7 Inexpensive Benefits to Show Your Staff They’re Appreciated

Health insurance, retirement plans, and paid time off are some of the most common benefits employers provide to their staff – and with good reason. While a competitive salary can attract top candidates to your company, the key to retaining highly qualified staff is showing them how much they’re valued. Offering additional benefits to your employees not only shows them how much you care, but it motivates them to put their best foot forward on the daily basis. If you’re interested in extending a little appreciation to your staff, here are some lesser-known benefits that won’t break the bank:

  1. Telecommute Opportunities

Every now and again it could prove beneficial to allow your staff to work from home. In this ever evolving digital world of business, connectivity is now easier than ever. Management tools such as Asure software makes it easier for you to manage employee time and collaborate on company projects. Offering telecommuting benefits lets employees know that you understand their need to care for their loved ones and that you trust them to get the job done from home.

  1. Commuter Benefits

Transportation costs can bite a big hole in anyone’s budget. Whether your staff utilizes public transportation or drives themselves to work the cost of fair, parking, gas, and car maintenance is often strenuous. Setting aside a monthly stipend of let’s say $50-100 per employee can save them hundreds of dollars per year.

  1. Tuition Assistance

In order for your company to grow you must continually invest in the growth and development of your staff. A great way to show them that you want them to achieve greatness is by offering to pay for a portion of their college education. Whether your company creates a scholarship fund and awards it to a recipient each year or you have enough funds in the budget to pay for a percentage of your employee’s education, they will be grateful.

  1. Family Days

Want to show your employees that you care about them as individuals? Introducing a company family day is a great way to show it. Any time your staff can spend with their families and away from the desk is a perk. Take a day out of the year and plan something nice for your staff and their families to do (i.e. picnic, games, a nice luncheon). This is a great way to get to know more about your employees and to cultivate a more family oriented work environment.

  1. Wellness Programs

Although health insurance covers the bulk of your employee’s health needs it can also be beneficial to offer wellness programs. There are so many options for you to choose from that can fit within your budget. From giving your staff discounts at local memberships to having meetings with popular weight loss programs your staff will love the idea that you’re keeping their health in mind.

  1. Dress Down Days

Here’s a perk that won’t cost you a penny to implement in the office. Instead of always having your team dressed like they’re heading to a meeting, you could cut them some slack and allow them to dress down on occasion. Casual Fridays have always been a popular choice allowing your staff to dress down just before the weekend.

  1. Flex Time

Do your employees really need to be in the office from 9 to 5 or can you vary their schedules a bit? Employees would appreciate having the opportunity to alter their schedules to fit their personal lives. Offering flex schedules such as 8-4 or 7-3 for employees who have been with the company for at least a year is a great way to vary the schedules and motivate them to stay with the company.

As an employer it is imperative to remember that your employees are your best asset. Keeping them happy doesn’t always have to mean large pay raises or tons of time off. In other words, you don’t have to break the bank to be a top employer like Google. Small benefits such as these described above can go a long way for motivation and longevity. Take the time to evaluate your company finances to see how you can do just a little bit more to show your team how much you value them.

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10 Things That Pull You Down From Getting More Business

There are businesses that do well. There are ones that hold the edge. There are businesses that lead the competition. And, there are the ones which struggle with getting more business.

The number of start-ups, small & medium enterprises & heavy investment enterprises has grown exponentially over the years. However, with all the problem-solving ideas, innovative concepts, well-researched products, and customized service projects businesses these days are finding roadblocks. Their stuff remains unsold due to lack of penetrating marketing strategies.

For small business owners or self-employed individuals, the business revolves around their passion with scanty knowledge about marketing their stuff. On many occasions, it has to with the lack of intent to engage in a planned promotion or having an effective marketing plan.

Peek into few factors that kill sales and obstruct organizations and businesses from acquiring new customers and getting more business.

1. Undefined goals

Setting the goal is the first step to turning the invisible into the visible. Businesses need to clearly define the reason for their existence. A big chunk of start-Ups & small businesses does not document a clear vision statement and goals.

  • Write the vision statement that will help you ascertain the goals, the mission, and act as a guide to the core activities of the business, and help in the formulation of policies and taking an ethical stand.

