1. Share another business's space. If you're in the market for office space, don't hunt on your own. Instead, talk to a broker or two and ask if he or she knows anyone with office space to share — say, someone with 5,000 square feet who actually only uses half that amount. That can mean a couple of offices, a conference facility, maybe even a copier and other necessary equipment — all at a fraction of the cost had you gone out and tried to land the same deal by yourself.

2. Share your space with another business. The flip side of an office share works just as well. If you've leased more office space than you can reasonably use, put the word out to brokers that you'd be happy to sublet the remaining offices. In particular, mention that you'd be particularly interested in hooking up with businesses that are keen on setting up some of the collaborative budget trimming mentioned below.

3. Share support staff and use online schedule managers. It may seem impressive to visitors and potential clients, but not every small business has to have its own receptionist, word processor, accountant and other similar support positions. If your business is based in an office complex alongside other small businesses, look into sharing support staff. For instance, rather than six receptionists answering six sets of telephones for six different businesses, there's technology available that permits routing of various business lines into a single receptionist station. That means six businesses share the expense of one receptionist rather than shouldering the salary by themselves.

4. Set up a network and share better-quality equipment. Rather than six different businesses operating their own copiers, printers and fax machines, look into setting up a network with some high-end, behemoth machinery at its heart. Not only can that prove less expensive than running autonomous machines, you may also save money by having a sophisticated copier capable of handling jobs that you used to have to send out to a pricy printing shop.

5. Form a consortium for office supplies. Similarly, small businesses often make the mistake of buying necessary office supplies by themselves. While outlets such as Office Depot have trimmed this expense somewhat, take your buying power a step further by partnering with other businesses. Form a buying consortium, approach the outlets directly and say you're ready to bring a group of a dozen businesses onto their client rolls — provided of course, they give you a cut-rate deal on bulk supplies. That way, as David Newton, professor of entrepreneurial finance at Westmont College in Santa Barbara, Calif., points out: "You can effectively form your own little PX [post exchange] for office supplies. I've seen companies save as much as $1,800 a year doing this."

6. Look into group advertising. As with print advertising, buying cost-effective broadcast advertising often can prove prohibitive for small businesses. One way to cut the cost (and boost your advertising muscle at the same time) is to approach a radio or television station as a group. One possible scenario: A business complex with 20 small businesses maintains a regular broadcast ad boosting the entire complex. From there, the individual businesses take turns with weekly spots promoting their individual operations. The radio or television station gets a regular run of ads, the complex as a whole receives steady publicity and small businesses which may not have been able to afford radio or TV get their occasional chance to hawk their wares on the air.

7. Print en masse. A major budgetary headache for many small businesses is printing costs for brochures, flyers, sales materials and the like. Like other budget savers, one way to bring this cost into check is to coordinate your printing needs with those of other small businesses. Not only is the thought of a battalion of small businesses committing to an exclusive printing gig the answer to a prayer for any printing sales representative, it can also command a significant discount for the businesses willing to stick with the same printer. As Newton says, "I've seen small businesses save 20% on printing costs through this way alone."