When your business is going well and you’re starting to think about expansion, heading overseas is one of your best options. There are so many new markets to explore in other countries and if you do it right, you can massively boost your revenue. But before you get ahead of yourself, you need to start making connections in other countries and exploring your options, which means taking a business trip. You probably don’t think that there’s much you can do wrong when you’re going on a business trip but that’s not true. Traveling for business is going to be expensive and if you don’t make good use of the time that you spend while you’re away, you’re not spending your business funds wisely. That’s why it’s so important that you plan properly and write a good schedule so you can make good use of your time. If you’re planning a business trip soon, here are some tips to help you to make sure that it all goes smoothly.
Set Up Solid Meetings Before You Leave
Setting up meetings and organizing your schedules with potential business partners can be a lot harder than you think. If you’ve been networking properly and you’ve been in touch with a few potential business partners overseas, you need to let them know that you’re coming and pin down a solid date for a meeting. If you just email them and say that you’ll be in the city next month and you should meet, it’s not likely to happen. People get busy and set up other meetings etc. and you might get forgotten about. If that happens, you’ll end up going on a trip and not being able to meet with anybody at all. That’s why you always need to keep in touch with anybody that you’re trying to set up a meeting with and get some solid dates in the diary ahead of time.
It’s also worth dropping them an email just before you leave and maybe even the day before the meeting just to make sure that they haven’t forgotten about you.
Get The Proper Travel Insurance
It’s expensive to travel, but it’s even more expensive if the trip gets cancelled and you don’t have any insurance to cover the costs. In that case, you’re paying out a load of money for absolutely nothing. But if you have the right insurance cover, you don’t have to deal with all of that hassle. You’ll get the money back for the tickets and you can reschedule the trip. You also need cover to deal with any lost luggage or injuries that you might sustain while you’re traveling. In some rare cases, you may also end up being involved in an aircraft accident. If that happens, you’ll need to get in touch with aviation accident lawyers to make a claim against the airline. The money that you’ll get from your insurance cover will help you to cover the cost of that. It’s not likely to happen but if it does, it’s best to be covered.
Pack For Business
You’ve got to remember that you’re going on a business trip, not a vacation. Even though you’re in another country, you’re still going for business meetings and you need to dress the part, so pack for business. Keeping everything neat and tidy in a suitcase can be tough but you’ve got to do your best when you’re packing your suits. It might be worth finding a dry cleaner once you get out there so you look your best for meetings. There may even be a service available in your hotel. It’s a good idea to put a spare pair of clothes in your carry on luggage as well, just in case your suitcase gets lost along the way.
Don’t Work On The Plane
You might be thinking that the plane journey is the perfect time to get some work done and make all of your last minute preparations for the trip and all of your meetings. However, you should actually use the plane journey for a bit of a rest instead. You should already have made all of the preparations that you need to. If you’re still working to get things sorted out on the plane, you’re not organized enough. You also don’t want to be tired from a long journey when you’re meeting with potential business partners so try to get some sleep on the plane instead of working for the whole journey.
Know Your Goals
When you’re meeting with these potential business partners you only have a limited amount of time to spend with them and you have to use it efficiently. That’s why it’s so important that you know what your goals are. If you don’t have a clear idea of what you want to get out of the meeting, you’ll spend most of the time making small talk or just chatting generally about your business, rather than making solid plans for the future. Do you want to pitch a marketing collaboration to somebody? Are you looking to find an overseas distributor for your products? Do you want to move your manufacturing operation to a different country? Whatever it is that you’re looking to get out of this meeting, you need to be clear on it and don’t waste any time before getting into it.
Follow Up Afterwards
This is an important step because the whole trip will be wasted if you don’t follow up on it afterwards. You can go on a trip and have some great meetings but it’s up to you to keep that dialogue going once you get back home. You should always drop them an email the following day to thank them for meeting with you and tell them that you’ll be in touch soon. Then, once you get home, consider how you want to move forward and contact them again. Organizing things in another country can be difficult so you need to put extra effort into keeping the dialogue moving forward.
Business trips can be very beneficial to your company as long as you plan them properly and make good use of your time. But if you don’t, you’ll just be wasting your money.