Asklorraine/26″/dt1st/mark2nd

Question: My business has very narrow margins and we probably net about $500,000 a year. I’m trying to keep expenses down to increase our net income. Are you aware of any new methods that would help us achieve this goal?

Answer: There are a lot of moves you can make. For instance, if your business is small enough, you may want to think about running it out of your home and not out of an office. This would cut down overhead dramatically.

Next, depending on how many employees you have, you may be able to develop creative scheduling to hire part-time employees and not carry the expense of full-timers whose cost increases due to benefits.

There are other ways to cut back on expenses as well, such as by reducing your long-distance phone bills. Unless you’ve lived in a cave for the last few years, you must have heard of 10-321. It really helps save money on your long-distance calls. Now there are other similar series, like 10-10-629, which charges 11 cents per minute for each call. You can also save money on long-distance calls if you also subscribe to a provider’s Internet service. Check out AT & T; WorldNet and MCI for more details.

If your business calls are primarily overseas, you can simply dial 1010-636, which charges only 20 cents per minute (plus a 20-cent surcharge) for continental Europe. Note that you are not required to change your current carrier in order to take advantage of either of these services.

Try to get barter deals on phone service. There are lots of ways to get services for free if you swap your current services for another company’s. You can check out who might be interested in doing this through your Yellow Pages.

It’s no shame to buy used office products. After all, when you were younger or just out of college, you probably bought a pre-owned car, so why not use that same frugal strategy in your business? Check out the classified pages in your local newspaper for details.

These are only a few suggestions. You need to use your common sense and creativity and I’m sure you’ll think up lots of ways to save money, increase your margins and bolster your bottom line.

Q: I run a cancer center that is non-profit organization. With the current threat of recession, I know that times are going to get tough and I’m in need of some creative ways to raise money. Have any?

A: Running a non-profit is just like running a business: You need to be constantly inventive on new ways to sell your product or service (in your case, raising the money to help cancer patients).

With cancer soon to become the biggest threat to American lives (it will probably overtake heart disease in the next few years), you have a large marketplace. I believe three out of five men will contract prostate cancer and about the same statistic is true for women contracting breast cancer.

It seems that even though capital may be getting tight, there will be a cost of health care no matter what happens. And it should be possible to convince companies and individuals that funding organizations like yours may be one of the best investments they can make for their own and their families’ future.

Q: My wife and I own a catering service. She does the marketing for the business and I consider myself to be the chef. Right now most of our work is for private parties, including weddings, birthdays, anniversaries, and so on. In what areas would you recommend we focus to expand our business?

A: For my bet, try a health-food catering service. There would be a great demand, especially in Southern California, for this type of service, because we’re probably the most health-conscious eaters in the country.

Create meals that can be easily warmed up for those families that are on the move (which most of us are). These meals need to be basic so that you can prepare quantities while still maintaining their quality. You will need a delivery service so that you can get the meals to a wide group of people quickly. You probably can deliver two or three days’ worth of dinners at a time, since the food won’t go bad that quickly.

The statistics show that most families eat three to four dinners a week that are prepared outside of the home. This trend is probably going to increase before it decreases, because there are so many two-worker households these days. But as far as I know, there is not a good, healthy food delivery service that provides high-quality meals at reasonable prices.

The next phase: consider opening a small chain of take-home stores. You’ll need to do your homework before you go into “retail,” but it might be worth your while when the time is right.

Q: I’ve just graduated college with a liberal arts degree and can’t get a job (other than being a secretary or receptionist) that pays more than $25,000 a year. While those jobs are admirable, I would rather have my own business. I am very organized, detail-oriented and reliable. Are those qualities enough to run a business?

A: That’s a good start! Add adventuresome, willing and able to learn and take risks, and you could easily be in business!

There are so many possibilities it would depend on many more factors than you have provided. But never let it be said that I ran out of ideas, so here goes

If you’re qualified to be a secretary (administrative assistant, I prefer) why not put up a shingle of your own and provide services to other small business, traveling executives, or even single parents? It could be like concierge service at a hotel; you could organize parties or business meetings, put together an invitation list, run errands, arrange theater tickets, write memos and make follow-up calls. This would give you an opportunity to control your time and earn money for yourself while also meeting a lot of individuals who might give you experience or entree into new businesses or job offers.

It’s a great way to use your “talents” and still be your own boss.

Lorraine Spurge is a personal finance advisor, author of “Money Clips” and business news commentator. She can be reached at (818) 705-3740 or by e-mail at [email protected].