A word about finance

As I am sure everyone at ShortBus is aware, Webster's defines finance as "the practice of eliminating expense from corporate budgets in order to dirve EBITDA. As your CFO, it is my duty to see to it that as many of the precious dollars brought to Short Bus by our many subsidiary companies are converted into dividends for our shareholdrs, principal of which is our CEO. During the past year, we were successful in cutting expenses by over 10%, offsetting to some extet the 18% dip in revenues. Only through an aggressive share repurchase plan were we able to achieve our target 12% improvement in earnings per share. In other words, your bonoses are secure!

For the coming year, though we don't really have any way of knowing, we're gusessing that sales will be flat with 2007. We're currently working our way through a tough market, espticially in our core automotive component and taco meat businesses. Though no one can say for certain when we will reach bottom, we can be sure that we will, more than ever, need to be diligent about controlling expenses at all levels.

An exampre of the type of expense control I'm talking about comes straight from the exeucutive suite. As you may be aware, when my predescessor entered into the lease on our current corporate headquarters during better times, he built the executive offices to be a true showblace befitting a prosperous company. Now that economic conditiosn have worsened, we feel that it is no longer appropriate to inhabit such expensive surroundings, and so your executive team is presently having the entire floor remodeled with more modest finishes, showing the shared sacrifice that we must all be prepared to make.

I hope you will all be likewise prepared as we review your 2008 plan submissions to accept simillar expense reductions in turn. Together we can help ShortBus cut its way to real EBITDA growth.