My partners and I have been looking for creative office space in Los Angeles. It’s getting almost impossible to find. Can you point us in the right direction?

Interestingly enough, I recently went with a friend on a similar search. The real estate agent told us that not only is creative space getting harder to find (especially with parking), but the sites immediately available are the subject of bidding wars.

If you’re starting a new firm, this can be a very expensive and risky proposition. So what to do?

My recommendation is to begin looking outside the most trafficked places. Santa Monica has been outrageous for years. And Venice may be hip and funky, but it’s impossible to find anything with decent parking.

Instead, check out places like Culver City or certain areas of the Valley.

Here’s another idea, albeit a tricky one. Some real estate firms are willing to do deals with dot-coms like develop creative space or discount rent in exchange for equity. That approach could be very expensive if your company is actually worth something. But it might be a trade-off if you’re really stuck.

Many of my financial buddies have been forming “incubators,” but some of the participating companies are merely a few people with some good ideas. How can I get into the act?

Maybe it’s as simple as getting together a few people who have some good ideas

It should be so easy! But to be quite honest, that’s not far from reality. However, you have to get the right people who can take good ideas and turn them into great ones. Then, you’ll have to produce successful enterprises. That’s the tricky part.

I asked a friend who just started her own incubator if she would prefer great managers with mediocre ideas or vice versa. I believe her insight was right on. She felt the most important ingredient for any startup (or existing business for that matter) is the human capital. You can always improve a mediocre idea. But it’s really difficult to execute a great idea with mediocre people.

So start networking to find some talented people to partner with, and then come up with a killer concept. The incubator will help you build partnerships and relationships as well as develop a business plan, technology and financial structure.

I recently started a mail-order business out of my home. A friend suggested that I might get a toll-free number to help increase sales. What do you think?

To be quite frank, a toll-free number can be a blessing or a curse, depending on how much revenue it generates.

While it will probably generate a lot of telephone calls on your dime, those calls may not turn into revenue.

You must assess this in a basic way. How many of your existing or potential customers will be calling long distance? How much will this service cost monthly compared to other ways of communicating with customers?

Some people actually believe customers who are paying to call you long distance are genuinely interested in your product and not just window shopping, so to speak.

If you decide you need a toll-free line, here are a few tips:

-Ask if there are any less-expensive packages that might be available for small businesses.

-Inquire about volume discounts.

-Check out monthly service charges over and above the per-minute fees.

-Make sure your carrier can deliver international calls as well as having a wide reach domestically.

-Negotiate the best deal, keeping in mind there are plenty of competitors out there who want your business.

There have been a lot of robberies lately in our commercial district. We have several retail shops within this area, and I’m beginning to get concerned. Any safety tips?

I have several:

-Enhance lighting. The more, the better. You’ve seen the billboard ads that recommend lighting your backyard. The same thing applies to your store and the parking lot behind it, if you have one.

-Make the cash register visible. Keep your store windows uncluttered so the cash register can be seen from outside the store and police or passersby can spot trouble.

-Don’t keep cash around the store. This might require you to develop a cash control policy. Then post signs that say your clerks cannot change more than a $50 bill or open the safe.

If you do adopt this policy you must stick to it. Robbers will actually come into your store and pose as customers to make sure this is indeed your policy.

-Limit escape routes. If there is only one way in or out of a store, it’s a less attractive target for someone needing to make a quick getaway.

-Train yourself to deal with a robbery, which first and foremost means not resisting. Cooperation with the robber is critical to preventing violence.

You can always get guidance from your local police station as well. Officers might even stage seminars to discuss safety tips.

Our business has grown exponentially over the past few years. We have gone through the angel investment phase and found a great venture capitalist in Silicon Valley. Hopefully, we’ll be going public before valuations drop too low. Our question is not about our business, it’s how do we manage our money now that we have made it past puberty?

Find a good financial advisor. There are plenty in Los Angeles.

But you need to consider a few things first. Like what are your short- and long-term objectives? What is your appetite for risk? How involved do you want to be in the management of your money?

I always recommend that people be conscious of how it is being invested, though if you’ve hired a qualified money manager you don’t want to micromanage them. But you do need to ask questions and stay alert to things going on in the market.

Lorraine Spurge is a personal finance advisor, author of “Money Clips: 365 Tips That Will Pay One Day at a Time,” and business news commentator. She can be reached at (818) 705-3740 or by e-mail at [email protected].