Twelve-year-old Clara explains how she, along with her eight-year-old sister Tessa, made some of the handcrafted items that they were vending at last week’s Snohomish Chamber of Commerce meeting. A parent declined to provide their last name.
Photo by Doug Ramsay
SNOHOMISH — Throughout Snohomish Faith Church for last week’s Snohomish Chamber of Commerce meeting, kids excitedly filled the rooms with their product tables.
Children, alongside their parents, sold handmade crafts such as pet rocks, simmer pots, wooden pencil holders and keychains.
They were doing a “practice run” of selling their products before the upcoming Kids Vendor Day events on Aug. 1 and 15 at the Snohomish Farmers Market.
Young entrepreneurs, known as Kidpreneurs, aged six to 14, participated in this year’s practice trials.
“I really learned how to talk to new people. That’s not something I normally do,” said Mayson Ore, a Kidpreneur selling upcycled decorative pumpkins.
The Kids Vendor Day started with the Snohomish Farmers Market about 10 years ago, but COVID-19 paused the program until it restarted last year.
The head of the chamber approached the market and asked “‘What if we added more of an educational component and taught them how to be business Kidpreneurs?’” said Sarah Dylan Jensen, who runs the Snohomish Farmers Market.
Now the Kids Vendor Day program includes a workshop where kids learn how to formulate a business program, price merchandise, and handle different forms of money such as cash and Venmo.
Additionally, participants learn from Jessica Chavez, the founder of Business Ladies of Society, as well as Mara
Williams, the author of “The Little Book of Big Business,” which teaches principles of business in an engaging and fun way.
“I really saw the opportunity for the business community to come alongside the awesome program that the farmers market is doing and support them. It just seemed like a logical partnership,” said Nancy Keith, director of the Snohomish Chamber of Commerce.
The Kidpreneurs pick a project and then learn how to price and market their goods.
“There’s a confidence that’s built when they get to see something from beginning to end. I think of entrepreneurship as the gateway to financial literacy because they are learning about money in a fun way. They start learning about budgeting and how much the googly eyes cost,” Williams said.
“We have about 40 kid vendors. We used to have about 10 to 15, but this program really took things to the next level,” Jensen said.
The Kids Vendor Day continues kids’ education through the summer while giving them something hands-on to do.
“It’s been enjoyable for me and really validating to see how much the kids have enjoyed the program and how much effort they have put into it. We are just so impressed with the level of projects and the parental involvement and support that they are getting. It’s just so incredible,” Keith said.
