How to Ace Your First Business Trip

by Startacus Admin

Here we offer a few tips to help you make sure you completely ace your first business trip.

Download Uber

If you haven’t already downloaded the smartphone taxi app, Uber, a business trip may be the perfect time. The service pays for taxis directly out of a bank account, and is automated and determined by distance travelled rather than opportunist taxi drivers taking advantage of visitors and tourists. Furthermore, this removes the risk of you miscalculating local currency, and can completely eradicate potential problems caused by a language barrier.

The service is available in most of the world’s major cities and destinations.

Keep on Top of Expenses

Trying to make sense of your expenses is a nightmare if you haven’t been organised during your trip. So do yourself a favour and keep all of your receipts in one place (an envelope or small plastic wallet is ideal for this) so that when you’re back in the office, you can fill out your expenses form hassle-free.

Get to Grips with Rewards Schemes

There are a number of loyalty and rewards schemes which can help convince management and the accounts department to send you travelling in style and comfort. The PartnerPlusBenefit scheme from Lufthansa rewards members with upgraded flights, free seats, transfers and more travel freebies. These rewards can help influence the bosses to ignore low flight fares from budget airlines in favour of more comfortable flights.

Similarly, Hilton Hhonors is the rewards scheme from Hilton which gives frequent visitors the chance to upgrade their rooms and benefit from a range of add-ons. This is perfect for long-haul travellers who need sufficient rest and recuperation before a meeting or presentation after flying across time zones.

Turn the iPad into the Perfect Travel Partner

The small, compact design of iPads and other mobile tablet devices make them perfect for use on business travel – offering an almost endless array of applications and benefits. Before travelling, be sure to add many of the useful applications for business travel and leisure.

Rather than carrying around all your store cards and loyalty scheme membership cards, Stocard is the simple app which remotely stores all these membership cards – helping you make your money go further with global brands and franchises. An excellent addition to Stocard is the Starbucks app – which allows you to quickly grab a quick caffeine boost before making your way to the next meeting.

The All Language Translator is perfect for business travellers who don’t understand the local language of their upcoming destination. The app can translate up to 70 different languages – making it easier to read signs, order from menus and travel around a new city.

Contact Home for Less

Data roaming and exorbitant overseas call rates can make keeping in contact with loved ones back home incredibly expensive. EE offer a selection of mobile phone packages which are designed to make overseas calling more affordable and simple. Alongside cheaper call rates – it’s more affordable to Skype or FaceTime the partner and the kids. 

You might also like to take a look at some of these other related posts;

How to make the most of a business bootcamp
Top tips on starting a business remotely

• #business trip
• #first business trip

Published on: 12th June 2015