2. Insufficient research & awareness about the markets

The obstacle to discovery is not ignorance. It is the illusion of knowledge. Businesses think that they know swimming and get into the ocean.  And then they get drowned. The strategy that may have worked for you formerly may not work today. The markets are changing- If I correct this phrase, the customers are changing. Nowadays customers have access to information and pricing strategies.

  • A customer has grown smarter and is well informed about purchase decisions. In such scenario, businesses have to constantly be engaged in market and customers and be smart in terms of pricing, features, services and over experience selling.

3. Not working out on products

Clinging to a product or a service that may look attractive, may be economic to manufacture and easy to distribute but has no practical value is practically unsalable. Start-Ups & businesses need to understand what the customer needs.

  • Check out the relevance of the concept for the target audience. Also, verify if the target audience is well defined and correct. If required, conduct a pilot run & take feedback. Iron out the deficiencies into usability, features, pricing, competitiveness & offers.

4. Lack of proper sales process

The Company that doesn’t have a proper sales process is surely going to get stuck sooner or later. Lack of documented sales process & written sales presentation, Non-existence of staff training procedures, Inability to generate quality leads, Inadequacy in sales follow-up processes or Using inappropriate promotional channels is enough to screw down your business.

  • Define the products/services.
  • Create a sales presentation citing features & advantages, competitive edge & stress on how the customer will advantage out of your offer.
  • Identify the Sales resistances and develop answers and explanations so that customer is forced to purchase the offering.
  • Develop a well-trained sales staff and create options to generate quality leads.
  • Install a mechanism to monitor sales pitches & follow up procedures. When a deal is done, make sure you retain the existing customers.
  • While planning a promotional strategy, use those that maximize the outreach in the budgeted costs.

5. Inability to generate funds

The chief job of a business owner is to generate funds for keeping the business alive, whether via sales or through funding, loans or from capital markets. The biggest reason why start-ups fail is because of inability to generate the necessary resources that help the business tide through the tough phases and become strong to acquire new customers.

  • Consider friends, family or bootstrapping. Develop options to raise capital from Angel investors. Crowd-funding from social circle comes handy in such circumstances. If you are looking at a little larger picture then you can get fund from the micro-loan organizations. It may take time, but losing heart is definitely not one of the ways. Keep calm and move ahead.

6. Inappropriate management of Customer Data

Not managing the customer’s data properly can get even the biggest of the companies in trouble. Keep your customers happy and other things will become easier.

  • So, it is highly necessary to record analyze and manage customer data. Customers’ preferences, likes & dislikes provide an insight into current & future trends. This will help a correction in strategy & improvise the purchasing experience. Good quality crm software can help manage customer interactions, recording feedback and improvising relationships.

7. Overlooking the need of your own people

It’s not you alone who has set up the business. There are people you need to take care of so that they take care of your valuable business. The way customers are important to you, the employees are as much your priority.

  • Understand your employees for better. Communicate with them often and value their opinions & suggestions. Create a dedicated team that strives to achieve the set goals.
  • Train them, provide them with necessary tools, motivate them and they will do their best, always.

8. Weak online promotion strategy

Being absent on the internet impacts heavily on the scalability of the business. Being present without any promotional activity adds no good.

  • Businesses & Start-Ups should promote their business online through the website, portals, blogs, & Social media sites. Keeping the customers engaged by developing mobile games, & mobile applications are some of the good ways to being visible to customers.

9. Improper inventory & logistics management

The inability to deliver when the customer demands is one of the easiest ways to kill the business. The marketing team may have made promises, but the delivery & logistics has got the responsibility to deliver in a timely manner.

  • An impeccable way to make a place in your customer’s heart is to deliver the product on the date you promised. It is always an emergency on the customer’s side and inventory management, shipping process needs to be one of the selling points.

10. Restricting to a Comfortable geography

The home territory has a capped potential for any business. Beyond this, the businesses must look for newer geographies and probably think about exploring a newer market. Lack of such a planning can be enough to keep the business as a small player and deny the chances to acquire customers.

  • Slowly and steady, a business need to penetrate in the other geographical areas but before doing that, they need to study the market carefully, plan the strategy and do a SWOT. It is good to move ahead with a proper planning.

