Business travel is an interesting prospect for most people. On one hand, you get to break out of the usual office routine and travel around while literally being paid for it. On the other hand, you always have to be ‘on-duty’ in a sense and be wary of the different challenges that might be coming your way. Overall, it can be said that business travel can be an extremely enjoyable experience provided that you follow a few simple steps that allow you to reduce redundancies and make everything just a bit smoother. These tips are essentially the extract of the experiences that business professionals who have been traveling for decades have accumulated. It is the business equivalent of hard-earned sage knowledge that you have to certainly pay your dues in order to acquire.
However, for someone who is just starting out, the pain of making these mistakes can be easily avoided if you make sure to keep these 5 things in your mind.
Know the Policies of the Country You Are Traveling To
The charm of an unfamiliar country is certainly powerful. Finding out all the ‘go-to’ spots and experiencing them in the flesh and seeing another culture so up close and personal provides a way of widening your own horizons. In fact, one could argue that increasing the breadth of one’s own experience allows one to enhance one’s own business acumen. However, you must make sure that you do it while you are always on the safe side of the law. Everyone has heard horror stories of people getting into trouble doing things that were perfectly legal in their home country but not in the country they were staying in.
While going to prison in your home country is a terrible experience, going to prison in a country where you are only staying is ten times worse. You might have a massive language barrier to deal with, not to mention the fact that your support system (friends and family) would most likely be very far away from you as well. So, it is really much better to read up on all the laws, especially the ones that directly concern tourists before going to a certain country for business travel. This way, you can enjoy a great experience and do perfectly legal, fun things in the country that you are visiting.
Make A Budget
While it entirely depends on company policy, you will most probably be given a budget by your company which you have to make sure not to exceed. A great idea is to get an idea of how expensive things are in the country which you are traveling to and understand how free you are allowed to spend given the budget constraint that you have. Don’t waste your time trying to get amazing bargains because more often than not, they will just be scams directed at unknowing tourists. Make sure to keep all receipts of anything that you bought at hand as well, as your company might require proof of spending in order to compensate you.
If you are going to be staying for multiple days, it is highly recommended that you have a daily budget in mind. In fact, keep the money aside for the essentials (lodging and food) and then you can figure out how much leeway you have for souvenirs and other things of that sort.
Pack Smart
Packing hard is a bad idea. You don’t want to be lugging around multiple bags at the airport just because you needed to bring along absolutely everything that could come to your mind. When it comes to packing, it’s always useful to think of the problem right from scratch. First of all, make sure that you have packed all the essentials, this is the stuff that you know you would be lost without. After that, if you have space left, you can start packing all the stuff that you think will be useful to you. Make sure to look at the climate of the country you are traveling to, in order to see what kind of clothes you need in order to survive there. Since you are going to be mostly on business, be sure to pack a suit as well. That in and of itself is an art, which we will explain later on. Obviously, casual clothes are also important, since you will have an odd day out to enjoy yourself.
Learn How to Travel with a Suit
After all, you are there for business and nothing means business more than a well-pressed and well-kept suit being worn by a confident executive. The classic problem is the fact that the suit has to be folded in order to fit in a bag. This naturally translates into the fact that you will need to fold it at some point which is almost certainly going to cause crinkles on the suit. Learning how to fold properly is the most important skill that you have to learn how to acquire. Investing in a few YouTube tutorials is all you need to do in order to master this art.
The other investment you need to make is in a garment bag. A garment bag allows your suit to not be folded or anything and still be packed as it is hanging inside of the garment bag. There might be some situations where you cannot use a garment bag and thus learning how to fold a suit properly is something that will take you far. After all, you don’t want to make a bad impression on a business associate or a senior executive. Trust me when I say this, the veterans take this stuff very seriously and surely for a very good reason.
Back Ups, All the Way
Entering into an unfamiliar situation means that you will be exposed to unfamiliar situations as well. This can quite easily result in things going wrong. This is why you need to make sure that you have backups for everything. A power bank is always going to be a lifesaver when you realize that your phone is running out of juice. There can be unexpected delays in the flight schedule or you just forgetting to charge the phone when going out of the hotel room. Just like this, there are a million permutations of what can go wrong. As Murphy’s Law says: What can go wrong, will go wrong. In order to really prepare yourself for the journey you are taking, it is important to be resourceful as well as careful.
Use A Carry-On
If your luggage can fit in a carry-on (which it should for a short business trip), there is absolutely no need to be having anything more. In fact, I would strongly recommend that you pack light in order for everything to fit in a carry-on. This means that there is no way the airport can lose your luggage. You won’t need to wait in lines at baggage claims at airports as well. If you have never traveled from a larger airport, you won’t believe the lines that accumulate at these claims. There are so many pros to this. A simple carry-on means that you can transport it by yourself without much stress. Also, it means that unpacking at the hotel is going to be a fairly simple affair as well. When you are leaving the hotel, all you need to do is to pack the few clothes you did bring into your small carry-on and move on. For people who travel often, this really is one of the most important tips I can give.
Business travel is easy, all you need to do is prepare well and enjoy yourself out there. The more time you will spend in the packing phase be all careful about what you need to bring and what you don’t, the more carefree you will be when traveling since you will know that you have done a pretty good job of packing. You don’t have to feel the anxiety of your phone running out of juice since you were thoughtful enough to bring a power bank. You don’t need to lug around a large suitcase everywhere since you purposefully packed light and used a carry-on. In this way, business travel can teach a lot of things that you can apply in other areas of your life.
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