Business Trips: 4 Tips for First Time Travelers

If you go on business trips often, you are probably an expert in packing light and making the best of any situations. However, when you are new and you’ve just started travelling, you might experience some problems. In order to avoid making huge mistakes, go through these four tips and with time you’ll be able to effectively organize yourself according to your needs. Richard Branson can’t travel without his notebook, as he says that he likes to take notes during a meeting in order to remember every discussed detail. Let’s see what you can’t travel without.

1. Travel list will help you organize yourself

Making a travel list might take you back to your childhood, when your parents made you make a list of all the things you want to bring with you. However, you’ll be surprised how useful and practical lists are, especially when preparing for a business trip. There are a few lists that you need to cover:

• Luggage — make a list of all the things you’ll need, e.g. your clothes and footwear, so that you don’t forget something. If you are invited to a cocktail party or some formal event, you’ll definitely need formalwear. To avoid carrying too many things, make a list and you’ll have a clear idea of what you actually need.
• Bag — everything you might need on a plane or anywhere you go, you need to have in your handbag. Make a list of all the necessities that need to be at hand at all times, such as your smartphone, charger, tablet, notebook, personal hygiene items, etc. Make sure you pack your gadgets properly in order to keep them safe.
• Obligations — people tend to go over all their business tasks during the flight, because they think it will save them some time. However, waiting until you are on the plane to start preparing is a huge mistake, as you can realize that you should have brought some files that you haven’t considered at all and that you haven’t prepared some points that will be discussed.

Having a list, will definitely help you organize yourself better and not waste any time. Also, you will not overload your luggage with unnecessary things.

2. How to stay in touch with colleagues

As you need to be in contact with people all the time, many people think that they will save a lot of money if they buy some cheap phone and a local SIM card. However, you don’t need to this at all, because you can be in touch with your colleagues via various applications on your phone, which require an internet connection that can be found anywhere you go. Every hotel room has Wi-Fi, and if it doesn’t, which is really rare, you can easily connect in a nearby café.

Most businesses require working on a computer, so in order to get a secure connection, you can use VPN, which allows you to use a public connection to hook up to a private secure network. Servers can be found everywhere, so check the locations and see if they suit you. This way you will be able to access corporate files securely and even have access to some websites and files that are area restricted.

3. Have a couple of energy bars in your handbag

It may sound ridiculous, but this is a must when travelling. You never know how long you will be waiting at the airport or how much time you’ll spend on a meeting, and your focus and energy decrease when you are hungry. To avoid these situations, always have an energy bar with you, as it is essential for your health.

4. Having only a carry-on is an advantage

If you can pack your things and have only a carry-on, then you will make your travelling a lot easier, because you won’t need to wait at the airport for your luggage when you land. More importantly, as you may have to go to an office straight from the airport, it will be much easier to just have some carry-on luggage, than to take a bunch of heavy suitcases everywhere with you. If it is just a two-day business trip, pack lightly in order to travel comfortably.

After a few trips, you’ll get a hang of it and you’ll know what you need and what you don’t need. Furthermore, make sure you aware of what can go wrong on your trip so you can be prepared.Moreover, there will certainly be things that aren’t on any list, but are essential to you.