LABJ Forum: It’s Budget Preparing Season – Gulp
Businesses are trying to sort out what they will and will not be able to do next year and the signs are anything but clear. Stock market volatility continues, interest rates have been cut again and productivity appeared to be on the way up. So the Business Journal asks: Is your company expanding, pulling back or planning to budget the same?
Noemi Pollack
President & CEO
Pollack PR Marketing Group
We’ve really focused our budget. We’ve increased our marketing budget and decreased our operational budget, and we advocate this strategy with our clients. These will be the companies that are still visible after the downturn is over.
Quentin Thompson
Chief Financial Officer
Colliers Seeley International Inc.
Last year we cut really hard, very quickly. This year we have restored some of the cuts we made, because we knew they wouldn’t be sustainable. For example, last year we cut 20 percent of our workforce, cut employee pay 5 percent and eliminated executive bonuses. This year we’ve restored the pay, and we’re waiting to see on bonuses. We’re slowly getting back to normal, but very cautiously.
Bill Schultz
Partner
Mike Young Productions
We’re increasing production capacity as well as diversifying our business from strictly production to production and distribution. We will be adding staff to handle new productions and also dedicated distribution personnel. In the past, we’ve had someone else distribute our shows and we’ve been able to keep some distribution rights on productions this year, so we’re ramping that part of our business up.
Gary M. Smith
Managing Partner, Assurance & Advisory Services
Pacific Southwest region, Deloitte & Touche LLP
We’re always mindful of managing our expenditures. However, all indications are that the firm is poised for strong growth. Over the past several months, we have hired many new professionals, and plan to make further investments in order to expand and enhance services.
Neil Martau
Vice President, Administration
Inter-Con Security Systems Inc.
Expanding. We provide security services at the highest level of our industry, and the post-9/11 demand for security services is up 50 percent. We’re expanding our budgets and adding personnel to manage the increased demand. Unfortunately when bad things happen around the world, our segment of the industry grows.
Michael Montgomery
Co-Chief Executive
Digital Coast Partners
We’re expanding in several sectors, responding to demand in health care and business services.