How To Make Business Travel Easy?

Not all of us like to travel for business, but small business owners mostly have to do this themselves, instead of sending a representative. Being on a budget, traveling for business isn’t always easy. Packing constantly for trips, sleeping on planes, staying glued to your mobile device; it can derail your routine and make you grumpy.

I can say all I want about keeping a positive attitude, being stress-free, for a better travel experience. The truth is that is hardly any fun. So, while there is no way to escape this.

Here are a few quick tips that really work in making the trip less stressful for you.

Be Nice

You will have a better chance at getting extraordinary services, upgrades and itinerary changes if you ask politely. The staff is mostly helpful across the world and there are certain things that really are capable of doing, if they like you. Maintain happy demeanour, ask with a smile and you shall be granted.

It is natural to be annoyed and even go hostile when there are problems with the flight. This is not just with you, it happens to the staff as well. You have only yourself to manage, the staff has an entire group of (mostly irate) travellers to handle. In this situation, if you tell the staff what a great job they’re doing and how their patience is commendable, they’ll often go to extraordinary lengths for you. It’s natural, its human. This also makes you stand out I the crowd as a genuine person. As discussed in my post Identifying Genuine People, genuine people smile genuinely. A genuine smile spreads across the face including the eyes. A smile that doesn’t involve the action of many facial muscles is not a genuine smile. If a smile is fake, the most visible difference is in the tightening around the eyes. This action around the eyes is extremely difficult to fake and is the main signal you want to look at if you think somebody might not be telling you their real feelings.

So, smile genuinely, and be nice to people. That said, there are more practical ways to make traveling for business easier, apart from kindness. Use these to minimize inconveniences and maximize your productivity while traveling:

Travel Light

Missing or lost luggage is the last thing that you want to worry about when you have a meeting to attend in the next hour, or when you haven’t slept all night and you have an early morning the following day. So, I would recommend taking only a carry-on. If you don’t check baggage, you won’t have to wait for it when you land. Check in for your flight online and go straight to security at the airport.

Eat Safe

You cannot afford to fall sick on a 2-day business trip. There is a lot to be done and little time at hand. Moreover, only if you are feeling healthy would you be able to present your case to the client, or make the right decisions for the business. So, I would suggest being very careful about what you eat and drink. Do not try new dishes, even though you may feel tempted to have the local delicacy while you are visiting a new city or country. If you must have something special in the place, save it for the last day. But generally, I would say – avoid.

Make Use of Technology

View your airplane’s seating plan in advance, find out where galleys, lavatories and exit rows are, and request a seat change that makes working or relaxing easier. Look-up information about limited recline or legroom seats and in-seat power ports, so you know what’s where. Take a GPS with preloaded maps of your destination to make driving your rental car in a new place easier.

Do you have a mobile app for your company’s website? When you are travelling, you will realise how important it is to keep your business reachable on the go. This is what your customers want too! They want to be able to look-up, reach-out and connect with you even through their android, iPhone and windows phone. Contact HyperEffects to get a mobile app and make your business more customer friendly and also reduce your own work-load. If you have not had time to see what’s happening on your website while you are away, a mobile app comes handy in quickly checking the important activities and staying on top of your work.