confidence, resilience and creativity. From overcoming nerves to bouncing back from failure and turning hobbies into businesses, the kids are coming away with many lessons that can help them for years to come.