For the first time in a long time, the store's finances don't scare me. Christmas sales are going good. They are not as great as we had hoped, but they are still strong enough that we can pay our bills and have some money left over for a few special projects.

Another plus is that the store has been open for a year. We can now look back a year to see how much we've grown and estimate how much we will sell in a given month-- it makes budgeting much easier.