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After a list of wonderful ventures: lemonade stand, cotton candy, slime among others, our entrepreneur daughters Olivia Almeida and Mariel Ramirez developed their best product so far: bath bombs. They knew that all of their friends wanted the frizzy balls to relax and give a nice scent to their baths. Soon they started knocking door to door in the neighborhood and realized they were ready for a bigger audience. They came to us looking for help and that led us to organize the first Key Biscayne Kid’s Marketplace back in 2019. Now, with the help of District 7 Commissioner, Raquel Regalado, and local sponsors Kid’s Marketplaces are hosted throughout Miami and for the first time on Saturday, November 4th, 2023 it will happen in South Miami. This free family event will be take place at The Shops at Sunset Place from 1:00 to 4:00 P.M.
Children create a product or service, develop a brand, design a marketing strategy, and then open for customers at this one-day marketplace. Kids are responsible for setup, sales and interacting with the customer. It is truly a complete hands-on business experience, a great educational tool and it is lots of fun. We truly emphasize on the fun part of the marketplace; we want kids to be kids, to be passionate about what they create and to enjoy the experience. In a few words, a Kid’s Marketplace aims to motivate young entrepreneurs ages 8 to 16 to understand the value of their ideas and turn them into action.
The application to the marketplace is already a learning exercise. The registration is done at www.slingshotmarketplace.com and follows the basic 4 P’s: Product, Price,
Promotion and Place to teach our participants basic business principles. The game-like registration has a cost calculator, business questions and also templates for media posts. Part of the registration process requests a video and a picture, we want to
make sure that the kids are behind each business and that we have a variety of products and services to offer at the marketplace. When a product repeats itself, we motivate the entrepreneur to make it stand out from the rest; competition is healthy, but more work needs to be done. 
The SoMi Kid’s Marketplace will host around 50 different businesses ideas, more than 100 participants and will provide four recognitions awards to: The Most Original Idea, The Best Sales Individual or Team, The Most Creative Stand and the Most Environmental Friendly Business; for us, the big smiles on the kid’s faces and the hands-on learning experience are the real prizes for all of our participants.
Commissioner Steve Calle, big supporter of entrepreneurship, has been a key player in helping local businesses involved and connecting with local schools so that the South Miami community truly benefits from this event. Young entrepreneurs are encouraged to participate, high school students get community hours, local businesses can support the event, and the public gets to be amazed by what these kid entrepreneurs can accomplish. For more information follow us @kidsmarketplacebyslingshot or contact us at smkidsmarketplace@gmail.com.
We are grateful that 5 years later our daughters, Olivia and Mariel still participate in Kid’s Marketplaces; we believe that for them to be busy in a positive activity at 16 and 17 years old is one of our biggest rewards. On the long run, we want Miami to be known as a young entrepreneurship hub and
on the mean time we are happy to provide a space in South Miami to motivate kids to turn their ideas into action.
When: November 4th, 2023
Where: The Shops at Sunset Place
Time: 1:00 to 4:00 PM