It is not the failure of one or other strategy that would eventually decrease the number of customers and lead to the business failure but yes, not willing to invest resources and hard work would.

A good business will keep customers at the top and would define every strategy around them. This is the easiest way to reach the goal you set for the business.

 

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Worst Social Media Mistakes

With the world we live in today becoming so reliant on online outlets, businesses need to make the most of their presence on social media. However, always remember to be careful not to misrepresent your image while using those social platforms. Read on for some tips to avoid making the worst social media mistakes.

Many social media pages are built to engage with people and build a decent depiction of your company, product or name. While many have wildly successful media operations set up, others have failed for various reasons.

We’ve seen it time and time again.

Avoid that misconception by reading just how a blunder can influence your media pages, and the most common mistakes that you can avoid.

Top Social Media Mistakes you Shouldn’t Make

Too many words. Stick to your point. Followers aren’t reading your feed to spend five minutes scrolling down a post with too many commas.

Using words you don’t understand. DiGiorno’s mistakenly used a trending hashtag to their marketing advantage on Twitter in 2014 to promote their pizza. #WhyIStayed was trending in opposition to domestic violence, and DiGiorno’s got quite the reprimand from its misuse.

Not keeping a focus. Just as your word count should be limited, be sure to keep the concentration on your topic.

Over-posting. Once you find your rhythm of posting, stick to it, if it is working well with your audience. Over-doing the frequency of updates could negatively impact your strategy.

Being a ‘Debby Downer’. Positivity spread from your social media manager is essential to the continued support of your company, and just good customer service.

A shortage of media. Balance the ratio between images, video content and plain text. You need to keep people engaged while reading your feed, but not overwhelmed with too much text.

Bringing in politics. If it doesn’t support the nature of your company, or bring guaranteed positive responses from your followers, then it isn’t worth the risk.

Not engaging in conversations. You’re on social media for a purpose. How can that purpose be achieved without maximizing opportunities to use your expertise? Communicate with the people in your network.

Pay attention to the responses from the users you are trying to engage with and use them to restructure your strategy, if needed. They will be your best source in the changing market.

Deleting comments that are inconvenient. If the comments are inappropriate or hinder your strategy or image as a company, by all means you withhold the right to remove them.

If the comments are not rightfully lewd, and the operator of the media page just doesn’t want to deal with the ‘hassle’ of handling the situation, then you have a problem.

Your presence on social media is contingent on responses you give to your followers, or any commentor. Don’t let an honest answer hurt your name; let your honesty speak for your reliability and morality.

Posting controversial topics. Why bother? Everyone is a heckler on social media. It’s unavoidable, but it is somewhat controllable.

Any hot topic is likely to get publicity over media, but if it is irrelevant to your intention and purpose of being on social media then avoid it. We all know what happened with Adam Goodes; why contribute where it may not be needed?

Lack of context. It doesn’t matter what you say if the context of what you’re saying isn’t connected in an appropriate way. Context is key. Isn’t it?

Lack of content. Amnesty International Australia used Tinder to launch a campaign to raise awareness for women in forced marriages. As a sensitive topic, presenting their ideas without an effective strategy in place would be useless.

In the case of Amnesty International, thousands of people clicked the link provided; their mission was successful due to the compelling content successfully integrated in their advertisement.

Not staying informed. With technology changing just as fast as world events happening, this is essential to executing a successful social media strategy.

Just as Nike had to revoke a t-shirt design after its significance shifted. The t-shirt started as a competitive baseball rivalry between New York and Boston, and quickly changed to an image that misrepresented the horrific scene in Boston in April 2013.

Nike had to react quickly. Once the directive dialogue over social media began, they immediately removed all t-shirts from their shelves.

No filters. We’re not talking about Instagram filters here but with regard to a chain of command.

Bloomingdale’s recent ad sparked major controversy and is now being referred to as a “date rape ad”.

How could such an inappropriate ad, which completely misconveys an acceptable public opinion on rape culture, pass through several stages of approval?

Dozens of people had to have seen this advertisement before it was released; Bloomingdale’s is no small business. Once it was published, the backlash began.

You can avoid this by refining your editing process: checks and balances.

