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From the time he was twelve years old, Chris Griffiths was interested in music. After graduating high school in 1990, he worked in a guitarstore in St. John's doing repairs. He quickly realizedthere was nowhere in Newfoundland for people to get major repairs to guitars. He saw this as a business opportunity.

CHRIS GRIFFITHS

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Chris' employer gave him time to go to Michigan so he could get training in guitar building and repairs. When he returned, however, he discovered the business he was working for wasn't doing well. He got laid off. This is when he decided to start his own guitar-manufacturing business.

CHRIS GRIFFITHS

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It took a lot of research and work but his company started to grow. After six years of research, Chris perfected a new kind of acoustic guitar made with a fibreglass body instead of wood. This guitar was quickly in demand all around the world. By 2002, his company, Garrison Guitars, was booming.

CHRIS GRIFFITHS

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After seven years, Chris sold his company to Gibson guitars. He has since won over 14 awards for innovation, entrepreneurship, exporting, volunteerism and business plan development. He has given speeches on these topics to groups of over 1,000 all over North America as well as in the UK, Australia, South Africa and Germany. He now owns a new company, Fine Tune Consulting, that works to help other people succeed in business.

CHRIS GRIFFITHS

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When you analyze cause and effect, you look for connections that explain why certain changes took place.

CAUSE AND EFFECT

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CAUSE is what made a change happen.

EFFECT is the change that resulted.

CAUSE AND EFFECT

PLANT CLOSES WORKS LOSE THEIR JOBS

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Real life is more complicated than one cause and one effect; it's more like a chain of events.

One way to clearly show what you are analyzing is to call the first cause the trigger, and then to use a flow chart to show all the effects caused by the trigger.

CAUSE AND EFFECT

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Many Canadians have trouble meeting their basic needs and rarely have a chance to acquire things they want.

In 2000, an organization called Campaign Against Child Poverty estimated one out of every five children in Canada lives with poverty.

UNDERSTANDING POVERTY

` WHAT IS POVERTY?

Involves standard of living, or how much "buying power" a family has.

Includes just about everything that can be bought with money.

A family is living with poverty when it has a lower standard of living than most people in society.

` WHAT IS POVERTY?

If everyone on your street has a swimming pool and you only have a hot tub, does this

mean you are living with poverty?

VS.

WHAT IS POVERTY?

The answer is NO, but in some parts of the world almost everyone in a community might be facing hardship.

They all have the same standard of living, but the standard of living is so low that everyone is living with poverty.

WHAT IS POVERTY?

When your expenses are higher than your income, the result is POVERTY.

When your expenses are equal to your income, you are GETTING BY.

When your expenses are more than your income, you have A CHANCE TO GET AHEAD.

EXPENSES FOR BASIC NEEDS

INCOME

$100.00 $90.00

POVERTY

EXPENSES FOR BASIC NEEDS

INCOME

$100.00 $100.00

GETTING BY

EXPENSES FOR BASIC NEEDS

INCOME

$100.00 $125.00

CHANCE TO GET AHEAD

RESULT: A CHANCE TO GET AHEAD

RESULT: POVERTY

RESULT: GETTING BY

#1

#2

#3

CHANCE TO GET AHEAD

MEETING BASIC NEEDSIN

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WHAT IS POVERTY?

In some parts of the world, people die from living in poverty.

Still, living with poverty is very difficult.

In Canada, people can get enough help from the government and people in their communities to survive.

` QUALITY OF LIFEIncludes all the other things we need and want that money can't buy.

How would you measure quality of life?

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AVERAGE MONTHLY EXPENSE

COST

GROCERIES $300.00

CAR PAYMENT $350.00

CAR INSURANCE $125.00

GAS $400.00

HEALTH AND DENTAL INSURANCE $100.00

UTILITIES (Heat, water, electricity, etc.) $200.00

INTERNET AND CABLE $100.00

CELL PHONE BILL $70.00

RENT $750.00

RECREATION/ENTERTAINMENT $200.00

CALCULATING POVERTY

THE POVERTY CYCLE

You now know that when one part of an economic system changes, it affects many other things (remember CAUSE and EFFECT)

If someone loses his or her job and can't find a new job right away, he or she may get caught in what is known as the POVERTY CYCLE.

A CYCLE is when the same events keep happening over and over again.

THE POVERTY CYCLE

POVERTY

POOR HEALTHCAN'T WORK

BUILDING PERSONAL CAPITAL

Personal capital involves anything you have that can help you improve your economic situation.

This includes savings in the bank, property, skills, or a willingness to work hard.

PERSONAL CAPITAL: EXAMPLES

If you have a skill, you can use it to get a job.

If you have a truck, you can use it to start a moving company.

USING MONEY WISELY

Once you have a job, extra income becomes part of your personal captialIndividuals can use extra income to MAKE money for themselves

This is similar to how a business person invests capital in a business venture to make money

USING MONEY WISELY

For example, if you are able to save money, you can take advantage of sales

Let's say you normally buy one can of soup each week. If you have money saved when that soup goes on sale, you can buy ten cans instead of one. Since each can costs less than you would normally pay, your grocery bill is lower for the next ten weeks. You can use the money you saved to help you save more money!

OWNING A HOME

According to a poll taken in June 2003, 65% of Canadian adults hoped to buy their own home someday

A family's home is usually its biggest capital investment

Seeing how a house gets "paid off" is another interesting example of how people build personal capital

OWNING A HOME

A family starts by paying a portion of the cost of the house, also known as a DOWNPAYMENT

It borrows the rest of the money it needs from a bank, also known as a MORTGAGE

This means the family owns parts of the house while the bank owns the rest

OWNING A HOME

Each month, the family makes a payment that increase the amount of the house that it owns

After 20 years or so, the family owns the entire house

The house is capital because it can be sold to get more money

BREAKING THE POVERTY CYCLE

People who are caught in the poverty cycle have little chance to increase their personal capital

For example, if your monthly rent uses up a large part of your income, it's hard to save for a down payment on a house

BREAKING THE POVERTY CYCLE

People do break the poverty cycle all the time, however

One way to do this is to get training or further education to improve your job skills

BREAKING THE POVERTY CYCLE

Education after high school costs money, but programs like scholarships exist to help people

It's also easier to break the cycle when people work together to help one another