Renegotiate fees from outside advisors such as lawyers and accountants.  Ask if you can have a better rate by paying by the hour, by the project, or on a retainer basis.  Some such professionals will react with "why should I cut my fees just because your profits have dropped?" but most will be sympathetic to the fact that economically slow times trim everyone's profit margins.

Investigate what banking services you are paying for to see if any are superfluous or if additional ones may be advantageous.  Combining checking accounts may save service fees and earn higher interest on balances, or even qualify you for free checking.

Track responses to your advertising and promotional efforts.  To spend your advertising dollars effectively, you need to know what produces leads, and what generates profitable sales.  For example, several special-category Yellow Page ads may pull better than a single large ad under your major listing.

Owning your phones is usually more advantageous than renting, especially when you put the savings into phone services that provide more effective operation.  Investigate the different services available for both local and long distance calls.  Ask about volume discounts for certain time periods, to particular geographical areas, and to specific phone numbers.

Screen out unnecessary long distance calls.  You can handle many customer inquiries professionally and promptly, if informally, by writing the answer on a facsimile form  and sending it off within minutes of opening the morning mail.  As an example, a recent one-page response sent from California to New Hampshire cost 25 cents to fax, 29 cents postage plus an envelope to mail, and three or four times that amount for a long distance phone call.

Keep only the dues and subscriptions that serve you with valuable information and professional networking opportunities, or make you more visible in the community.  An expensive golf membership has to be evaluated in terms of whether your income would drop without it.

And while on the golf course, ask your buddies what they are doing to reduce overhead.  Networking can find you a better bookkeeper, a less expensive  janitorial service or a tip for trimming your inventory still further so that your business is buoyantly afloat and doing well when the economic tide turns.