GEORGE Johnson has discovered that the best way to build a business is fast, cheap and under control.

Johnson has managed to compete with the Microsofts and Intuits of the world by creating off-price software products and moving them out quickly.

"We don't attempt to make hit titles," Johnson said. "We do casino, card, board games, crossword puzzles, pinball games. We're not into trying to make the next 'Tomb Raider.'"

The 20-year-old company has thrived in recent years as kids and late adapters, skittish about plunking down more than $100 for software with more features that they need or understand, turn to lower-priced alternatives.

Cosmi's software packages sell for between $10 and $15 at many of the major electronics stores, and Johnson is working on a deal in the next 60 days to distribute in drug and grocery stores. "We sell at impulse price points," Johnson said. "We take a task and simplify it."

With generic names like "Desktop Publisher" and "PDA Travel Companion," Cosmi's titles teach users how to make greeting cards, labels or design a resume -- software with limited functionality and without the bells and whistles (or the lengthy manuals) of many Microsoft products.

Its catalogue of 125 titles generated revenues of $25 million in 2001, up from $20 million the year before, with 12 to 15 percent of the line accounting for 80 percent of revenues.

Close to home

Cosmi offers less expensive alternatives, Johnson said, not only by cutting out excess programming but by producing its product in-house. And while its larger competitors farm out parts of the manufacturing process, Cosmi quickly processes orders for customers within its own warehouse.

"We sell an awful lot of units, and we are more efficient" Johnson said. "We don't have a whole bunch of inventory of something that doesn't sell anymore, and we don't have to guess what people are going to buy."

Victor Hwang, chief operating officer of LARTA, a Los Angeles think tank for technology businesses, said most software developers outsource functions like packaging and shipping because they do not have expertise in those fields and, generally, outsourcing is cheaper.

"In software, as it is in a lot of industries, it becomes an issue of executing -- keeping costs down and selling better and effectively," he said. "It's a tough industry to be successful in."