Next big challenge: budgeting for 2009 - Philadelphia Business Journal:

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which makes sheet metal and machinefd components for a varietyof high-tech typically has her annual budget figured out by now. the Dallas firm’s fiscal year begins on Oct. 1. But it’es hard for Brumit to craff the financial plan for an entire year when she has recently started revisiting current spending plans on a quarterlyg and evenmonthly basis. Welcomr to the local fallout from the unprecedented turmoil inthe U.S. financiaol markets, where investment banks have failed, insurancde companies and mortgage lenderzs have been bought by thegovernment and, at Congress was debating the biggest bailouft of all, one with a current taxpaye r price tag of $750 billion.
Not Brumit is far from alone in keepingg a close rein on spendingthese days. “My customers are not giviny me a lot of forecasts to workoff of,” she “It’s pretty murky out there.” At exactly the time most North Texaa business leaders are in the midsf of planning for next year’s budget, they face the haziest businesse environment in nearly a decade. This much is 2009 will be a tough How tough is the big and as a result executivew and business owners in the regionn areplanning conservatively.
When Karlee’ds current fiscal year ends on 30, Brumit expects the company’s revenue to be or possibly a bit fromthe $48 million it pulled in during the 1997 fiscal year. The problem isn’t customert defections, she says, but rather that demand from clients is trendingh down atthe “It’s more volume-driven,” she says. Other Nortu Texas business owners echo that Their companies might be performing fine atthe moment, they say, but they don’t anticipate much growth in the cominhg year. Entrepreneurs and executives alike tend to be especially when it comes to theidown enterprises.
But the prevailing sentiment among business leaders speaking with Dallas Business Journal reporteres about the local economy is tempered expectationsfor 2009. At the end of business leaders were hopeful that whatever slowdown the regioh faced would be out of our system by LaborDay 2008. That’sx clearly not the case now. “What’s it goingb to take to restore business andconsumer confidence?” asks economisrt Bud Weinstein. “It’s just going to take time.
” The last few stock market gyrations have served only to highlight the uncertainty that businesses have been grappling with for more than12 “It just means that we’re going to sharpe our pencils on our budgeting,” said Michele Wheeler, executivre vice president and chief financial officer of Jackson-Shawe Co., a Dallas real estatwe developer with 35 employees. “We’re relativel conservative in ourbudgeting approach, and we’rs just going to look for opportunitiesw to save as much as we can and be as conservativwe as possible with all our modeling in termas of new projects and starts,” she The firm also is spending more time developinfg relationships with lenders and will continue to do so, Wheelee said.
That’s the spot where Wall Street’sx struggles intersect with Main Street, business. “Anybody with any connectionj to the financial arena will be saidDavid Boland, a Dallas turnarounrd specialist with the accountin firm . “You’ve got to look make your internal shop as cleanm and crispas possible. “You can’t do anything to change demand; you have to surviv with your core business.” Stephen Golding, Jackson Shaw’s presidentf and chief operating officer, said he’s seen three or four down cyclesw in his 25 yeards in the realestate business.