The following message was posted by Francie Ward, CEO of Idea Cafe, on June 14, 2006:

"Want to increase your bottom line? Keep more of your hard- earned cash with these money-saving tips and tricks. We've put up the first five ideas - now we invite you to share ways you've found to avoid some of the high costs of doing business. Remember, the best idea each week wins the extraordinarily stylish and comfortable Idea Cafe T-shirt!


Stop Wasting Money On A Dedicated Fax Line
Instead, get your faxes via email from a cost-efficient service like MyFax.

Use Barter To Exchange Services You'd Otherwise Have To Pay For.
Whatever it is you make or do, chances are there are professionals in your community who need what you have to offer. You can save on tax preparation, legal services, landscape services and a host of other things. Many communities have barter exchanges that act as a clearinghouse for people who want to trade instead of pay.


Share Workspace.
If you're ready to move your business out of your home, consider sub-leasing or co-operative rentals with one or more other businesses. You can share not only the rent, but equipment such as copiers and faxes.


Pool Your Purchases With Other Business Owners.
Take advantage of quantity discounts by placing a larger order, then splitting it with others.


Recycle Your Ink Cartridges.
Several office supply chain stores will give you credit if you bring in your old cartridges, reducing the price of your replacement cartridges.

Cheers,

Francie Ward
CEO
Chief Entrepreneurial Officer

Idea CafeŽ
The Fun Place for Serious Business(sm)"

1. "Money Saving Tips for Small Businesses"
Posted by Mattie Lawson on 08:37:58 6/26/2006
1. Time is Money
All time charged to your business by you and by your employees that fails to help the health of your business is non-productive time. Non-productive time wastes your business' money and resources. To reduce waste, communicate to your employees not just what to do but how their work contributes to the overall objectives of your business. Seeing the "big picture" helps employees feel more satisfied in their work, which will also motivate them to want to be more productive.
2. Align Work Tasks to Your Goals
To determine what helps the health of your business, compare how time and resources are spent to your business goals. Eliminate those tasks that don't strongly align with your goals. Ask yourself whether the purpose of each task is supportive of your goals. For those that are, measure to see if the performance actually gives the benefit you expect. A spreadsheet is a good tool to display and sort this information quickly.

3. Reduce Variation to Reduce Errors
Most mistakes in the workplace are due to the introduction/toleration of variation in how work is performed. Doing a task a variety of ways may be more interesting for the worker, but creates a result that is difficult to measure, train, repeat or reproduce with the same good results reliably. Save creative practices for those tasks that are well suited for uniqueness but perform routine tasks in a uniform, dependable, high quality manner.

Mattie Lawson
www.getmoretime4you.com

2. "my idea"
Posted by Stacey on 09:53:47 7/04/2006
My ideas for helping reduce expenses is to get creative. Is there something that could be used to display an item in a store that is not the norm but cheaper.
Example: I got a mug wood mug holder for 50 cents at a garage sale that I display my necklaces on. A regular display item would have cost me around $25.00.
Anouther example: I got an older wire cd rack for 5 cents and use it to display my earrings. It saved me at least $15.

"Money Savers"
Posted by Tiffany on 18:08:07 7/10/2006
Since I mail all of my products, I mail using only Priority Mail. I get the boxes delivered free to my house from my mailman and than I have them picked up from my front door, saving me time and gas! For packing materials I recycle what is sent to me by my suppliers or newspaper.
Tiffany

http://www.thebarefootmommy.com

Posted by Daryl Des Marais on 16:21:39 7/31/2006
If you want to save money on labour costs but need someone to answer the phone and sort leads use a call answering service.
We also offer some free services on our site:
Free Business Cards
Free Publicity
Free Cellular Phone
Free Net Meeting
and many others.