11 year old starting a business

[Pikoty]

11 year old DD wants to create a business selling handmade hair accessories on a local market stall.

We've looked at the gov sites about being self employed, but a national insurance number is needed.

Anyone have any idea if this is possible?

You will have to have the market stall as it will be rented to an over 18. You will also need public liability insurance. She will have the same tax limits as everyone else, so can turnover (NOT profit) £1000 per tax year before a tax return has to be completed. She will not have to worry about national insurance.
If she is planning on selling things for children, it is worth bearing in mind things like CE testing and labelling "not for under 36 months" if there are small parts. I would also recommend product liability insurance because the last thing you want is to be sued because a child has wrapped a hairband around their wrist too tightly and cut off the circulation, or something more severe.
Can she make products to a high enough quality so they last? You don't want people bringing things back and complaining because they have fallen apart after a week.

I forgot to add, most markets expect some longer term commitment from renters. Given that none essential retail keeps getting closed, can you afford to still pay the rent and the insurances if she isn't selling anything?

There are solutions to a full market commitment. Most market pitches are a business commitment but there may be ad hoc space and other schemes such as teenage market, local business communities such as BID and council support for new and young businesses.

I’m not certain on the exact age requirements of teenage market but I think that they were flexible and wanted ‘youth’ led rather than teen specific

Local events can be useful too. Very small events & shows might give free pitches to traders (and expect a donation), a lot of shows such as country shows pay for getting set up via traders pitch fees and the cost reflects the scale of the show and expected footfall - go to an established show or festival and you need to pay a pitch fee and show your PLI insurance, a small and establishing show is often happy to have more traders.

Ultimately they will require public liability insurance to obtain a pitch, but some schemes may cover that and schemes may provide gazebos (but assume that needs to be self provided)

There’s a handy thread with some of the struggles of a mumsnetter at craft fairs (linked below)

I help out a couple of sisters at shows, one has a real shop as well as going to shows but the other concentrates on shows & festivals. The first sister is also one of the co-owners of a ‘collective’.
In the collective it is a shop but all the products belong to different businesses. They each rent an amount of space in the shop and spend time at the till. With collectives like this you can balance the rent for your space and working the till

theteenagemarket.co.uk/

www.gov.uk/guidance/business-improvement-districts

salisburybid.co.uk/about-the-bid/

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/arts_and_crafts/4035681-Had-a-totally-horrid-day-at-a-carft-fair-market-today-any-helpful-hints-and-tios-for-the-next-one