Build a Biz Kids

10/20/2026

Another incredible community is joining the BizKids community — and we could not be more thrilled to share this news. 🎉

High Level Native Friendship Centre in Alberta has been awarded the Indigenous Future-Ready Education Grant (IFREG) — and that means every child and youth in their community now has unlimited access to hands-on, future-ready entrepreneurship education and support in launching their very first business. 🧡

For two full years. At no cost to the community or the families they serve. 💪

Because Indigenous youth deserve the same access to real, meaningful, hands-on learning experiences as any other child in Canada — experiences that build confidence, resilience, leadership, financial literacy, and the entrepreneurial mindset that opens doors for the rest of their lives. 🚀

If you are an Indigenous leader who would like to bring these programs to the youth in your community — the IFREG Grant is open now. 🤩

And if your organization would like to be the reason more Indigenous youth in remote communities gain access to these experiences — our CEO Leah Coss would love to have that conversation! ✨

👉 Apply for the IFREG Grant: https://buildabizkids.com/indigenous-youth-entrepreneur-program

10/18/2026

“I'm a kidpreneur!” 🌟

Watch their faces when they say it. There is a pride in those four words that comes from somewhere deep — because they are not reciting a definition. They are describing themselves. 💙

As an entrepreneur yourself, you know exactly what that identity took to build. The late nights. The risks. The moments of doubt followed by the decision to keep going anyway. The ability to take ownership of a problem and see it through. These are qualities that take years to develop — and at the BizKids Summer Market, you get to watch children as young as 7 building exactly that. 💪

🤩 That is exactly what the BizKids Summer Market gives children. The real thing. Kids ages 7–16 building actual products, creating actual brands, marketing to actual customers, and making actual sales — developing skills that will follow them into their future careers!

This is what your future workforce looks like in its earliest form. The problem solvers. The self-starters. The young people who will walk into their first job already knowing what it means to take ownership, communicate with confidence, and follow through on an idea. 🌟

On November 28th at The City of Lougheed Mall, come watch 50+ young entrepreneurs in action — in front of 20,000 attendees, doing the real thing.

📅 November 28, 2026
📍 The City of Lougheed Mall
👉 https://buildabizkids.com/bizkids-market/

10/16/2026

Want to make a kid's whole day? Be their first customer. 💛

On Saturday, November 28, young entrepreneurs ages 7–16 open for business at the BizKids Holiday Market. They've spent weeks dreaming up products, setting prices and practising their pitches, and that first "I'll take one!" is a BIG moment. 🙌

Come shop, ask them about their business, and cheer them on.

🗓️ Saturday, November 28
⏰ 11am–6pm
📍 The City of Lougheed Mall, 9855 Austin Rd, Burnaby
🎟️ FREE to attend

Save the date 👉 buildabizkids.com/bizkids-market (link in bio)

10/15/2026

🎤 What does it take to make sure no community on BizKids’ waitlist is ever turned away?

That is exactly the mission behind the strategy our Co-founder and CEO Leah Coss pitched at The Brands for Better event — and the full video is one you are going to want to watch. 🎉

The Brands for Better is an incredible initiative that gives non-profits a real platform to showcase their work and connect with a community of passionate people who want to give back – real, meaningful contributions from real, talented people who want to make a difference. 🙌

And Leah showed up to share something big. 💪

In her pitch, Leah unveiled BizKids' growth and sustainability strategy — what she calls the "Girl Guide Cookie Strategy." It is a bold, creative, and genuinely exciting approach to ensuring that BizKids can keep growing, keep reaching new communities, and never again have to turn away a family or a community on our waitlist simply because of a lack of funding. 🍪

The Launch Your Business program sits at the heart of this strategy — and the way Leah explains the connection between the two is something that needs to be heard, not summarized. 🗣️

Watch the full pitch. Hear the full vision. And if you want to get involved, have questions, or see a way your skills or organization could help bring this strategy to life — reach out. We would love to connect. 🌟

👉 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jjJyrwtnQLc

Watch at Leah Coss, CEO of Build a Biz Kids, shares their next stra...