Generating automated responses. This can backfire, and backfire quickly. In addition to installing checkpoints for potential media content, ensure that if you are using an automated response system always be aware of what is posted.

Forgetting to filter the extra noise. Stick to your strategy and your purpose of using social media services and get rid of the distractions. This will help with your time management in addition to increasing efficiency.

Rid your news feed and/or Twitter feed of pointless conversations. Fill those spaces with constructive outlets that will be beneficial to you, and will make your sites easier to manage.

Final Thoughts

Some mistakes are excusable, while others take a lot of time and money to fix. Take caution in what you post and remember to use the resources easily available to you. Including getting a second opinion on content, and making sure you stay caught up with current events.

Overall, social media services should hold the capability of making you more successful if used properly. Take advantage of the opportunities it provides and don’t waste time making mindless errors that are avoidable.

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Madness at the Ulster Bank #hackmakethebank hackathon

Was just part of a meeting preparing for the upcoming Ulster Bank hackathon in the Dogpatchlab in CHQ on 29-31 January.

On the programme, apart from hacking is Techball, lessons in Irish dancing, food, drink and massages.

For good measure, participants can win Spheros. Yep, the robot that is the basis of BB-8 in Star Wars

I am concerned! If you want to be part of this madness, you need to be fast, tickets are quickly running out. Book your place here

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How to Choose a Web Host for Small Businesses

A web hosting service is a kind of internet hosting service that will allow an organization or any business to make their website accessible with the help of the World Wide Web. This kind of service is very essential for any business as it ensures that the website is visible to the consumers. It also makes it easy for the business to update their websites as and when needed.

A good web host provider will provide many useful features to the businesses that want online exposure. For any organization that wants to go digital it is very essential to get hold of a top web host service provider.

Be aware of your web hosting needs:

One should be aware of the hosting needs before choosing the right web host provider. You should be aware of the kind of website you are building, whether the website needs special version of any software and if any windows application is needed. Also you should keep in mind about your requirement regarding Windows applications and the web traffic volume.

Support uptime record:

You should pick up a web host providers that operates 24×7. It should be able to operate on a powerful server having stable network connections. The recommended uptime score is 99.5% and you should not go beyond anything below 99%.

Ability to add-on multiple domains

Nowadays, domain names are very cheap and most of the masters in web have more than one domain name. Extra hosting space is very much required to add these domains. Go for a provider that allows adding multiple domains. Generally most of the web host providers allow you to add 25 domain names in one account. This is one of the most important factors that you should check while choosing a particular web service provider.

Go for a provider having good refund policy

One can cancel their account after the trial period is over in a particular web host service provider. You should go for those providers who have a good refund policy and do not charge a huge amount as cancellation fees. It is very important for you to know that the web host provider handles customer refunds so as to avoid a huge loss.

Features of ecommerce portals

If you business involves an ecommerce portal, you should go for web service providers that have enough features to support your ecommerce portals. Most of the people need to process any kind of business transactions or use any specific shopping cart software. Go for those web service providers that have features like dedicated IP, SSL certification or one-click shopping software features.

Checking the renewal prices

Any kind of hosting deals involves cheap sign up prices but the renewal proves are generally higher. Unless you are willing to switch the web host service providers every after two or three years, the charge is pretty high on renewals. So before selecting any particular web hosting service you must check the renewal price of that provider.

Apart from the following considerations, Hosting Facts also recommends considering other factors. Such factors might include the environment friendliness of web service providers, whether it provides 24×7 live chat support and easy going hosting control panel. A proper web hoist service provider is very important for any organization to get the right kind of exposure in the World Wide Web.

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How Start-ups can use Technology to Win Hearts and Minds

In business, virtually everything you do needs to revolve around the security, interests, and well-being of your customers. From a customer’s perspective, the business that gives them the best value will get the most attention and loyalty. Thus, aside from spending prodigious amounts of marketing capital attempting to reach new prospects, it’s equally important to understand the dynamic of your relationship with existing customers.

There are numerous things that click together when someone decides to make a purchase. With data, you will be able to unlock this treasure-trove of information, with which you can analyze, on a grand scale, the behaviors and attitudes that will help you build a loyal customer base and refresh the rapport you have with those already within your customer list.

