Hello again! We were most encouraged to see South Africa's leading weekend newspaper, The Sunday Times, pick up on the 'Ka-Ching!' story. I am sure many of you would have read the article that appeared in yesterday's edition, but in case you were cutting the grass or nursing a painful 'Springbok Rugby headache' and never got to it, there is no need to unpack the broom-cupboard in search of this esteemed piece of journalism. I have repeated it below: "ONE afternoon just over a year ago, Grant Sinclair and his son Kieren, now 9, were walking in their garden, writes JANETTE BENNETT. "Kieren asked me for something. I can't remember what he wanted, but I do remember how I was about to respond," Grant says. June 26, 2006: Issue 12 Sunday Times supplement, 'It's My Business' article by Janette Bennett. PLUS, 10 ways to bring out the entrepeneur in your kid! FREE downloads available to you right now Visit Our Newsroom for latest articles Tell Us What You Think! "I was just about to tell him that money doesn't grow on trees. Then I looked up and saw the seeds on one of our palm trees and I thought, perhaps it does." Grant shared his insight with Kieren, who excitedly gathered up the seeds. "I put them in the ground - and they grew easily," Kieren says. "They were big enough to sell in about three months. They are ready to sell when they have at least three leaves." "I grow three different types of palms. One of them is a Queen Palm ... don't know what the others are called. "I know the seeds are ready to plant when they turn red and start falling off the tree." "The moderate East London climate allowed Kieren to produce four crops on his 3m2 patch over the past year. For as long as they can remember, Kieren and his sister Caylee, 7, have seen their parents run their own businesses. Grant is a businessman with various interests. Kieren's mom, Janet, is a dietician in private practice. "We've let our kids know that we like working for ourselves," Grant says. "We've let them know that we may work harder than most people employed by others, but we also have time to do the things we want to do." With active encouragement from his parents, Kieren set up a stand at last year's KTV Market Day in East London. He sold sweets, making enough money to cover all his costs, as well as reward himself with a little profit. This year, he's considering selling sweets at the market day again - but "just the toy sweets because they sell well" - as well as his palms. "I'll be careful not to overprice the toy sweets. I can see they're overpriced in the shops." Grant and Janet encourage their children to save. "There's that old wisdom: live on 70% of your income and invest 30%. You'll be well-off when you reach 40," Grant says. "For whatever they save of their R50 pocket money each month, we put in an extra 10%." Grant also lent a helping hand to his son by signing him up for the Ka-Ching! Business Parenting course created by the head of the Bishop's Preparatory school in Cape Town, Midge Hilton-Green, and MBA graduate Greg Bunyard. The course encourages children aged six to 16 to allocate part of their pocket money to charity, saving and investment. Bunyard says the course aims to provide children with the knowledge, skills and confidence they need to achieve success, as well as to build a bond of love, respect and understanding between parents and children through positive interaction. The Sinclairs have found the course, which is presented in stages, easy to follow. "We are still to reach the point where Kieren keeps records of his spending and income," Grant laughs. Kieren's start-up costs have been close to zero. "I hardly even water the palms; the rain waters them for me," he says. "I also keep rainwater in barrels for the times I have to do watering myself. "I've had one disaster. Our gardener plucked out the palms because he thought they were weeds! Luckily, I found most of the plants." So far, Kieren has sold around 80 palms, mostly to family and friends. "My best customer is my uncle Craig. Some of the palms he bought are huge now." Kieren charges R7.50 a palm, which has been a welcome addition to his pocket money. He is considering raising the price of each palm to R8 to cover the costs of buying black planting bags. He's also subcontracted his sister to help with planting and selling . "She has lots of friends," Kieren says. In return, he'll pay her half of the cost of each palm. Last week Kieren designed a flyer for his business with the intention of broadening his customer base beyond family and friends. He's also deciding on a name for his business. He's thinking of calling it Palm Breeders. Kieren is now testing the growing of pineapples and onions. Click here to read the article directly off 'It's My Business' website in association with The Sunday Times and sponsored by BidVest 10 ways to bring out the entrepreneur in your kid: 1. Take time to engage your children in serious conversation. You will be surprised how easy it is to link their world with yours and, at the same time, to build a relationship of open communication, shared knowledge and sound values. 2. Don't lecture them. Let your children provide as much input as possible. Let them talk. Listen. Be their business partner, not their boss. Let them develop their own business ideas - then act as the advisor to help them; understand the important real-life issues of running a successful business. 3. Explain what income, expenses and profit are - and then what to do with profit. 4. Start with a business that suits the child's budget. Build the business around something that the child enjoys doing; whether it is flying kites or working on computers. 5. Life can be unpredictable. Tell them to plan for the unexpected. 6. Let your children make mistakes. They need to discover that this is sometimes the way one learns. 7. Give your children pocket money. This is how they begin to learn the value of money. Help them to put some pocket money away for savings, giving and investing - but also to have some fun. 8. Encourage a policy of giving to others or organisations in need of funds. Our country needs people who care about each other. 9. Talk about costs in the home, purchases and reasons for their choice of products. 10. Help your children set individual attainable goals. Business Parenting Institute, 12 June 2006 We would love to hear more and more feedback from other parents involved with the Ka-Ching! Business Parenting Course, so please let us have any feedback about you and your familie's progress. Here is an email I received from a parent who's son missed out on basic financial and business education at school: Case study: "Hi Greg, I think I mentioned to you that my son is 23 years of age, did nothing with the study I paid for at Cape Tech, I made him leave home and he waitered and hardly managed to support himself doing it. Anyway he hit rock bottom and I gave him one last chance to move back home and make good. He is working at Standard Bank as a casual teller now and has a contract until end August. I am thrilled that he is settled and is taking care of himself but as he is earning so very little (R17 an hour!), he cannot even contemplate moving out poor guy. He keeps trying to think of ways to go into business for himself and I keep having the feeling that he just might get an idea of how to go about it from Ka-Ching! so that the picture is not so onerous. I just wish that at school they had been given a course like you have to offer instead of some of the worthless subjects they seem to do! Any comments from you would be appreciated" Concerned Parent, 12 June 2006 Click here to add your story to the Ka-Ching! Forum FREE DOWNLOADS AVAILABLE TO YOU RIGHT NOW Please feel free to download a sample of forms from the Ka-Ching Business Parenting course after filling in the simple online registration form. These forms make up a very small part the course, but will give you an idea of how it all works. Remember, anyone can download them! After the simple registration process, you can start: - Empowering your child to be better equipped to cope with the challenging world of work - Interacting effectively with your child - Building a closer family bond To get these FREE downloads, to help you start right away visit our website on http://www.ka-chingworld.com/recources/ VISIT OUR NEWSROOM FOR OUR LATEST ARTICLES   Did you miss an article? 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