In small companies a lot is dictated by how the business is going. If we have money it's because we're working a lot, so we don't have time. If we aren't working that much and have some time, we have no money. Right now we have no money. 🙁

I think training is great: above and beyond improved effectiveness and profitability for the company, it shows respect for the value of employees and interest in their development. That said, I'd rather have the pay cut reversed before any real money gets spent on training. (Maslow's hierarchy and all that: we had some money last fall but we spent it on increasing our SAN capacity. That was totally better than training.) But after fixing the payroll, my next priority would be for classes. It really improves the quality of work and the morale when people stop cutting corners and moving towards best practices.