With the multitude of online and mobile commerce options, it can sometimes be difficult to retain customers, despite the advantage that being open to a global market presents. To make it easier to sift through mountains of data on existing and prospective customers, you can turn to big data, professional experts, and social analytics. Basically, anywhere customers can be reached and any technology that can be used to analyze their behaviors plays a role in solidifying the relationships businesses and independent professionals have with them.

Let’s have a look at some of the ways in which technology could be applied in the manner we have described.

Big data makes businesses clean up their catering

The concept of big data analysis has been around for many years, but only recently have we begun to understand the impact it can have on improving the way that enterprises are run. One potential application of big data is analyzing and optimizing one’s own operations with relation to customers. These platforms can let individual professionals and even multi-million-dollar large enterprises have a bird’s-eye view of all transactions, allowing them to spot inefficiencies in their business models that could turn off prospects and which can push away those who are loyal to them.

In the long run, having access to data on internal operations can provide an understanding of the way clients react to variables in the business. As a result, managers can make adjustments along the way, in the aim of optimizing marketing, sales or customer-service activities to ensure customer satisfaction. Through big data, businesses need not simply follow the status quo of imitating or one-upping the competition (although it’s not always a bad idea). Analytics empowers entrepreneurs and business managers to quickly improve the way they cater to customers with better precision and care.

Marketing oneself as an expert is made easy with the right platforms

For professional individuals independently providing services, the playing field seems a bit skewed, favoring large trusted corporations. Having a rating attached to one’s name helps eliminate this, giving freelancers the ability to market one’s abilities and compete on the same arena as more established counterparts. Expert marketing platforms Like PrestoExperts provide such services, connecting experts with potential customers through a review-based system that fosters trust-based relationships between customer and service-provider.

Using these platforms need not be restricted merely to individual users, however. Larger consultancy and expertise-based businesses can encourage their employees to leverage the power of social media and word of mouth in order to likewise compete against more agile individual professional services outfits.

Social media can be a gold mine for customer engagement

The rise of social media has created an immense opportunity for businesses to connect directly with customers and prospects. While the platform provides a multitude of opportunities, it’s not necessarily just minimal effort required. Businesses are increasingly engaging customers through platforms like Twitter and Facebook, and witty and harder-hitting replies have been known to go viral.

Using these platforms on a standalone basis may not be enough, however, especially given the millions of conversations happening at any given time. Businesses can leverage B2B social media management platforms in order to better monitor conversations, engage customers and increase brand equity through a social presence. Good public interaction with customers can be used to capture customers’ hearts and minds.

Conclusion

No business can achieve sustainable growth without keeping customers happy. The customer experience will always change, and customers will continue to expect more out of businesses as they get accustomed to being pampered. Thus, businesses will need an adequate set of tools, skill sets and technologies in use, in order to ensure a stellar customer experience everytime.

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Want a slice of a 37 trillion business opportunity?

Business and not governments will provide the solutions to solve the climate change problem.

Climate KIC

As Irish partner of Climate-KIC, Europe’s leading cleantech programme, we run an IDEAS competition (or pre-accelerator) called Climate Launchpad.

Climate Launchpad

ClimateLaunchpad is Europe’s largest climate change business idea competition. It aims to unlock Europe’s cleantech potential and accelerate innovations that address climate change. To be able to do that, it must find Europe’s best sustainability ideas. This competition creates a stage for those ideas.

The programme

In 2015, 800 ideas spanning 28 European countries were put through the ClimateLaunchpad programme. The programme consists of a 2-day boot-camp followed by 6 mentoring sessions to develop an idea towards reality.

The class of 2015

 

 

From Ireland, 8 teams participated in ClimateLaunchpad 2015. They included Agri Grow Lights; Amarna Energy Solutions Limited; Boltz Secret Seeds; Climate Friendly Design; Marker Biofuel; Smartearth; Unibloc; and WasteNOT. Of these eight, three were chosen to represent Ireland at the European Finals [Agri-Grow Lights, Boltz Secret Seeds and WasteNot], which were held in Amsterdam, September 2015. WasteNot managed to get to the last 20.

Become part of the class of 2016

Building on our ClimateLaunchpad Ireland 2015 success, we will start our next programme in early 2016, giving you access to the largest accelerator in the world, covering 28 European countries. The final will take place in October in Tallin, Estiona. This year, we want to win.

