Upcoming market will feature pint-sized business moguls

When Winter Garden’s Filip Vucajnk was 7 years old, he started selling bracelets he made alongside his neighbors who were selling lemonade. 

It was his first experience as a child entrepreneur. 

Since then, he has moved on from lemonade stands to participating in a Children’s Entrepreneur Market. 

Not only has his venue to sell products become bigger, but also he’s expanding the products he’s selling.

For the Children’s Entrepreneur Market at Homegrown in Horizon West at Hamlin Sunday, April 6, Vucajnk is selling power cord bracelets and keychains, as well as children’s journals, coloring books and bookmarks. 

The market will feature children, ages 5 to 17, selling their own products with hopes of making a profit and growing their businesses. 

Vucajnk, 12, said he loves participating in the markets because it gives him the opportunity to meet new people.

While participating at a Children’s Entrepreneur Market at the University of Central Florida in the fall, Vucajnk met a professor who taught him a fun fact about the power cords Vucajnk uses for his bracelets. Music teachers use the cords to restring pianos. 

“I like finding out new things,” Vucajnk said. 

To show his potential customers his bracelets are of his own making, Vucajnk has demonstrated how he makes his bracelets during the market. 

“It’s really fun to show people new things and get them to find out how to enjoy their time,” he said. 

Vucajnk decided to expand his business, FiliPrints, to include journals after seeing his mother, Suzana Vucajnk, creating journals for women and people with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder. To reach his target audience, he created journals and coloring books with animals on them. He hopes to make journals and coloring books for adults to expand FiliPrints online. 

Suzana Vucajnk said she’s incredibly proud of her son and all the ideas he has for his business. He’s willing to ask questions and put in the work to progress his business. 

“To see that he recognizes possibilities within himself, it makes me feel very hopeful for his future,” she said. “I’m more than happy to support him in his endeavors, whether he’s making profits at this point or not. That’s irrelevant to me right now. It’s all the beautiful experiences that he gets to have when he’s interacting with all of these people at the market.”

Suzana Vucajnk said watching her son participate in the market at UCF last year, she saw her son come out of his shell and be more open about sharing his passions with anyone who came to his booth. 

“By the end of the night, we were chased away by this huge storm,” she said. “He was the last one to leave. He really wanted to stay and brave it out through the storm. The moment we sat in the car, he said, ‘Can we come to the next one?’ So it just shows how much he really enjoyed getting all that feedback and taking that in and coming out of his shell and showing off his skills and his wonderful products.”

With experience selling at a children’s market under his belt, Filip Vucajnk said he understands other vendors might be shy at first, but he encourages them to talk to everyone and share their passions. 

Horizon West 10-year-old Victor Duran and his 8-year-old sister, Jimena Duran, said they are nervous yet excited for their first Children’s Entrepreneurial Market. 

They are presenting their business, GreenDip, for the first time and will be selling their guasacaca sauce. 

“We think we’re going to be famous with the sauce, because we think we’re going to go really far with it,” Jimena Duran said. 

The ultimate goal for the Durans: have their guasacaca sauce sold in supermarkets everywhere. 

Their organic sauce is made of avocados, onions, salt, avocado oil, cilantro, red peppers and more. Victor Duran said the dip is special to them as it’s inspired by their Venezuelan roots. 

Jimena and Victor Duran have been working for weeks with their mom, Victoria Ortega, on perfecting the recipe at home in the kitchen. They’ve tried so many batches of sauce they lost count. They would make small changes each time they made the recipe until they thought it was perfect.

“We tried it and liked it so much that we decided to put it in the company,” Victor Duran said. 

But what they like most about their sauce is how it can be paired with numerous foods from chips to meats to breads and salads. The family’s personal favorite combination is adding the sauce to their barbecue. 

Hearing her children talk about their hopes for their business made Ortega emotional. She said she can’t wait to see how her children grow their business and how far they can go.