10/13/2026

This is what Angel Investing could look like. 🌱

❄️ At the 2025 BizKids Winter Market, Isabelle — the founder of Izzy's Cookies, was having a slow start. The market was busy. The energy was incredible. But the customers were not stopping at her table. And Isabelle was starting to feel it.

Then someone from RBC came around. 🙌

He did not just stop. They bought a large portion of her cookies — giving Isabelle the boost she needed to push through the rest of market day. And then? He did something that Isabelle will never forget. He walked through the market sharing those cookies with other people — drawing customers to her table and turning a slow moment into a momentum that carried her through to the end. 💪

Isabelle — who had put so much work and time and heart into every single cookie she baked — walked away from that market knowing that it had all paid off. Not just financially. But in the most human, meaningful, community-driven way possible. ❤️

Thank you RBC for Angel Investing and seeing a young entrepreneur who needed a moment of support and choosing to be that support. And understanding that a small act of generosity at a child's vendor table can ripple outward in ways that last far longer than a single market day. 🚀

Isabelle's story is exactly why the BizKids Angel Investor program exists. And it is exactly the kind of story your organization could be a part of at the upcoming BizKids Winter Market. 🤩

Because somewhere in that market, there is a young entrepreneur who is going to need their RBC moment. Their moment of genuine, unexpected, community-driven support that gives them the boost to make it through — and the belief that all their hard work was worth it. 🌟

Apply to give your brand and a kidpreneur that moment! ✨

📅 November 28, 2026
📍 The City of Lougheed Mall
👉 https://buildabizkids.com/sponsor/

10/12/2026

📣 ATTENTION PAC PARENTS!
What if your next school fundraiser was one you actually LOVE running? 🙌

BizKids is inviting PAC leaders across Canada to help us shape a brand-new fundraising program launching in 2027!

✨ Imagine a fundraiser where:
💰 Your school keeps a flat 40% of every sale!
🎨 All of the marketing materials are created for you, making it simple to promote and run.
🤩 Kids get to sell products they're excited about, while parents get something they genuinely want to buy for their kids: engaging experiences that build confidence, develop future-ready skills, and inspire creativity, independence, and an entrepreneurial mindset.

Every purchase also helps Build a Biz Kids, a Canadian charity, bring these life-changing experiences to children who might otherwise never have access. ❤️

And the best part? We want YOU to help us build it!

We're meeting with PAC parents and leaders to understand what works, what doesn't, and what would make fundraising easier, more rewarding, and more successful for your school.
Whether you've run dozens of fundraisers or are just getting started, we'd love your input!

💬 Interested in helping shape the future of school fundraising?

Complete this quick contact form or reach out with questions!

Let's create a fundraiser that schools love, parents value, and kids benefit from!
➡️https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfJKoqgnFtBwiGocjMlnUGArCtZayVL27kM3anoCYkqCWp6aw/viewform?usp=header

10/11/2026

Would you rather your child succeed at everything… or learn to bounce back from anything? 🤔

It sounds like a trick question, but it's not — and the answer might surprise you. When youth never get the chance to struggle, they're often less prepared when a real challenge finally arrives. Instead of building resilience, an easy road can quietly teach children to avoid anything they're not already good at. 🏃‍➡️

Research on growth mindset shows that children praised for effort (not outcomes) don’t experience setbacks as devastating. They experience them as data. As practice. As part of getting better. 💪

We see this in real time at every BizKids Market. Young entrepreneurs pitch their products to real strangers, and for every "yes," there are dozens of "no thanks" and walk-bys. The kidpreneurs who grow the most from the experience aren't the ones with the best product — they're the ones who learn to read a "no," adjust, and try again anyway. That's not failure. That's the whole point. 💡

📖 Learn more about why failure is actually a good thing in the full article!
👉 https://buildabizkids.com/if-your-child-isnt-failing-they-will-still-lose/

10/09/2026

One of the biggest reasons more people don't invest in the stock market is simply because, they don't know how. It sounds intimidating, complicated and risky 🌟📈

But understanding investing is a big part of financial literacy, and building wealth.

