My kiddos were absolutely thrilled about the opportunity to participate in a Children’s Entrepreneur Fair. They’ve been working hard for the past few months making hand loom knit hats in 3 sizes. They finished a total of 36 hats for the fair.
Parents were not allowed to help make the products for the event and my kiddos took this rule very seriously. I taught them how to make practice hats and they did all of the hats for the sale without my help.
They ended up selling 6 hats and earned $49 profit after paying for the booth ($20) and the hat making supplies ($36). They divided the profit evenly and got $16 each, they gave the remaining $1 to their dad for driving and carrying everything from the truck to the booth and back again. 😂 They were very happy with earning a profit and had a lot of fun. They each gave 10% of their profit to the church were attending as tithe.
Parents were not allowed to help set up the booth or interact with customers at all. I was really proud of how hard my kiddos worked, and how they improved their customer service skills over the course of the 3 hour selling event. My 2 oldest kiddos worked on knitting hats during the event to demonstrate how the hats were made. My daughter gave a young mother with her baby a lesson on how to make the hats so she could make more for her baby. My oldest son ended up coming up with a closing statement, “We hope you enjoy your new hat!” to the last few customers after they made purchases. All the kiddos answered questions from customers, other kid entrepreneurs, and the event judges who stopped by the booth.
My oldest was really focused on marketing. He made a wearable sandwich board and a stand alone sign that was at the end of our row of booths. There was even an arrow-shaped sign with flashing led lights!
The kiddos kept track of which hats they sold to do an inventory analysis and learned that people bought 2 solid colored hats for adults, 3 multicolored hats for babies and one monster decorated hat for a doll. They also learned that people might prefer optional pom poms instead of pom poms that are “permanently” attached.
Here are the hats they sold.
Here are a few of our favorites that are available for sale:
I tried to help the kiddos price the hats appropriately based on size, types of yarn used and extra for pom poms. My husband thinks they are priced a bit too high. We have another event where we can try selling the hats again coming up in October. My kiddos would love to hear your honest opinions on the following questions for market analysis.
🧶 How much would you spend on a hand knit hat?
🧶 Would you prefer a hat with a pom pom or without?
🧶 Which size of hat would you be most likely to purchase: adult/child, baby, or doll?
🧶 Which of the hats featured in this post is your favorite? Why?
heavens to betty 
What a wonderful learning experience for them
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They really learned a lot!
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Nicely done! Ari says she would prefer a hat with a pom pom, and she would get an adult/child size and her favorite one is the monster hat.
I personally like pom poms too. And I would get adult/child size because I like my hats to be practical and I could wear it or give it as a gift. My favorite is the chenille Santa because it is the most unique and shows the most technique because they had to learn to switch colors of yarn.
As far as pricing, I always check etsy when selling things I’ve made to find out if prices are reasonable. They have basic hats of all one stitch selling for $10-$12. When you start adding patterns or fancier yarn or different stitches or even just a rib stitch for the cuff the prices start going up to the $20s and $30s. If you use alpaca wool then they’re selling from $40-$60 depending on the pattern.
I am super proud of them for setting up and running their own booth! What an awesome learning opportunity!
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Thanks for your kind words and feedback!
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What an amazing learning experience for your kiddos!! They should be proud of their work and running the booth themselves. Impressive!!
I like the optional pom pom kids hats. The third blue one on the first row is my favorite. I would pay 20-25 a hat. Child/ doll matching hat sets are great ideas too.
Thoughtful of your kids to tithe and pay dad a transport fee. Budding entrepeneurs…
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Thanks for your kind words and feedback!
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You’re welcome! Thanks for sharing this cool homeschooling experience with us.
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It’s so good! Do you know if they have another fair like this in CA? I’d love my kids to participate and try it out.
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A friend of mine found one in Sacramento. Her WordPress blog is “Returning to Paradise”.
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Thank you for the info and blog name! I’ll check out the blog too.
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Love this! I would likely purchase an adult hat – no pom pom. $20 – $23 is fine, but I would not likely go higher. I like the multi color hats, but I really like the chenille because of the contrasting trim. A contrasting band of color – or one that complements the rest of the hat can really make it look sharp. Good luck in October!
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Thanks for your kind words and feedback Betty!
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Hi. Wow, what an amazing opportunity for them. Love how they did everything themselves. My goodness, so hard to choose…. I absolutely love that they created doll stuff. I don’t have dolls, but what an amazing idea for them to think of something kids their ages might have/ like. Definitely business sort of thinking.
I’d probably spend about $16 to $20 on a hat. I love pom poms, haha. My favorite is Lil Leprechan because it looks so soft and I like the green colors. My friend just had a baby a couple days ago, so a baby hat or an adult would be something I would’ve considered if I was at their both. Beautiful stuff. Bravo!
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Thanks for your kind words and feedback!
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Please tell your kiddos “job well done” from me. I would gladly spend $20 on a hand-knit adult hat. I might even go up to $25, but probably not much more. My favorite item pictured is the orange adult hat; orange is one of my favorite colors. And yes, I would like a pom pom.😊
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Thanks for your kind words and feedback Linda Lou!
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Hi. I commented a few days ago- I’m wondering if it went to spam? Or maybe just wasn’t approved.
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Sorry about that! For some strange reason, your first comment went to spam???
Thanks for letting me know.
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Hi. I wondered what happened, ha ha.
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