Now cutting costs, operating our businesses as lean as possible is both urgent and extremely important. It certainly is for me. After 17 years in business, I returned from maternity leave to the news that three large national accounts had decided not to renew their contracts with our company. They all reported that we provided superb service, but the economic crisis they were facing required drastic measures. It wasn't a nightmare, it was real life. Our overhead devoured our profit at an alarming rate and we quickly found ourselves operating in the red.