Jack's Tomatoes teaches versatile life lessons to its 7-year-old business owner

Jack Guglielmetti is the owner and operator of Jack's Tomatoes, a small business in Berkley that sells starter tomato and basil plants grown in Jack's own backyard.

For the fourth year in a row, Jack is working hard all growing season, from the time he spends planting the seeds in the winter to the days that he spends selling the seedlings in the summer.

This year, the sales finished up in early June — about a week or two before Jack finished first grade.

Jack's Tomatoes began when Jack was 4 years old. Now, at 7 years old, his enterprise has expanded, along with his understanding of what it means to be a gardener, a business owner and an investor.

The Guglielmetti garden

With a backyard garden full of garlic, herbs, cucumber, strawberries, raspberries and more grown in two planter boxes and on a chain link-fence-turned-trellis, it's no wonder Jack developed a green thumb at the age of 4.

His dad, Frank Guglielmetti, introduced him to the garden in the first place, taking him outside and teaching him the basics of planting fruits, vegetables and herbs.

"It was kind of Dad's idea. He's a gardener, but then Jack kind of took it over and kept wanting to do it every year. He got really into it," said Jack's mom, Rose Guglielmetti.

Jack developed a specialty in the beefsteak tomato and basil business, and soon after realized he could make a little piggy bank change doing what he already liked to do.

His parents bought a couple of greenhouses to help his saplings survive the bitter cold months, and come planting time, Jack got busy in the garden.

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The elementary school entrepreneur

The first year, before the business owner had even begun kindergarten, Jack's Tomatoes sold out in a matter of hours.

The next year, they doubled their inventory, and also tried to brainstorm other produce that would rouse their customers' interest. That year, and the following one, Jack's Tomatoes experimented with cherry tomatoes, oregano, parsley and peppers but didn't have such luck selling anything other than tomatoes and basil plants, giving Jack a crash course in supply and demand.

However, Jack's Tomatoes gained a subsidiary when his little brother, Max, joined in, selling Max's Sunflowers.

Four years of farming experience also taught Jack about the unpredictability of investing, after a winter frost blew through this year and killed all but a small fraction of his couple-hundred cherry tomato plants in the greenhouse, bringing him back to the basics of beefsteak tomato plants and basil.

"We woke up to a very disappointed 7-year-old," said Rose.

But the nature of Jack's workload has also changed, as he has grown in both his knowledge of gardening and his physical ability to complete such tasks.

"It used to be a lot of work on us, but last year, he took over about 75% of all the work, and this year was all him," said Frank. "The only thing I ended up doing was assembling and disassembling the greenhouses because he's just not tall enough to reach. But as soon as he's tall enough to reach, I'm done doing that, too."

But the endeavor is still tediously time-consuming for the 7-year-old, as Jack plants several hundred seeds on several hundred seed starter pods to start the process in March.

"Planting them initially takes a long time. ... And then transferring them takes him like days upon days of putting the dirt into a pot, taking one thing out of there and putting it in there," said Frank. "It takes forever, like two whole weekends, all he'll do is transfer plants."

After he moves them to the greenhouses, he comes to water and rotate them in the sunlight at least an hour a day. Then, when it comes time in late spring, Rose advertises for Jack's Tomatoes on Facebook and Nextdoor, neighbors come lining up with just $2 or $3 in hand, and Jack sends them off with advice on how to repot their new crops.

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"(My favorite part) is watching them grow ... and selling them," Jack said.

As his parents have shifted into a more advisory role, the business has truly become Jack's — even if he has to ask his mom to help water the plants while he finishes up his school day.

Money matters

Even at just a couple bucks a pop, selling several hundred plants a season is sure to produce quite a profit for a 7-year-old's pocket. So where does the money go?

"A bank account," Jack responded. "But some of it .. .I got $20 and Max got $20 this year, and we spend it at Target."

"What else do you use the money for? Not just a bank account, but what else?" prompted Frank.

Stocks, answered Jack.

"We're teaching him about money, and where to put the money to make more money," said Rose. "He's at a good age where he's starting to learn where his money should go and how to save so that when he gets old enough, it'll be in stocks, plus a little in savings."

Each year, Frank and Rose let the kids keep a small bit of their profits to spend on toys to reward their hard work, but the remainder of the cash is saved and invested into stocks of the boys' choosing.

So not only does Jack own a small business, the soon-to-be second-grader also owns stock in Nintendo, Amazon and Disney.

"We want him to learn for him to have his own money and be able to do what he wants and understand how it works," Rose said.

While Jack's Tomatoes might be done for the season, Jack will be hard at work come late winter to get the plants growing in time for next summer's sales.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: This gardener, small business owner just finished 1st grade