Many parents worry that if their child struggles with mathematics, her or she will never be able to make a decent income. Many occupations require a high level of numerical skill, but it is possible to become highly successful without mastering the ins and outs of mathematics.

Many people who don't fit the standard mould, and struggle with formal education, go on to become very wealthy business owners. If your child seems to be struggling at school, it is even more important to build his or her self-esteem with some real world accomplishments, for example in their own small business.

This is an answer to one of the frequently asked questions from the Cash-Smart Kids Program, and is copyright. All rights reserved.

Q. My son is terrible at Math. He hates it. I can't get him to do the exercises involving calculations. Does this mean he's not really suited for business?

A. Any skill can be hired in as an employee or contractor by a business owner, so your child does not have to have every skill required in all the departments of a business in order to succeed.

On the other hand, a business owner needs to be able to understand a balance sheet well enough to know how the business is doing, and make decisions.

That doesn't mean your son needs to learn how to draw up a balance sheet, only how to read one. In later eClasses, we will be teaching these skills in a way which doesn't involve any calculations.

For now, there are one or two key concepts in elementary school mathematics which are important to learn, and are frequently messed up in the teaching, unfortunately, because some elementary school teachers aren't so good at mathematics themselves.

I would suggest that you focus on making sure your son understands these key concepts, and let the rest flow on by without worrying too much at this stage.

Basic addition, subtraction, multiplication and division.

It doesn't matter if your child needs a calculator to get the correct answer, as long as they understand what it is they are doing when they hit the buttons.

Percentages.

Vital.

Since a percentage is just a special type of fraction (something over 100), understanding percentages usually means understanding what a fraction is.

Ideally, make sure your son has a rough idea of how much a percentage represents - 50% is half, 25% is a quarter, and so on. Use concrete objects if you need to - get 100 counters or Lego blocks - and play with them, together with your son, until he has a grasp of roughly how much 20% or 10% would be.

If you teach him to approximate rather than calculate, it will be good enough for most of the decisions he would need to make as a business owner.

And that's it, really.

Let the rest fall where it may, as long as your son has those basics in place.

After suffering from problems at school, Louis was diagnosed at age 11 with Dyslexia Dyspraxia and a high I.Q. After this, he was taken out of mainstream education in order to be home educated.

One day, Louis came across a book on cakes and decorations, which ignited a passion for making handmade Belgian chocolate cakes. From cake decorating, Louis then moved into the tempering side of making chocolate.

Now he produces hundreds of chocolates and has won contracts to supply Sainsbury's and Waitrose last Christmas.

His dad Phil quit his job to work with Louis and the 15-year-old's former home tutor Jan is also employed at the confectionery firm.