Sixteen-year-old Mikhil Kiran, a senior at the Harker School in San Jose, started out in the business world in the fourth grade, selling handcrafted soap with friends at a children’s business fair in Burlingame. He had so much fun that he wanted to do it again—but closer to his home in Santa Clara.
“Why don’t you start your own fair?” suggested his dad, Kiran Ganesh.
And so he did. In 2018, with his dad and mom, Nisha Ramachandran, Mikhil launched Santa Clara’s first Children’s Business Fair. They followed the guidelines of the nonprofit Acton Children’s Business Fair.
Seven years later, the fair continues to thrive. The 6th annual Santa Clara Children’s Business Fair (skipping 2020 because of COVID closures) took place on Oct. 19 at Live Oak Park at Rivermark Village, near Mikhil’s home.
“My parents let me figure out (and guided me along the way) how to organize such an event when I was just in elementary school, and I have learned a lot and become more independent over the years,” said Mikhil.
In 2019, Mikhil, then 11, made a presentation before the City Council of Santa Clara, which has awarded community grants to the fair.
Sixty kid-run businesses—out of about 400 applicants—offered services and handmade products at the 2024 fair. About 60% were from Santa Clara. Each business, some comprising two or three friends, was provided with a canopy-covered booth. The kids set up their own displays, made pitches to shoppers, and handled sales.
“It makes me happy to see all these kids find their passion for entrepreneurship,” said Mikhil.
First-time participants Ellna, Olivia, and Zoe from Menlo Park offered crafts such as bracelets and Twirl and Swirls at their booth—Liv, Love, Craft!
“We learned about making products and getting people to buy,” they said.
At CrowzDesignz, sophomores Ava Lin and Avni Lochan from Palo Alto and Katelyn Winslow from Redwood City, were second-time participants. They sold t-shirts, stickers, jewelry—“anything fun and cute!”
“It was fun to see other businesses—from older teens to younger creators,” they said. “Selling stuff was fun. We want to do it again!”
They have an online Etsy shop.
At the end of the three-hour fair, participants gathered on the park lawn for remarks from Santa Clara Mayor Lisa Gillmor and Council Member Kathy Watanabe. Businesses received awards for designing fliers advertising the fair. Kudos awards went to CrowzDesignz, Boba Art Studio, The Big Book of and Infinite Designs.
“These businesses had amazing pitch and hustle. They made me want to buy their product just by hanging around their booths,” said Mikhil.
Although the Children’s Business Fair, organized through Mikhil’s nonprofit KidzRule, is a popular venture, its future is uncertain.
Production costs keep rising—everything from insurance and park permit fees to marketing. The biggest expense is the rental and set up of the booths. It is this cost that kept the fair from expanding beyond 60 businesses this year.
Furthermore, Mikhil will enter college in 2025 to study business and computer science and may need to change focus.
“Inspiring kids has been quite fun and rewarding. It feels really good to know that I have impacted 500+ kids over the past few years,” said Mikhil. “Also, this whole process has given me an immense level of confidence in myself.”
Indeed, Mikhil Kiran has become a teenage entrepreneur with a photography/videography business. His eBook “Where Dreams Take Flight: Perspectives from Kid Entrepreneurs” is available on Amazon.
“Each young voice,” he wrote in his book, “adds a unique outlook to the spectrum of entrepreneurship, proving that age is not a factor when exploring passions and transforming them into reality.”