Convert json string to hash and retrieve hash items values in ruby

Rails
1

I have a string object which is basically in a json format and while
trying to print it shows in console as

item =
 {
        "id": "4c9f83e4-f479-48d0-9f92-3fff70a8f6ba",
         "item":

“{“business”:“1114”,“class”:“Demo”,“date”:“01-01-2014”,“version”:”",“data”:“dummy”,“name”:“Finance”}"

    }

I need to get the values of business, class, date etc and pass it as
params
to my method. So I tried to convert it into hashes as below

hash_item = JSON.parse (item)

and output in console shows as

The converted hash item is
{"guid"=>"4c9f83e4-f479-48d0-9f92-3fff70a8f6ba",

“item”=>"{“business”:“1114”,“service_class”:“DataServicesBalancesRaw”,“start_date”:“2014-05-08”,“calc_version”:"",“data”:“8b698df0-3673-4057-b71a-080d254c355d^^”,“queue_name”:“high”}"}

But when I try to access the hash value for business as
hash_item['item']['business'] it shows

“business”

since the value of item is a String in the hash_item. I am not sure
whether my approach is correct or not. So is there any better idea or
any
inputs to retrieve the hash values . Please help.