along with similar initiatives across the country<\/a>.<\/p>\nJodi Letkiewicz, an assistant professor of finance at California State University, says kids have been starting their own small businesses for generations, but there\u2019s been a noticeable uptick in recent years.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s always been kid-preneurs out there \u2026 but now it\u2019s sort of exploded.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Why are there more kid entrepreneurs?\u00a0<\/p>\n
Lemonade Day Calgary, an initiative that supports kids to operate their own lemonade stand, drew a record 792 young participants this year. That\u2019s up from 164 when the U.S.-born program launched in Calgary in 2023, says Chantelle Little, who brought the initiative to Canada.<\/p>\n
According to Letkiewicz, who researches how kids learn about money, there\u2019s no single reason why more young people are getting interested in entrepreneurship, but social media has made it easier for children to see others their age running their own businesses.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Through accessible platforms such as YouTube, kids can also learn how to start a business, while AI tools can help with everything from coming up with an idea and creating a business name and logo to researching customers, setting prices, building a website and doing basic bookkeeping.\u00a0<\/p>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/1789923850_517_default.jpg\")
Jodi Letkiewicz is an assistant professor of finance at California State University. She studies how parents influence their children’s financial knowledge and behaviour. (Submitted by Jodi Letkiewicz)<\/p>\n
For some kids, the rising cost of everyday life may also be putting money more firmly on their radar, says Letkiewicz. They\u2019re becoming more aware of what things cost, and curious about ways they can earn some money of their own.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you think about how often we’re talking about the cost of living now, whether it’s at the dinner table, the parents talking with friends about something, or they hear it on the news on a radio [in the] car \u2026 they’re absorbing that information,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
A good foundation for the future<\/p>\n
Another reason may be childhood itself: kids can be curious, creative and willing to take chances, without the same fear of failure that can come with age.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThey might have a fire for something,\u201d said Letkiewicz. \u201cYou don\u2019t want to put that out.\u201d<\/p>\n
That\u2019s the case for Calgary\u2019s Atley Ma. When he was nine years old, Ma seized an unquenchable opportunity.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had been filling our own Soda Stream canisters just because it was more cost effective at home, and we started doing it for friends and family, and then I kind of realized, \u2018why not do it as a business?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/1789923851_818_default.jpg\")
Atley Ma, also known as SodaKid, started running a business when he was nine years old. He says the many different rewards he gained along the way have been invaluable. (Submitted by Atley Ma)<\/p>\n
It grew into a thriving operation called SodaKid. Now 18, Ma has earned enough to cover university tuition for his engineering degree.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Ma credits his success not only to word-of-mouth recommendations, but to the unique advantages of being a kid.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou’re a little bit cuter and a little bit smaller than everybody else selling the same thing that you’re selling,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
And kids stand to gain more than just some extra cash, says Ross Levine, an economist and senior fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. They also \u201clearn an enormous amount\u201d from handling the ins and outs of running a small business, he says.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThey are acquiring quite a bit of skills [including] financial literacy, how to solve problems, how to co-ordinate with other people, and what a balance sheet is,\u201d he said.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Those skills served Chantelle Little of Lemonade Day Calgary well.\u00a0 She\u2019s been an entrepreneur for 18 years, ever since she sold pop at a golf course as a child. Today, she is the founder and CEO of Tiller, a digital marketing agency, and credits her childhood experience with where she is now.<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t really realize I was running a business per se, but looking back, that\u2019s where I really got my first taste of sales,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/1789923852_572_default.jpg\")
Chantelle Little smiles next to young entrepreneurs who came up with creative ideas to sell lemonade. (Lemonade Day Calgary)\u2018The world is your oyster\u2019\u00a0<\/p>\n
Family support is another important part of kid entrepreneurship, says Letkiewicz.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s all about resources, like what resources are available to you, in your family, in your community,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Sisters Emery and Hannah Hynes, who run a soap and candle business in London, Ont., told CBC London their mom covers the cost of a table at a farmer’s market. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re really grateful that our mom has invested a lot and helped us a lot with money and paying for it,\u201d said Hannah. \u201cIt\u2019s really nice we get to do things like this because we really enjoy it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ma says building a website for SodaKid helped him discover his interest in computer engineering.<\/p>\n
Now, he hopes another young entrepreneur will eventually take over SodaKid and grow it further.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe world is your oyster at that young age,\u201d said Ma. \u201cYou have so much possibility, and it teaches you hard work, organization, people skills, and if nothing else, you make a little money on the side.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LISTEN | Lots of kids across Canada are becoming entrepreneurs: Cost of Living8:17Why more kids should run lemonade…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":630642,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[72,191,61,60],"class_list":["post-630641","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entrepreneurship","tag-business","tag-entrepreneurship","tag-ie","tag-ireland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/630641","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=630641"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/630641\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/630642"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=630641"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=630641"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=630641"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Kids](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/1789923850_312_default.jpg\")
Kids Markets saw an average of 16 youth-run businesses at each of their market events since they began in June this year. (Kids Markets Calgary)<\/p>\n