(Montreal) Nearly 8,000 young people from across Quebec participated in La grande Journée des petits entrepreneurs on Saturday. Jewellery, food or service kiosks, children aged 5 to 17 are invited to be creative and develop their entrepreneurial spirit.
A map available on the event website lists all of the small businesses that have registered for the day. Some young people sell their products in front of their homes, while others take part in a market organized especially for the occasion in their municipality.
Laval, Sherbrooke, Trois-Rivières and Quebec are just some of the many cities where the event takes place.
“When we started the project 10 years ago we expected there would be a lot of lemonade stands, but that’s not the case at all. Children are extremely creative,” says Mathieu Ouellet, co-founder of La grande Journée des petits entrepreneurs.
He says young people offer their services to wash bikes, and that others set up a “ninja course” last year, where participants had to overcome various obstacles.
“What we want is for the children to use their passion to create a business and then for it to be festive, for it to be family-friendly, for them to have a positive experience in relation to entrepreneurship”, explains the one who has developed his interest in entrepreneurship from the age of eight.
Mr. Ouellet indicates that the objective of this day is not to transform young people into entrepreneurs.
“The objective is not necessarily that all participants become entrepreneurs, it is above all that we want them to go through an entrepreneurship process, and that they develop entrepreneurial qualities, he says. We talk about creativity, sense of responsibility, resourcefulness, autonomy, resilience, and so on. »
Each year, a survey is offered to the parents of the young people who took part in the event. And what comes out of it is the pride of the kids who were once entrepreneurs, says Ouellet.
Last year, 4,000 small entrepreneurs participated in the event.
