Recently there was a news item from the Orlando, Florida area regarding Yellow Pages. What makes an ubiquitous book like the Yellow Pages a news story? Exactly that! They are everywhere! Evidently, at least in the Orlando area, something is going to be done about it.

It doesn't matter if you are a small business owner or a consumer, you have the same problem. Which book do I use? The consumer is only going to keep so many Yellow Page books and a business can only afford to advertise in a few. Of course both parties are looking for the same thing — Results! Either you want to find what you are looking for in the Yellow Pages you decide to keep – or – you want sales from the book you decided to advertise in.

The interesting part of all this is that many consumers and some very tech savvy business owners have already solved the problem. They stopped using phone directories and have opted for a faster, less expensive option.

What is it?

The Internet! If you go to your favorite search engine and type in the words "yellow pages" you will find over 450,000,000 results. Whatever you want to know about Yellow Pages from online to offline is there. Of course you will find many online Yellow Pages to help you find anything from A to Z in your area also.

If you are a business owner and you are not online with your business now, you should be looking into it immediately. The costs are dramatically lower and if you do it right the results are great. The buzzword that you have to familiarize yourself with is "local search". What that means is if someone in you area is looking on the Internet they will type in something like "Barber, Specific City, Specific State" and you want your barbershop to come up.

Statistics are now showing that there are more people going to their computers than picking up their Yellow Page Book. Most people will do an online search for products and product reviews before they go to make their purchase locally. Just think if you could be the business that answers their questions, gives them product reviews, and the business where they go to buy what they want.

Orlando, Florida may be on to something. But do we need government in the market telling consumers and business owners how many Yellow Page books they can have? The market is already making its choice. Yellow Page advertising is getting very expensive, and putting an ad in all of the books is impossible. Consumers aren't using Yellow Pages like they did in the past. So you can bet in the near future you will see many of the Yellow Page books going out of business as business owners go more and more online to attract customers.

Some ways that your business might waste money includes the following:

1. Manage your credit cards – If you have several cards, develop a computer program that will show you the exact balances, due dates, and the interest rate you are paying. Always be aware of other solicitations that save you money and possibly change your balances over to a new company. If you have any employee cards, see if you can set a limit on them. If not with the credit card company, make sure that the employees know their limits. Manage your credit cards wisely and never, ever miss a due date.

2. Develop an annual plan so you know where you will spend money. This helps you in several ways. The business person will be aware of what portion of the profits are going to advertising, towards incentives, towards accounting and other internal expenses, etc.

3. Do not over-purchase any products or services for a business. If you buy in bulk, the money is tied up and a place must be provided to keep the extras. That might be an unnecessary expense.

4. Developing an advertising budget and knowing just what resources to use is key to keeping money under control in a small business. You must advertise, but you also must get value for your money or you will soon be out of business. Keep a record of how much is spent, can you get payment terms, when is the most efficient time to advertise your particular product or service to get the most value for the dollar. Every dollar must be accounted for in advertising because the lifeline of your business depends on new and paying customers. Advertising is the way to get the word out to the community or the Internet.

5. A small business owner will sometimes be under self-induced stress to manage all aspects of the business. Sometimes, leaving the control and decisions to others that are qualified is the best way to manage the business. Releasing control may be hard to do sometimes, but in a lot of businesses, money can be wasted because the owner cannot possibly be as efficient as the person who has studied or is knowledgeable about a particular field. For instance, if a business owner does not know accounting, many mistakes in reporting income and taxes can be made. A qualified accountant can possibly save more than the cost of their services in reduced taxes.

Take a hard look around your business and do not let anything be set in stone if saving money is the goal. Challenge everything that will cost money and see what can be done to change the situation. Any money that is saved is money that can be put back into the business either in profits or in growth.

A business owner wants their business to be successful and will work hard to sustain growth. A business owner wants a way to continue making and growing money from a product or service that is interesting to them. After growing a business and being smart with cash flow, many business owners will sell their businesses only to start another business.

The reason is that business owners are independent types and challenges are rewarding when met and faced. Saving money through every day operations will help the business owner to meet their financial and emotional goals.