The gallons of ink that have been used to argue for detailed, complicated ways for you to trim your costs and raise your bottom line could fill an aquarium. And while not all of that ink was wasted, it is nonetheless refreshing to come across TechRepublic's list of completely simple things you can do to save money, which we summarize below, most of which require little more than a phone call, and all of which will immediately and obviously increase your income. Read on.

GO PAPERLESS Minimize snail mail, print less, and...your fax machine is history. There are few things you need to do with paper mail, and that includes paying bills, so do as much online as you can. Try to implement systems that involve storing everything electronically, and only actually printing out--which is far more expensive--when you truly need a hard copy of something. As for your fax, if it helps, think of that old machine as an artifact, an antique. How often do you really use it? And how often do you use it when using a scanner and an email attachment wouldn't more easily preserve your document, produce a more usable copy of it, and in the long run cost less? And as for other businesses that haven't come around to the wisdom of your decision and insist on still faxing you things, try a cheap, Web-based fax reception system; TechRepublic recommends Packetel.

SWITCH LANDLINES TO VoIP Switching to VoIP will save you even more money if you frequently make international calls. Also: why not consider cutting out individual phones for your employees in favor of subsidized cell-phone service, or even their own business cell phones?

THE OFFICE-LESS OFFICE. Decrease business travel, increase telecommuting, save on physical office security. Memo: energy costs are up. You may've read about it somewhere; and you read that high energy costs disproportionately hurt small businesses on BizBox. The easiest way to decrease energy costs is to use less of it. Cut back on business travel, via phone-conferencing, videoconferencing, and more generally thinking long and hard about whether tasks that in the (cheap-energy) past have involved travel really, truly, madly, deeply require travel. And encourage telecommuting, or at the least make it possible, by investing in a favorite BizBox hobbyhorse, cloud computing. TechRepublic argues that the benefits that your employees enjoy because of telecommuting--lower gas, food, and even clothing costs--may persuade them to accept lower salaries. Finally, with your decreased dependence on your physical office space, think about ways to save costs on physical office security--savings that can be enjoyed as well as reinvested in ever-more important cyber-security.

IT'S CHEAP TO BE GREEN In-house recycling and eco-friendliness. What for one occupation is outdated technology may be just fine for a different employee with simpler, more clerical tasks; instead of selling or throwing out an old computer, pass it on. Also, for when technology truly is obsolete for your purposes, give it to a charity and write off the donation. But recycling is only one of scores of ways to "go green": and, last we checked (see above), saving on, say, energy and paper costs isn't just good for the environment, it's also good for your bottom line. (Plus, in this day and age, it's a great way to build employee morale.)

GRAB A PARTNER You know how economies of scale work: the bigger the buyer, the lower the per-unit cost. Joining with other small businesses, whether in small groups or larger co-ops--even with ostensible competitors--creates a win-win situation for all involved (except maybe your supplier, but it's a giant multinational, so who cares?).