The business world has never been so exciting to me. A few days ago I read an article in the New York Times about a lawsuit accusing Halliburton of accounting fraud. Usually this kind of headline is the last thing to pique my interest. This time, however, I read the story even before checking the cartoons page. I was pleased that my new knowledge of accounting gave me insight into how the fraud occured.

The other day at the language lab I was telling Jason how jealous I was that he and his classmates were coming out of the summer with the beginnings of a new language. He wisely said, "Well, your learning a new language too, the language of accounting." Sure, I thought at the time, some language! But now that I've gotten the hang of it I really do feel like it is a new language for me. I even dreamed in accounting. It's not a language I'd want to conduct the rest of my life in, but it's good for translation.

One of the feature stories in my accounting book was about a man named Ted Castle, who started a specialty bakery foods company in Vermont. He discovered that manufacturing-line workers were not so motivated. In order to resolve this problem he gave employees equity in the company and revealed the financial statements to them. He posted financial results of each days work and trained workers to understand the statements. Once workers saw the financial results of their decisions they began to think more like owners. Profits have grown by 600% in the last three years.

What really excites me about this is the way Castle chose to empower his workers. The increase in profit is a great little bonus. And there are so many of these fun little games you can play with economics and accounting.

My question is: If the goal of proprietorships and corporations is to maximize profits, what do non-profits attempt to maximize? Equity? Stability? Growth?

I'm growing more and more excited about starting my own little non-profit. Accounting is one more tool in this woman's tool box for doing just that.