So, how do we help this become more "normal", common, and accessible?

That is exactly the question BizKids and CIRO sat down and decided to answer together. And what is in the works is something we have never been more excited about. 🎉

Introducing BizKids Investor Lab — and the very first course in the series: Become a Stock Market Investor 💛

This is an interactive, hands-on course for youth ages 7–13 in Grades 2–9 — and it is unlike anything that has ever existed for this age group. Because for most people, the stock market feels overwhelming, complicated, risky, and like something that other people do. Something for someone else. Something too intimidating to even look at. 💪

In Become a Stock Market Investor, students dive into the real concepts that make the stock market tick — what value actually means, what makes a good investment, learn when to buy and when to sell, and so much more. Not in a dry, textbook way. In the most engaging, interactive, accessible, and genuinely exciting way we know how to build. 🙌

It is not designed to create the next Warren Buffett. It is designed to make the stock market feel normal. Attainable. Like a real, viable option that belongs in every person's financial toolkit. 💰 ✨

Because if a child grows up with a sense of how money moves — with more options for what to do with it, and the confidence to actually try — imagine the financial future they get to build for themselves as they grow into teenagers and young adults. 🤩

This course will be released into classrooms and community organizations across Canada in early 2027. And we cannot wait for every child who goes through it to walk away thinking — I can do this. 🚀

A huge, heartfelt thank you to / OCRI for partnering with us on this incredible project. This is what it looks like when the right organizations come together for the right reason. 🙏

Stay tuned. This is just the beginning of the BizKids Investor Lab series. 🌱

10/08/2026

The most powerful time to support a young person's mental wellness is before they are in crisis. 🤲

That is the prevention-over-intervention philosophy at the heart of the BizKids Indigenous Youth Entrepreneur Program — and it is exactly why we are seeking donors to help bring it to more First Nations communities across Canada. 🧡

The path to long-term mental wellness is deeply connected to what this program is specifically designed to build: self-confidence, resilience, opportunities for meaningful participation, and a supportive environment that truly reflects who they are. 🙌

These Future-Ready skills are what helps youth mental wellness — the foundations that protect a young person from the inside out, long before intervention becomes necessary.

Designed for youth ages 7–15 and taught by actual Indigenous youth from Nations across Canada, this hands-on, self-paced program puts young people inside the full experience of building a real business — from ideating and creating their own product, to understanding how money and value work. Every step of that journey is an opportunity to build something that goes far deeper than business skills. It lets them believe in themselves and their own abilites. 💪

This special program for Indigenous youth was created in partnership with Bears' Lair Dream Camps, and supported by TELUS Friendly Future Foundation — their help made this all possible. 🤝

This is prevention at its most powerful. Not a crisis response — but a foundation built early, built deeply, and built to last. 🌱

Your donation funds the self-confidence, the resilience, and the long-term mental wellness of Indigenous youth who deserve every opportunity to thrive. 🚀

Help bring this to more communities ✨
https://buildabizkids.com/donate/

10/06/2026

Every great mission starts somewhere. Ours started with an 8-year old seeking to experience more. 🌟

Watch our Co-founder and CEO Leah Coss tell the story of how it all began — In 2018, Braden Ricketts — BizKids’ Co-founder — watched his son Ethan come home upset. One classroom at his school was learning how to start a business. His was not. And Ethan wanted to be a part of that. 🤲

✨ That moment sparked a question that changed everything: what if every child could have a safe, accessible, real-world introduction to entrepreneurship — regardless of which classroom they happened to be sitting in?

So in 2018, BizKids was registered as a charity. Because from the very beginning, the mission was about access. The belief that every child, regardless of their circumstances, deserves the chance to experience real-world learning that builds the skills that actually matter. 🚀

💪 Communication. Problem-solving. Financial literacy. Leadership. Self-trust. Not taught through textbooks or memorization — but built through the genuine, hands-on experience of creating something real and discovering what they are capable of along the way.

Explore what BizKids has grown into since that moment in 2018. 🌱

👉 Learn more about our mission:
https://buildabizkids.com/about/