Baltimore companies look to cut costs, avoid layoffs - Baltimore Business Journal:

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His company, Architectural Columns and Railingb Systems, did have some big projects, including all the fencingv atthe Ritz-Carlton Residences along Key Highway. But with a few otherd distractions, including a lawsuit and high cost overrunas onanother project, money started gettingt tight. “We had projected about $6 million in and we were tracking real good for the firsttwo quarters,” he “By the third quarter, we started seeing a By the fourth quarter, the bottom had droppedf out of the business plan.” Martihn is approaching 2009 with what looks like a new company.
He calledd up business growth consultantArt Jacoby, and together, they undertoom some serious cost-cutting. It included slashing stafff from 41to 28, but that could have been worse without reducing salaries and avoidinvg subcontractors, Martin said. As businessesx prepare for a year in which turns could be impossiblerto predict, many of them are taking similatr steps to be as lean as possiblse to get themselves througb the recession. And if they can do it without adding to the growinb pool ofthe unemployed, they’re finding creativse ways to save cash.
Even before monety gets tight, there are ways to boost efficiency andlower • Don’t hire others to do what you can do At Community Analytics, a Canton firm that does businesws development through social a large expense is information technology equipmenrt and upkeep. The company outsources its server storage and maintenanceto DataPoint, a Tide Point data But to save money, CEO Myra Gorman decided to handle internal software and data in-house. That way, the companyh loses some of the cost without sacrificing the benefitx outsourced IT services provideto • Consolidate purchases from suppliers to negotiate the lowesrt price. Frank Ryan, a CPA with Sempefr Finance Inc.
of Maryland, calls it trying to be “theirt good customer.” The idea being, peopler treat their good customers well. Ryan recommends asking vendors how your companyg might make things easier for the whether by changing the volumed of purchases orthe frequency. Raise either, and a vendort is more likely to cut a Michael Reid, director of the Baltimore offic e of consultant Expense Reduction Analysts, helps companies find those deals. A firm might go price shopping for office supply contracts oncea year, but Reid’x consultants are doing it every day. Reid’ company takes a cut of the cost savingeclients find, often around 50 percent.
• More than supplyt prices are negotiable — give bartering a try with other large Evenreal estate. Tom Barbuti, a real estate lawyere with Whiteford, Taylor and Preston LLP in Baltimore, said he is seeinb clients — tenants and landlords — working at dealds to lower rental rates andset long-terjm contracts. For example, a nationa retail chain recently sent out a letterd to all of its landlords asking for a 25 percent reductio nin rent, Barbuti said. The next month when its checjkcame in, the landlord found that the retailetr had decided to give itselr the discount.
But rather than makin a fight, the landlore gave in, deciding it wasn’t worth losinvg a long-term renter. Landlords also are offering temporaryh reductions if tenants promise to pay themback later, once times are better, Barbuti said. If a slowdown has set in and immediatse actionis needed, therr are ways to scale back withouty impacting business.