If you have an idea

If you have an idea, or are an early stage start up that has climate impact (and most start ups should ), we would like to talk to you. This could mean that you are an early start-up, SME, researcher, student, public organisation, consultancy, engineering company or a combination of these. It does not need to be high tech, but it does need to have a positive impact on the climate. Anything goes.

Register now

To register your interest please e-mail ron.immink@sustainablenation.ie and we will be in touch by return. We hope to start our first programme in early February.

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thinkbusiness

5 Characteristics of an Ideal Employee

Business owners looking to grow and/or sustain their business often need the help of a great team of employees. For this reason, they take extreme caution when looking to hire candidates to fill vacant positions. Not only must they look for someone who has the necessary education, skills, and personality to get the job done, but they’re looking for aspiring individuals who want to grow as professionals while remaining a valuable asset to the company. Read on for 5 characteristics of an ideal employee…

In order for companies to find applicants who encompass everything the company needs, business owners often go through a series of screenings and interviews. If you want to find yourself at the top of the candidate pool and become the ideal employee you’re going to need to ensure that you have all of the following:

1.  The Ideal Employee will have Educational Experience 

Do you have the necessary education to carry out the responsibilities of the job? Companies often look to individuals who have some form of degree under their belt because it means they have a basic understanding of the industry and tasks at hand. If you don’t have a degree, consider trying to find accelerated degree programs at GMercyU or other colleges that offer both online and on campus learning solutions. Taking courses in general fields like business, accounting, or information technology will put you ahead of the competition.

2.  Passion

Employers are not only looking for someone who has book knowledge, they also want a team of go getters on their side. If you’re passionate about your career, it will exude through your resume, cover letter, and interview. When determining if an employee has the passion it takes to be on the team, employers might ask questions that include:

  •   What are some examples of your willingness to work hard in your position?
  •   Has there ever been an occasion where you had to defend your company? If so, how did this make you feel?
  •   What do you like about this particular industry? Do you see yourself working in this field for a long time?

Answering these questions with passion and accuracy can help you get ahead of other potential applications.

3.  Great Communicators

Not only do you need to be able to communicate effectively with your employer, but you must also know how to communicate with coworkers, and customers. After all, the company’s success in sales, marketing, and public relations greatly depend upon your ability to effectively communicate. Communication not only involves the means to articulate your words and get your point across, it is also about being an effective listener so that you can respond accordingly to get results. Again, since effective communication can’t be demonstrated on a resume or application, employers might ask things that include:

  •   Describe a time where you had to communicate with a difficult coworker or supervisor?
  •   Has there ever been a time where you were not able to resolve a matter with a disgruntled customer, employee, or manger?
  •   How would you explain a complex process to a customer or coworker?

4.  Goal Oriented

Every business owner wants to grow their business and thus they create goals to help them get there. In order for a business to successfully grow, it must be comprised of equally goal oriented staff. Employees that have innovative visions for the future and are constantly developing professionally are going to stand out to employers. To showcase your ability to set and achieve goals you may need to draft your resume in a manner that shows accomplishments that you helped the company to set or academic/professional achievements you’ve accomplished over the years.

5.  Detail Oriented

Every process within a business requires attention to detail. While mistakes are going to happen, it is important that they are far and few in between. Business owners are looking for go getters that also know how to remain organized and pay attention to even the smallest details. To determine your attention to detail, employers will often have small requirements that are placed within the job description. This might include things like asking you to put a job ID number on the top of your resume, state your salary requests, or send your resume and cover letter in a certain manner. Be sure to review all instructions so that you don’t fail this vital test.

Well, that about sums it up. While there are certainly other characteristics, skills, and experience that employers look for, if you don’t encompass the above mentioned traits you need to start investing in professional development. Each of these traits is required to help you stand out from the rest and to be a quality asset to whichever firm decides to welcome you aboard.

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Top Travel Tips for On-the-Go Business Executives

If your work demands you to often travel a lot, you need to be far more organized than the ones having a desk job. Working at client sites, visits to the branch offices, and travelling for numerous business reasons have made it imperative for the On- the-Go business executives to be efficiently organized to ensure their productivity never decreases.

