In today’s world, traveling is no reason to lag in business. In fact, many of us travel FOR business. We have good justification for business trips that boost our bottom line. So what do you do? Well, you can start by checking out our traveling tips to conduct business in the air. Also, I like to read this business travel tips blog
Travel with the appropriate technology
Sure smartphones are great but don’t kid yourself, if you have to write a lot of work on reports then you will want your laptop. It helps to prepare for your trip as well. Try to organize yourself so you know what you will work on in flight. Some flights have Wi-Fi, but not all of them, so you never want to depend on internet access while flying. Make a checklist. Trust us, this will save you when you land and you aren’t super behind on your responsibilities.
Work while waiting
Use your “waiting” time wisely. You know, layovers and that stretch of time after you get through security but before you board the aircraft. Try getting to the airport a little earlier so you have that additional time to pound out some work. Catch up on some work phone calls. Caution: do not stand right near the speakers. It can be quite annoying when they are announcing flights that are boarding.
Use apps to manage it all
Whatever your “drink” of choice might be, Apple or Microsoft, there is an app that can keep you organized. The most popular at the moment appear to be OneNote and Evernote. These apps are designed to keep you organized from any and all of your devices. This is especially helpful when traveling.
Or just don’t work while traveling and enjoy your vacation!
This might not always be the case, but if you are lucky enough to have some PTO and can leave all the work drama behind. Then enjoy! Go now and never look back!
How To Save On Business Travel Expenses
There are just so many expenses that go along with business travel. It is not just airfare and hotel. You might want to think about some ways to make wiser travel plans. If company travel is a free for all at your company then there is most likely a lot of financial waste going on. You have to have everyone think things through. Sure it might be cheaper at Hotel X, but Hotel X is not very close to the workspace and meeting spots. You and your employees will lose loads of time just trying to get to work.
Not to mention more cash spent on cabs, ubers etc. You might want to consider flying all employees at the same time so everyone can ride to the hotel together. Might not seem like much, but if there are multiple people attending a business trip and multiple trips to and from the airport, your fares are sure to get grossly high.If the company has travel rewards, try to stick to those rewards and the whole bunch will save.
Let’s discuss some ways to avoid these hectic money pits of travel and how to save on business travel expenses:
Put One Person In Charge Of Business Travel Bookings
This can be someone in any department. Obviously, choose an extremely organized individual who lives to coordinate and plan. This employee will be the one to manage affordable travel for the entire business.
Browse Around
Research, research and research! Price the difference between major hotel chains, Airbnb and even extended- stay hotels. You may feel that the hotel chains offer better rewards, but with a higher nightly rate while something like Airbnb might not be great for business trips.
Bang For Your Buck
Trust me, I have tried to work the system by booking a flight on one site and hotel on another and rental car on even another site. This can cause such a cluster of craziness. Try to track everything and, if possible, take advantage of any and all travel rewards that you have.
Create A Template
This one might sound annoying, but once you get past that, you’ll dig the idea. Create a template that everyone must follow when traveling with and for the company. Options they can use for flights, hotels and ground transportation. You can also include how you do food expenses. This puts it all in perspective and things will not only run smoothly but be much less expensive as well!
The Role Exercise Plays At Work
There is nothing worse than people simply sitting down for too long. Sitting for long periods of time has never been good for humans and it is being linked as a source of obesity, heart disease and even cancer. Not to mention its effects on mental clarity and productivity. But sitting, be that as it may, is also the most pronounced method of getting production out of yourself and others. Let’s take a look at a few cool solutions!
Fit Bits And Logging Steps
Many log steps, some even tell you it’s time to get up and take a walking lap. Not a bad idea, really? This could be a good investment from a company to employees. Taking a walk every couple of hours can really free up the mind and illicit some creativity. Not to mention wake you up if you are feeling tired (instead of massive consumption of caffeine).
Stand Up Desk
This seems odd, but you can’t knock it until you try it. You’ve seen them on the Internet, a desk which allows you to stand up freely while you work. The desk rises to chest high allowing you to work from the standing position. It doesn’t look incredibly comfortable, but many people swear by them. Some even adjust back to the sitting position when desired. A little more standing every day can really do the body a great deal of good. Though this is a super modern idea, it’s not a bad one for an office or home office to look into. If you are considering something like this for other workers, might be best to check with them first, some might not be happy to find out they are answering the morning’s emails while standing up!
Encourage Fitness
You don’t want to hound people to work out, but hey, maybe your health insurance offers to pay for partial fitness memberships? Let people know they should take advantage. You can even look on Group-on and buy up Yoga, cross-fit or kickboxing class discounts. Maybe use them as giveaways to employees.
Offering Company Fitness
If you have the space and you have the money, it might not be a bad idea to offer some team Yoga. You can find instructors who come to you, you just need to offer mats (or ask the employees to go out and get their own). Yoga is an amazing way to stretch out a body that’s been sedentary for a long amount of hours. It can also refresh and replenish the mind.
You just never know until you give some of these a try. It is definitely worth that try too!
‘Disbursing Checks Sucks’ – Author Unknown
The truth is, I just made that quote up for dramatic effect, hoping you’d take the bait and click on the headline so I could grab your attention. While the quote might be made up, I find it difficult to believe that it hasn’t been stated by small business owners before. So in some ways, that quote is an absolute truth (see what I did right there). I mostly made it to where my taking liberties with the truth became more of probability. But when one considers the greater whole, it isn’t difficult to see how I might easily do such a thing.
Writing checks do suck. It takes up resources in your accounting department. Yes, I understand that they aren’t always sitting there with a fancy pen and stamp churning out checks to the milkman each Tuesday morning, but it still takes up the time to manage it. And manage it, you must, my son (Yoda probably said that, because that’s the type of thing that guy would say).
Checks inherently come with risks to the writer. That’s your bank information to some degree. And the check, as much as it links a client with her owed monies, it can also link a criminal with the spoils of a nefarious plan gone smoothly. Check Issuing’s checks work directly with the banks. They verify things upon arrival. This way, the Hamburglar can’t just come in and take someone else’s $5000, and then some. CheckIsuing uses SAFEChecks, the absolute safest way to process checks that the market offers. This means that a criminal can’t just duplicate or copy the checks without being discovered. Think of SAFEChecks as data encryption in some ways. We also use Positive Pay, which is used by most banks to help in the fraud verification process. Our checks are safe.
Your company is wonderful, but that’s only because you’ve put your heart and soul into it. You’ve focused on the product. You’ve researched the vertical on a daily basis. You haven’t wasted time on matters that you could easily outsource to a professional company, such as your checks disbursement department. So why would you begin now? Do what’s always worked and allowed us to handle the matters of a boring affair. We can prevent check fraud and assure you the time needed to keep your business on top of its game.
I hope everyone has an amazing Thursday. Don’t forget; March Madness officially gets started today. Read our March Madness tips article if you get a chance!
Use us while you are off traveling to be your online check writer.
