CONNECTICUT, USA — If your child has a creative side, with lots of potential business ideas, you might want to encourage them to enter a national competition for kids, ages 13 or under.
Lowey Sichol, the award-winning children's author of the From An Idea To book series, about how prominent companies came to be, said a lightbulb went off for her several years ago.
"While I was on book tour, kids would come up to me and they’re like 'oh Lowey I have this idea for this' and 'I have this idea' for that and then again, I just got asked how come no one has created something for these kids to pitch these ideas to the world," said Sichol.
So, she created the Kids Idea Tank, an entrepreneurship competition, that went national last year.
"The girl that won it was, she created like this candle business and she just made these candles out of her mom's kitchen and she’s totally taken off," said Sichol.
And, the name of the competition, Kids Idea Tank, sounds kind of familiar. Maybe like, you know, Shark Tank!
"Yeah, I mean, I totally like swiped the tank thing from Shark Tank," she admitted, with a smile.
Kids 13 and younger are eligible. Applications are now available at kidsideatank.com
"The only thing we ask is that kids film themselves for like two to three minutes just because sometimes it’s a lot easier to show your idea rather than you know write it down in words," Sichol said.
Any invention or business concept is eligible.
"We choose 15 finalists and then on June 23 those finalists come on Zoom," she said. "They each get about five minutes."
The grand prize is $1,000. The audience choice winner takes home $500.
"We’re looking for something that actually people would buy, like tomorrow, if it was available," Sichol added.
Last year, 100 kids from 13 states competed, but none from Connecticut.
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