Businesses founded by kids will sell their work at Thursday market

The Lake Lorraine Farmers Market is typically an opportunity for local businesses to sell their wares and interact with the community. Thursday, some hopeful future entrepreneurs will be joining the professionals during the Children’s Business Fair.

The fair will take place from 4 to 6 p.m. in conjunction with the weekly farmers market. Close to 20 businesses organized by kids age 6-15 will be in attendance, with the kids showing off their goods and competing for prizes. 

Participating families said they are excited to share their business ideas and sell their wares. The Skarski family has three children participating; Aiden, 11, with spray-painted picture frames and drawings for Creative Characters and Frames; Josie, 9, with Josie’s Dog Sitting; and Lilia, 6, with tie-dye booth Tie the Rainbow. 

Aiden said he’s nervous but excited for the fair. His mom, Sarah, said this is a great opportunity for all her children to get out of their shells and demonstrate their respective talents. 

“I’m just excited for them to take off and share what they’ve been working on,” Sarah Skarski said.

Other businesses include two entries from the Neff family: Original Art Work by Bria, where Bria, 14, will sell original artwork, and North, 11, with Scottish Son’s Shortbread.

Taylor Syverson, 11, is bringing her homemade peanut butter pumpkin dog treats to the fair with TayKay’s Treats. She started making treats for her family’s dogs last fall, and they were such a hit that she decided to sell them. 

Over 100 bags of the bone-shaped treats have already been sold, and Taylor has had customers from several states. Twenty percent of her profit goes to the Sioux Falls Area Humane Society. 

“I think it’s a great opportunity for her to see the business side of things,” Taylor’s mom, April, said. 

The event is being sponsored by Acton Academy, a national chain of schools with dozens of locations around the country. Aaron Johnson and his wife, Ashlee, are bringing an Acton location to Sioux Falls in the fall, though the location is still to be determined. Instead of the “learning to know” model that most traditional schools revolve around, Acton focuses on learning to learn, do and be, according to its website. 

Johnson said Acton’s educational philosophy resonates with him and his family, and he is looking forward to bringing this philosophy to local families, starting with Thursday’s fair. 

“The business fair for all of the Actons really has turned into a pretty neat tool,” he said. “It’s something that the network for Acton Academy as a whole can offer to the community and really just give children something fun to do and to experiment with the wonders of entrepreneurship and business and all that fun stuff.”

The Johnsons’ children, who will attend Acton in the fall, also are participating in the fair. Aspyn, 9, is presenting Aspyn’s Fairy Life, where she’ll be selling fairy notebooks, fairy houses and vials of fairy dust. Ailee, 11, will sell protein treats at Eat Good Feel Good.

Johnson said he is excited for the fair to give Acton exposure ahead of its Sioux Falls debut in the fall. 

“This was always part of the plan, is this summer to do our first business fair, to really expose people, kind of to Acton, but really just to expose the community to one of the tools that Acton has, and that’s the business fair,” he said. “Just really offer something fun to families and an excellent learning experience along the way for the young people as they kind of create and come up with these business ideas.”

If the fair is a hit, Johnson said they may shoot to hold it more than once a year. But at the very least, he said he hopes the fair will become an annual celebration of the creativity of local children. 

“The hope would be that everyone can come and have a great time and just be exposed to the wonder and entrepreneurship of young people,” he said. “And to really just give (the children) the opportunity to have fun and just come up with their own idea and have fun selling it.”