Rhonda Abrams: Start at pump to reduce business expenses

Everyone hates higher gas prices. But rising prices at the pump hit small businesses especially hard. A hefty percentage of small companies depend on their truck, van, SUV or car to operate their business: construction workers, on-site service providers, salespeople, realtors, plumbers, electricians, carpenters, and many more.

For these one-person and small businesses, their vehicle serves as their office. To save money, you cant just tell them to drive less. Driving less means making less money. And vehicle costs including gas take a big chunk out of their total income.

They cant just pass rising gas prices on to their customers, either. While gas prices rose by more than 10 percent in in the last year, the overall consumer price index rose only 2.9 percent (according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics).

So, if youre running a carpet installation business, or a landscaping company, you arent going to feel confident about raising your prices.

That means shrinking profit margins. You cant just complain about gas prices, its critical for your business survival that you do everything you can to keep your gas costs under control.

What can you do? Ive come up with seven tips to help you lower gas costs in your mobile business:

Lose weight: When you work from your truck, SUV or car, Im guessing you carry a lot of stuff. Youve got equipment, supplies, catalogs, tools and more. All that weight means less fuel efficiency. Lighter loads use less gas. If possible, load your vehicle with only what you need for the day. Now, of course, you have to be sensible. You dont want to get to a job site only to discover that you do need that ladder after all.

Get an app: Do you have a smartphone? If so, youll find a number of apps that can help you save money on gas whether its finding gas stations with lower prices, plotting gas-saving routes for multiple destinations or just avoiding traffic to save time idling in traffic jams. Heres a link to a list of gas apps: http://blog.truecar.com/2011/03/14/ten-apps-for-saving-money-on-gas/.

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Schedule smarter: If you have more than one destination a day, try as much as possible to bunch appointments so you stay in the same neighborhood. Yes, I know you already try to do this, but you might need to be a bit more forceful with customers Ill be in your neighborhood on Tuesday; can I come then instead of Wednesday? Always plan your route to minimize driving. This not only saves you money on gas, it saves you time. And time, as you know, is money.

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Rhonda Abrams: Start at pump to reduce business expenses