It seems every time you turn around, there is another expense, adelay in payment, or some other circumstance that has a negativeeffect on your cash flow. So instead of putting a little somethingaway for an even rainier day, you find yourself sweating it outuntil it's time to flip to the next page of the monthly calendarfor a fresh influx of cash.

If you want to make the money and the month line up better, youmay need to rethink some of your business assumptions - includingwhat constitutes a must-have expense. Following are a few ideasthat can help improve your overall cash flow.

Get rid of your business land line

According to CTIA -The Wireless Association, 23 percent of UShouseholds are wireless, meaning they no longer have a traditionallandline phone. One of the driving forces behind this epidemic isthe desire to cut costs, especially in today's down economy.

Now you might think what works for households won't work foryour small insurance agency. But believe it or not, there aresimple technologies available today like virtual phone services forsmall business that will help your insurance company run moreefficiently than it would through the use of a landline.

With a virtual phone service, you receive your choice of atoll-free or local phone number that goes to a phone you alreadyhave. It allows you to assign extensions to all your employees,whether they are full or part-time, in the office or virtual. Whenclients and prospects call your business number, the service'svirtual receptionist allows them to select the extension they need.The call is then forwarded to that person's mobile. Your mobilenumber still works independently too, so any incoming personalcalls will still be routed directly to you.

In addition to the one-number convenience, virtual phoneservices come equipped with robust features such as smart callforwarding, enhanced voicemail, call screening and more.

Virtual phone services for small business provide all thosebig-business capabilities while costing as little as $10 per month.Compare that to just the base cost of a landline for your businessand the savings are worth noting. But add in the cost to maintainthe lines, taxes and the cost to purchase and maintain telephoneequipment and the savings add up quickly.

So in short, there's no real reason to keep your insurancecompany's traditional landline anymore. It's money you don't needto spend.

Take your office virtual

Office space is usually one of the highest fixed costs a smallinsurance business has. While it's nice to have an office whereeveryone can gather and work more collegially, if you're looking toreduce expenses, taking your landlord off the payroll is a good wayto do it.

Of course, sometimes you do need a formal office - particularlyif you need a place to meet with clients. If you can't travel toyour client, you can always look into renting a common conferenceroom area from a local business and have your clients come directlyto you. Even then, a virtual office strategy helps you keep thatexpense to a minimum, freeing up more cash for other aspects of thebusiness that have more impact on your success.

A virtual phone service can help also help your small insurancebusiness if you decide to reduce costs by going virtual because itis not location-dependent. In other words, phone extensions can beassigned to anyone anywhere on any phone, so a client calling thesingle business phone number can reach the person they want whetherthat employee is in Paris, Texas; Paris, Canada; or even Paris,France.

Eliminate specialty or limited-use businesstools

Look around your office, or through the applications on yourdesktop computer. How many things do you own that have only onefunction? Can that function be performed by something else?

A fax machine is a good example of a piece of office equipmentthat is only capable of performing one task. All it does is sendand receive faxes. Yet there it sits, costing you money for adedicated phone line, paper, toner, even the power to keep itrunning and ready to receive an incoming fax.

You can eliminate almost all of those additional costs that aremaking your small insurance agency go over budget by moving to anInternet fax service that allows you to send and receive faxes onyour PC or mobile phone. Not only will this keep a little moregreen in your wallet, it also adds convenience since you can sendand receive faxes anywhere you can get an Internet connection.

When it comes down to the software you are using to run yoursmall insurance business, consider a pay-as-you or Web-basedservice model. With this model you pay a small monthly fee ratherthan buying the software up-front at a cost that is certain to makeyou go over your company's monthly budget. You then gain access tofeature-laden applications that have the sophisticated capabilitiesnormally found only in expensive software packages.

For example, for roughly $10 per month you can accessapplications that help you design, manage, send and trackpromotional emails to your client and prospect lists. With theseapplications you can build high-value email campaigns that looklike they were created by high-priced professionals, but wereactually created by you on your own PC or laptop.

Let's face it. While operating a small insurance business ischallenging even in good times, it can be particularly difficultwhen the economy is taking a beating. But with a little creativityand some unconventional thinking, you can help ensure the monthruns out before the money does.