There are a few great travel tips that can help the ones living out of the suitcase to enhance and maintain their output.

Travel Light- Keep disposables with you
Carrying heavy luggage every time you travel is a big hassle. Try to travel as light as possible. Disposables come in handy for travelling. These use and throw items help you to lighten your luggage to a great extent. Agreed, it’s not possible every time you travel, but whenever it is possible, do it, as it will help you create more space in your bag to accommodate other things.

Keep your essentials always in your travel bag
If you are a frequent business traveler, the last thing you want is to pack and unpack your bags every time. It’s always better to keep a spare of all your essentials such as toiletries, charging cables, and other important all- the- time- needed accessories always packed in your bag. The least you have to pack, the better it is. Don’t forget to check and replace the empty ones every once in a while.

Be a tech savvy and do your research
Getting to know the world is increasingly becoming easier. Thanks to the World Wide Web, researching about the place you are going to is now a matter of just a few clicks. Get to know the places to go around your hotel, the emergency numbers, the etiquettes and rules for tourists (especially in the Middle Eastern countries), the visa regulations and currency value and exchange etc. are some of the vital information that you can get in a matter of minutes.

Always carry a party and a casual clothing
No matter how short is your trip, a formal party dress and comfortable casual clothing should always be a part of your clothing. Casual clothing like a simple tee and jeans can be super useful in case of a small outing time that you may get during your official trip. Similarly, an impromptu invite for an office party in the evening will not give you a panic attack and force you to run to stores to buy a dress.

Always carry your own internet and voice access
The place you are travelling may have a great or a pathetic speed of internet, you never know! Why take a chance and repent? Instead, always carry your own on-the-go access with you. It will not only give you the freedom of being connected wherever you are with your family and loved ones but also help you in your office work.

Eat and Sleep Right
Especially if you have a long travel schedule or long flight schedule, your sleep pattern can take a toll and thus, affect your energy meter. It is always great to plan your sleeping and eating pattern ahead. For example, if you have a long flight it’s good to change in your pajamas, eat on time and brush your teeth and then board the flight so that you maximize your sleep timings. Similarly, it’s best to avoid late nights if you have to catch an early morning flight, no matter how tempting the party may be, because improper sleep is sure to affect your mood and your overall attitude for work the next day.

Don’t confuse between a ‘Direct flight’ and a ‘Non-stop flight’
Lot many times there is confusion between a direct and nonstop flight. Saving your precious time is crucial when you are on frequent business trips. Know the difference. A direct flight might stop, the only difference is that you don’t have to switch the planes but you will still have to wait inside it, but a non- stop flight won’t stop and will help you reach your destination much early. Selecting a non-stop flight over a direct flight always helps.

Be loyal to one flight carrier, your chances of upgradation are higher
Yes! Frequent fliers always stand a better chance of free upgradation than others. The same case applies in hotels too. If your business trips need you to go the same place frequently, book with the same hotel. And most importantly, if you are a regular there, never hesitate to ask if there’s a chance for upgradation. They are mostly happy to oblige their regular customers.

Keep your bag in an organized manner
If you are a frequent flier, it is best to keep your check in baggage and your cabin baggage in a neat and organized manner. It’s a common scene with some flyers who keep the long queue of flyers waiting at the aisle while they shuffle through their cabin baggage to find what they need. Keep your books, and other accessories needed for flight in a separate section. Similarly, your luggage should have your accessories likes socks, undergarments etc in a different section, cosmetics separately and clothes in a different section to avoid any last minute delays.

Kindness and being nice goes a long way
Believe it or not, being nice to a person who is used to listening complaints the whole day can instantly lift the spirit of the person and in turn yours too. Many of the frequent fliers have admitted that being nice, saying thank you and smiling gets them extra attention from the staff and many a times upgrades too. But the key is to not do it to get upgrades but to do it to make your travel a less taxing and more enjoyable.

For most working in the corporate world, business travel is an unavoidable evil. When you know you can’t avoid it, it’s best to get the most out of your endeavors. These tips will help you in many ways to make your travel a lot easier and hassle-free. You might know many of them but even a gentle reminder can help start doing what you always knew but still wasn’t doing till now

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