Finance 101

The first question I ask students each semester is "who wants to be here?"

No hand ever goes up. The next, obvious, question is "who has to be here?"

All hands go up.

Such is the life of a Finance teacher and number junkie. My goal is to teach every person I come into contact with in an appropriate setting about numbers. There is no need to be afraid of numbers.

In fact, as business people, it is our job to EMBRACE numbers. This is the language of our business, folks! Regardless of what marketing people tell you, or your lawyers tell you, or your advertising department tells you, the bottom line for your business is, well, the bottom line!

Please understand something, though. Finance is NOT Accounting! Accounting is a tiny segment within Finance, kind of like being a quarterback is part of a football team or cheese is a part of pizza.

So why do we run from numbers?

The answer is simple - numbers paint an accurate picture. All the time. Everytime.

Reality is a hard thing to comprehend when we have plans for big things. Reality gets in the way of our dreams and desire to grow, grow, grow!

It's the same reason we don't write down our Mission Statement, Vision Statement, Business Plan or even a daily plan!

When we see it in writing, it becomes real to us. It reminds us that there are things left to do on our list - things we haven't accomplished yet, rather than things we have accomplished so far.

As business people, we don't like to be reminded of our failures, and finance does just that on a daily basis through our balance sheet.

Each week, I am going to discuss a different element of finance and why it is so important to simly learn the language of finance, whether you are the President of a billion dollar company or a sole proprietor doing part-time work to supplement your "real" job. Once you learn the language of business (finance) you will make smarter business decisions based upon increasing cashflow rather than simply focusing upon what is in the bank account each day. The difference between the two is like night and day, yet few business owners really "get it."

My job is to make you "get it," and I will utilize many means to get you there.

I urge you to write me with questions, comments or opinions, as I am a lifelong student of the game of business and finance. No topic is too small or too big, and I am also simply asking you to pass this site on to two people that you think could benefit from this site. I can also answer personal finance questions, although I am not a licensed financial advisor. (I am, however, in the process of trying to pass my series 6, 63 and 7 - but it's merely for my own skill set and not for profit right now.)

The blog will be updated weekly, most likely every Monday morning to get you started.

Thanks!