Trimming The Fat Your big, bloated company is costing you an arm and a leg. Maybe it's time to cut back.

Before getting a good deal on office space from anout-of-business dotcom, Earl Mollerud's office was on the thirdfloor of a wing of a church. "It was tough during the summerbecause they didn't have air conditioning, and during the fallthey were slow about turning on the heat," says the CEO andco-founder of Kids' Hair Inc. in Minneapolis. But, he notes,the rent was a saintly $500 per month.

Today, Mollerud, 40, cuts the cost of getting supplies to his 10Kids' Hair salons by ordering centrally and stockingconsumables at headquarters. Each Monday, managers return fromsales meetings bearing a week's worth of hair-cutting supplies."Instead of having somebody drive around delivering," hesays, "they just take it back in their cars."

But Mollerud is no miser. In an industry where employee benefitsof any kind are rare, he offers stylists a company-paid healthinsurance plan. "And it's the best one we can get,"he adds. And while other stylists book appointments in cheap paperplanners, Kids' Hair has invested in a central computerizedappointment system that contains information on customers'personal hair problems, preferred hair styles, frequency of visitsand other grooming concerns.