I seldom travel for business purposes, but when I need to go on a business travel, I usually do so with a mini vacation in mind. But don’t imagine I stay in a luxury resort hotel flying on a business class. I prefer to do my business-slash-leisure travel on a budget for numerous reasons, mainly to conserve on my business and personal budgets.
I do have some tips to help you travel for business on a budget (while enjoying the free time with your friends and family):
1. Focus on the leisure part
Sure, your priority in business travel is, well, to do business. But in business travel, you usually go with plans set ahead: The venues, the time, and the people who you are going to meet. What small business owners are usually don’t have plan is on the free time; what would you do in between meetings, networking events or negotiations?
I like to visit places, so whenever I’m on business travel, I also plan ahead the places I want to visit and the things I want to do. Visiting Bali, Indonesia? If you love beaches you should plan to stay in a hotel near the beach, not near the places you do business. This may be counter productive, but if you are like me, you would want to hit two birds with one stone.
2. Use discount coupons
Off line coupon clipping is obsolete. Now you can just find and redeem coupons online.
The best thing about online coupons is – when you are lucky – you can get huge discounts. You can safe 50-60 percent on hotel room rates using Hotel Coupons. Coupons on restaurant in the city you are visiting? You can eat out at 50 percent less.
All you need to do is to visit coupon sites and look for hotel coupons, air coupons, restaurant coupons, and any coupons you can think of.
3. Plan your business travel ahead of time (or simply do just-in-time travel)
Related to tip #1 above, you should consider planning (way) ahead for your business travel to get considerable discounts on your business travel needs.
Alternatively, you can just go to the airport and fly with the next flight you can find – you will usually get big reduction on your air fares – nice!
Last tip: Enjoy your business travel!
Business travel should be fun – it is a perk small business owners need to enjoy. People are usually breaking their piggy bank – even take credit card loans – for leisure travel; small business owners can do both business travel and leisure travel in a go.
Ivan Widjaya
Budget business travel tips