I have not been blogging as much as usual. Sorry about that. You would think that with the hectic Christmas season behind me I would have more time.

Wrong.

I have been busier than ever.

One of those projects that has kept me busy is that I was asked by the American Specialty Toy Retailing Association (ASTRA) to write a book about the financials of a toy store. A comprehensive guide to help independent toy stores understand their financial statements, how those numbers get calculated, what are the industry averages, and how to figure out why your numbers might be higher or lower than your fellow store owners.

Yeah, they asked me to write a book on financials. The same guy who says right on the home page of my website that I am not a financial guru.

So for the past few weeks I have been doing my homework to become that financial guru. Okay, maybe not guru, but learning enough so that I can help you understand your numbers, too. And the journey has been worth it.

For the first time, when my accountant came in to help us make those year-end adjustments so all our accounting lines up, I finally understood everything he said. A couple of times I even knew before he said it what he was going to say.

Don’t get me wrong. I am not going to pass any accounting exams in the near future. But the thrill of knowing I had learned something useful has given me a new excitement towards the business and a refreshed energy.

Maybe you could learn something new to give you that same feeling of newfound enthusiasm. If so, I have a list of topics worth exploring right here.

-Phil Wrzesinski
www.PhilsForum.com

PS Last year I posted a free eBook on Reading Your Financial Statements. It is pretty good. Not as good as the book ASTRA will be publishing this spring, but a decent start. I will be correcting a couple errors in it soon, but even this version might be a big help for those of you struggling to speak accountantese.