Credit: Bruce Mars
If you and your employees have to travel a lot for business reasons, I don’t have to tell you how expensive it is. Bills for flights, hotels, staff expenses, dinners, and lunches for overseas clients all stack up, and it can be a serious drain on resources, particularly if a trip doesn’t yield the results you’d hoped. Here are some top tips on what to do if business trips are essential to your business, but are simply costing you too much.
Overhaul the expenses system
Employees love the expenses system, and who can blame them. A few days dining out on the company’s money is enjoyable, after all, who doesn’t love a free lunch? However, employee expenses can be a serious drain on finances if you don’t get them under control. A great way to do this is to set limits on what employees can expense back each day. If they choose to spend over that amount, that’s completely up to them, but make it clear to them that they won’t be compensated for any costs above a certain threshold.
Book early
In some exceptional circumstances, booking late and jumping on the next flight is unavoidable. In all other situations, you should book early. While you may be able to get a brilliant deal booking late, it’s far more likely that you’ll be charged well above the odds. Flight costs, in particular, can balloon in value the later you leave it to book. It’s also possible to find great deals if you book months in advance. If you’re going abroad, you may also have to get a visa that covers the duration of your trip. While these are usually issued quickly, they can take a few days to come through. If you leave it to the last minute and then can’t get through passport control because your visa hasn’t been issued on time, you’ll have wasted all the money you spent on the trip.
Insist on public transport
We’ve all been there. You land on the tarmac after a long-haul flight, and you’re completely exhausted. You scrunch up your pre-booked ticket for the coach into the city center and hail a cab. It can be tempting to do this, but it’s such a drain on finances that it’s worth avoiding. Cab drivers at airports know exactly how desperate all of their customers are to get to their destinations and hike up their prices accordingly. Hailing a cab from the airport is a surefire way to throw away some money. Insist that your employees take public transport into the city instead.
Get a Forex supplier
The exchange rates offered by currency exchanges - or those who trade Forex - can fluctuate wildly. If you and your employees routinely change money at the airport, which is a notoriously expensive way to do it, your business is essentially throwing away money. Instead, you should do some research and find a local trader who offers good rates. Once you’ve found them, take them on as a supplier and make it company policy that staff must change their money with this one supplier. This way,