Budget Interview

For this interview I interviewed Lori. Lori is the office manager as well as the billing/tax lady for a local small business. I really haven’t given too much consideration to budgeting before now. It is funny because my wife is the daughter of a CPA and her entire life she has been taught to budget, budget, budget! I was not, and I think it drives my wife crazy sometimes! Having the opportunity to interview Lori was a great learning experience. It has been my experience that people who work in business finance/accounting do not always have the most upbeat or friendly of personalities, Lori was not as expected. She was so entertaining to talk to and happy to share with me her insights into budgeting. This was the first thing I learned from her, budgeting isn’t always boring and the people who do it aren’t either!

Within Lori’s business there is a lot of room is left for employee/numerical error. The opportunity for big mistakes is budgeted into their budget! This almost always guarantees reaching budgeting goals and having success. This does not mean that employees are not expected to exhibit as much cost efficiency and expense sparing behavior as possible. Employees are not directed held responsible for missing budgeting goals, but with missed goals, personal interviews and changes are made to remedy the problem. I learned from her that most places do give their employees paid time off and it simply differs by the business and their budget. She spoke about the early years of the business and how she did have to make layoffs due to missing budgeting goals and not being able to afford the employees they had. I think this is important to focus on in hiring, I would never want to hire a position that I know might be deemed unnecessary or not affordable in the future. A hiring/firing effects those employee’s life’s dramatically, and all should be done to avoid such situations as possible. Of course, there will always be unforeseen problems in any business! Within Lori’s business, employees are provided training on how to be as cost-effective as possible, and their work is usually monitored to an extent to ensure this cost efficiency. I think it is great that employees are aware of and a part of trying to keep and stay within a budget. I really enjoyed the dynamic that Lori presented this to me with and I think it is great how she incorporates budgeting in the workplace and with her employees. I hope I can take some of these things and use them as I move forward into my career.