Business Travel Tips
Learn How to Keep Your Business Travel from Becoming a First Class Drag
Business travel is fun for the first few months of your career, but after time drags on, the business trips seem more like punishment than a retreat. Soon, the inconveniences of being away from the office and home and family start to wear on you. Here’s how to get more out of your business trips, improving both the professional and personal aspects of traveling for your business, beginning with an easy, comfortable airport transfer service and ending with a little non-business R&R.
Splurge on a Limo Rental
Your arrival at San Francisco or Sacramento airport doesn’t have to mean waiting around for a shuttle bus or trying to hail a dirty cab with a grumpy driver. When you opt for an airport transfer service via limo, you can actually get some work done during your commute to the hotel. Answer those pressing emails and make those important calls, so that when you arrive at the hotel, you can relax instead of trying to make up for lost time. A limo service also assures that you make an excellent first impression when you arrive at your client’s office or that business meeting.
Streamline Your Necessities
Part of the wearisome task of business travel is packing junk, lugging junk, unpacking junk … you get it. Decide which tech devices, wardrobe options, and personal items you actually need, and leave the rest back home. It’s often easier and cheaper to pick up a few travel-size items once you arrive (or get some from the hotel desk) than to pack and unpack shampoo, deodorant, and toothpaste 99 times this year. Toss these before you leave and you’ll be lugging much less around the airport this trip.
Invest in a Portable Charger & Private Wi-Fi Hotspot
A surefire way to complicate your business trip is to be unable to access the Internet, or worse, to get malware on your computer or phone. Even paid hotel Wi-Fi is public, and comes with a significant risk. Additionally, nothing is less professional than trying to explain to your client that you didn’t get his message because your phone died. Keep your devices and personal data safe and secure, and make sure you don’t fall out of touch with clients and the office by investing in portable chargers for your devices and a VPN or Wi-Fi hotspot. These make business travel safer and more convenient, and most portable hotspots allow you to get Internet access so you can work even while you’re in the airport transfer limo.
Don’t Be Uber Accessible to the Office
Experts worry about today’s always-on lifestyle. With phones and tablets and laptops at our fingers 24/7, we’re expected to be available and productive all the time. However, it just isn’t healthy. According to experts, you’re actually more productive when you switch off from time to time. Spend your business travel time engaged with your clients, face-to-face, listening and learning from what’s around you, not just what’s popping up in your inbox or trending on social media. Learn to disengage while away from the office. Use your business trips to beef up your real people skills. That means being inaccessible sometimes. For instance, you can answer the most critical issues during your airport transfer and the limo rides to and from your business destinations. Switch off and mark yourself unavailable when you get back to the hotel. Spend some time in the pool, watching TV, or using that first-rate gym downstairs.
Embrace the Travel Side of the Business Trip
Even a single afternoon enjoying local sights and culture can help you relax, focus, process what you’re learning on the trip, and return to the office refreshed instead of drained. Even in the tightest budget, the top business destinations of Northern California offer free and low-cost museums, attractions, and natural scenery where you can mull over your plans and recharge your attitude. Look for local, state, and national parks like Glen Canyon Park, the Japanese Tea Garden, San Francisco Botanical Gardens, and others. More of an indoor type? Try one of San Francisco’s free museums, like The Autodesk Gallery, Cable Car Museum, or the Chinese Historical Society of America. Want more business travel tips? Call EliteLimo.com today and book your next business travel with Elite!