Executive Summary
This report highlights the findings of the 2004 Dane County Economic Survey, which was conducted by the A.C. Nielsen Center for Marketing Research between September and November 2004. The survey was sent to 4,093 businesses in Dane County with five or more employees. It was sent to participants with the title of CEO, CFO, President, and/or business owner. The survey asked questions regarding seven key economic indicators in each of the following areas:
- Sales Revenue
- Profitability
- Production/Operating Costs as a % of Revenue
- Capital Expenditures
- Number of Employees
- Overall Wage Change
- Operating Capacity
436 responses were received within the stipulated time --187 online and 249 fax/mail. Of those, there were a total of 389 respondents that had fully completed the questionnaire, with the exception of the capital expenditures and the overall wages sections, which received lesser responses. This sample size has an error range of .05. Significant differences noted in this report are at the 95% confidence level.
Topline Results
Overall the economic outlook seems to have improved in 2004. When compared to 2003, fewer companies have reported decreasing revenues although there is no big difference in the number of companies reporting profitability changes. There has been more spending in the county with more companies reporting increase in both capital expenditure and production costs. Fewer companies have reported a decrease in both these indicators. There have been fewer layoffs and more companies have reported increased employment in 2004 compared to 2003. Companies have also pointed towards a positive self-assessment of performance in 2004 with 64% of them indicating that they have either met or exceeded expectations.
The outlook for 2005 too seems optimistic and similar to the expectation they had for 2004. Projections on sales revenue, profitability, capital spending and wages for 2005 are very similar to 2004 projections. It is interesting that both revenue and profit growth is expected although somewhat more conservatively.
