Your business can take you all over the world, sometimes with friends and other times with business partners. If you travel often, you would know that travelling as much as it is fun, it can also be dam stressful. If you’ve travelled enough, you’d realize that in your travels, a few things are very important, one is that you must be self-reliant and you must have a routine. You can’t always ask to borrow a pen or even a laptop because you forgot to pack yours. At some point, you’ll begin to come off weird to your colleagues if you do this long enough.

Business trips doesn’t have to be so stressful, and while some stress is inevitable, it doesn’t have to make you miserable. This article will show you how to prepare for a business trip

1. Put together an itinerary 

The first way to prepare for a business trip is to put together an itinerary. This should contain flight information, airport exchange information, addresses, telephone number and booking number of the hotel; meetings and venues, hostnames, phone numbers and fax numbers, email addresses; meals and planned entertainment.

In lay man’s terms, everything you plan on doing should be properly documented and organized.

You don’t want to lose your way to the hotel or the meeting venue, you sure don’t want to miss your ride to the airport after the meeting or something like that. You have to have a plan.

2. Make sure someone knows your travel plan.

Give a copy of your travel plan to an assistant or employee and give another copy to a friend or relative. If something goes wrong and you don’t return when you say you want, someone can start searching for you with the information you gave them.

3. Get your documents in order.

Regardless of where you are, take your identification along with you. If you are a frequent traveler, you might get an international driver’s license. If you’re traveling out of the country, make sure your passport will be valid till you return from the trip.

4. Get the right currency for businesses.

If you are going abroad for a business trip, make sure you get the right currency from your bank before leaving for your trip. Trust me, you will need little cash to pay for small expenses that doesn’t require credit cards. Also ask your bank if your ATM card can be used in the other countries ATM machines too. This will save you a lot of embarrassment.

5. Pack only what you need.

Leave everything else at home. You need to bring your laptop, mobile phone, reports, contracts, brochures, clothes and shaving packs or cosmetic bags. Do not forget about medicines and lens descriptions if you are using glasses or contact lenses. Also take a credit card and cash with you. You may also want to go with your travel check.

6. Make sure you have good travel Insurance

Do you have a good travel insurance?

The last thing you want during a business trip is to fall ill. But it can happen and it really happens. If your trip took you to a country with high medical bills, you can rely on your travel insurance to settle the cost of your treatment. While it’s important to have travel insurance, please also make sure you always have a small prescription drugs and other medicines including Paracetamol and Imodium

7. Join a few frequent fliers Programs

This is one of the best business tips I got from a friend of mine. He suggested that I join a frequent flier program so that every time I fly, I get a few points and once soon as I reach a mileage, I could use them to get a free air ticket or get an upgrade to the business class. Trust me, you want to use these points, they can hugely save you some money.

8. Make sure you have a Wi-Fi device

It goes without saying that you need internet services even on a business trip. So make sure you have accounted for internet connectivity before you travel. For example, make sure to travel with a portable wireless device that will provide internet for you. It saves you the hassle of finding a place with decent Wi-Fi and getting a local SIM card every time you travel. You can try Drimsim, they offer low-cost network abroad.

By OGBO GODFREY

AtlanticRide.com