From Big Idea to Real Business Experience.
Kids Kreative Marketplace™ is a youth entrepreneurship and financial literacy program designed to help young people build practical business skills, confidence, and money knowledge through a seven-stage learning pathway that culminates in a live marketplace experience.
Entrepreneurship Education That Ends in Real Experience
Kids Kreative Marketplace™ is not simply a children's vendor event. It is a structured learning experience that guides participants from an initial idea through business development, pricing, communication, marketing, selling, and growth.
Young entrepreneurs learn how to create something of value, understand the numbers behind it, communicate why it matters, attract customers, complete transactions, and make thoughtful decisions about what comes next.
The marketplace is the application point for the learning that comes before it. It gives participants a safe, supportive environment to test their skills with real customers and real revenue.
Build Confidence, Financial Capability, and Entrepreneurial Thinking
The program uses entrepreneurship as a practical vehicle for skills young people can carry into school, work, leadership, and life.
Turn Ideas Into Action
Participants identify interests and opportunities, solve problems, and learn how to create something useful or meaningful.
Understand Money
Participants learn the basics of cost, price, revenue, profit, saving, spending, reinvestment, and responsible money decisions.
Build Confidence
Participants strengthen communication, pitching, customer service, self-advocacy, and the ability to explain the value of their work.
Practice Leadership
Participants develop responsibility, resilience, problem-solving, decision-making, and a mindset for continuous improvement.
Discover. Build. Price. Pitch. Market. Sell. Grow.
This is the official Kids Kreative learning sequence used throughout the program.
DISCOVER
Find Your Idea
Explore interests, talents, problems, and opportunities that could become a business idea.
BUILD
Develop It
Turn the idea into a real product, service, or experience that can be tested and improved.
PRICE
Know Your Numbers
Understand costs, pricing, revenue, profit, saving, and the financial decisions behind a business.
PITCH
Share Your Story
Learn how to clearly explain the business, the product, and the value it provides.
MARKET
Get the Word Out
Use branding, promotion, storytelling, and customer awareness to reach the right audience.
SELL
Bring It to Life
Interact with customers, provide service, complete transactions, and experience the marketplace.
GROW
Expand Your Future
Review results, make intentional money decisions, improve the business, and plan the next step.
Three Learning Groups, One Shared Pathway
Every participant follows the same seven-stage pathway, but the depth, expectations, and business concepts are adjusted for age and readiness.
Kreative Starter™
Who it is for: Younger participants who are beginning to explore entrepreneurship and may be developing their first product, service, or business idea.
Primary focus: Creativity, confidence, basic money concepts, simple pricing, communication, and positive customer interaction.
What success looks like: The participant can explain what they created, name a price, interact with customers, complete a sale with support, and describe what they learned.
Kreative Builder™
Who it is for: Teen participants ready to take greater ownership of a business idea and understand how the pieces of a small business work together.
Primary focus: Product development, branding, pricing strategy, marketing, sales, profit, reinvestment, and business decision-making.
What success looks like: The participant can present a clear offer, explain pricing, communicate value, track sales, evaluate results, and identify a realistic growth step.
Kreative Launch™
Who it is for: Older youth and emerging adults who are preparing to operate more independently and may be considering entrepreneurship beyond the program.
Primary focus: Business readiness, professionalism, banking awareness, recordkeeping, customer experience, financial planning, and sustainable growth.
What success looks like: The participant leaves with a clearer next-step plan, stronger professional habits, better financial awareness, and a foundation for continuing the business after marketplace day.
Families, Community Partners, and Sponsors Each Have a Role
The program works best when young entrepreneurs are surrounded by adults and organizations that help create access, encouragement, expertise, and opportunity.
Young Entrepreneurs
The participants. They learn, create, practice, sell, reflect, and grow through the seven-stage pathway.
Parents & Families
They support attendance, preparation, transportation, encouragement, and age-appropriate guidance without taking over the young person's business.
Community Partners
Schools, nonprofits, municipalities, libraries, youth organizations, mentors, and host sites can provide space, referrals, expertise, volunteers, and local connections.
Sponsors
Businesses, banks, foundations, and other supporters can fund access, supplies, program delivery, youth business support, operations, and impact measurement.
Your Support Turns Access Into Opportunity
Sponsors help make the program accessible, well-resourced, and measurable. Support may be financial, in-kind, educational, or operational.
Potential contributors include banks, local businesses, corporations, foundations, schools, municipalities, nonprofits, chambers, professional associations, and community organizations.
What Sponsorship Can Support
- Curriculum and program delivery
- Facilitators, mentors, and guest experts
- Participant materials and startup supplies
- Venue and marketplace operations
- Youth Business Boost support
- Financial literacy activities
- Safety, evaluation, photography, and impact reporting
Community Investment With Visible, Measurable Impact
Benefits vary by sponsorship level, but the goal is to create meaningful recognition and engagement while keeping the focus on youth outcomes.
Community Impact
Support practical entrepreneurship and financial literacy opportunities for young people and families.
Brand Visibility
Eligible recognition may include program materials, marketplace signage, digital promotion, event visibility, and impact reports.
Employee Engagement
Create opportunities for employees to mentor, teach, volunteer, judge pitches, or support marketplace activities.
Impact Reporting
Connect sponsorship to measurable outcomes such as program completion, marketplace readiness, businesses launched, revenue generated, and saving or reinvestment behavior.
Kreative Cash Club™
Kreative Cash Club™ is the financial literacy component of Kids Kreative. It helps participants understand that making money is only one part of entrepreneurship. They also need to know what it costs to operate, what profit means, how to save, when to spend, and how reinvestment can support growth.
Earn. Save. Spend. Plan. Reinvest. Grow.
From Learning to Outcomes
Program completion, marketplace readiness, entrepreneurship confidence, customer-service confidence, youth businesses launched, marketplace participation, youth-generated revenue, saving and reinvestment behavior, and continued business activity.
From Idea to Income Rate™
The percentage of participating young entrepreneurs who successfully move from a business idea to generating real revenue.
Help Build the Next Generation of Entrepreneurs.
Families can register a young entrepreneur. Organizations can bring the program into their community. Sponsors can help create access, resources, and real opportunity.