Lowering Stress When Traveling on Business

Even if your travel plans are arranged by an assistant or travel agency, there are many things to consider and actions to take pertaining to reservations, packing, rental car, hotel, meeting space, meals, family, and more. Following are some viable options for reducing stress.

Be Prepared

Most importantly, be prepared for your upcoming business trip. Although things can go wrong, being prepared dramatically reduces the risk. Some suggestions for getting prepared include:

• Have suits and other business attire dry-cleaned one to two weeks out.

• Pack a flash drive of important business documents.

• Use tools for mobile devices designed specifically to make business trips less stressful, like Dropbox and Google Drive.

• Keep all overseas travel documents in one place for fast and easy access.

Use Good Time Management

One of the biggest stressors for any business trip is poor time management. Running late causes panic, which then leads to mistakes being made. A key example of good time management is to arrive at the airport ahead of schedule. Keep some of your work in physical form or keep your laptop in your carry-on so you can be productive while waiting for your flight and during downtime from connecting or delayed flights.

Maintain Communication

You can also reduce stress while on a business trip by keeping communication open. For instance, if you run into a problem at any time during the trip, quickly take action. Even if you only anticipate that something might go wrong, it would be better to address the issue right away so backup arrangements can be made if needed.

Smart Planning

There are several ways in which business travel will have a personal effect on you. For instance, if you are a vegetarian, notify the airline, hotel, and convention center prior to flying so there are no hassles at mealtime. You might also research the location of Internet cafes just in case you should lose your Internet connection at the hotel where you are staying. Simply put, think a little bit outside of the box and plan smart. The trip will go smoother, reducing unnecessary stress.

Never Sweat the Small Stuff

Even with the best planning in the world, sometimes things go wrong. To reduce stress while on a business trip, focus on the things that you can change, not those you have no control over. This does not mean you should never look for a solution when faced with a problem, but if all options have been considered, you may need to accept the situation for what it is and let it go.

The post Travel Tips: 5 Ways to Reduce Stress While on a Business Trip appeared first on Royal Coachman.

Trying to type a memo or an update to a contract is hard if your fingers can’t easily type on the virtual keyboard that appears on the touch-sensitive display of your device.

Fortunately for business people who are on the go, there are technology solutions for this type of problem. A case in point is Microsoft’s new Universal Foldable Keyboard.

Despite coming from Microsoft, you can use this lightweight keyboard with devices running Windows 8 and 8.1, Windows Phone 8.1 Update 2, Apple iOS 7-8.1 and Android 4.3-5.0 (hence the word “Universal” in the device’s name.

You can quickly pair the keyboard with your smartphone or tablet and it’s easy to switch between multiple devices with a swipe of your finger.

Business travelers sometimes work in less than optimal environments, such as the shaking interior of an aircraft going through turbulence. Not to worry, as the Universal Foldable Keyboard is water repellant in case you spill a drink.

Because it is foldable, you can easily place this keyboard in your pocket, purse or briefcase so it will be available to use at a moment’s notice. It’s only 5 mm thick. Need to spruce up an important presentation while on the go? You don’t have to worry about tapping and swiping on a small screen to update the words or add another chart, for example.

In essence, you have a full-sized QWERTY keyboard that will work with any of your portable devices, which is particularly important when you’re on the road and don’t have access to all of your usual equipment.

At Royal Coachman, we know that many of our customers traveling on business need to maximize every minute of their trip. They often are reading and writing on the trip to the airport, only stopping to get out and make their way to the terminal. We hope that a device like the Universal Foldable Keyboard from Microsoft will help you work more efficiently during your upcoming trips.

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If managing expense reports is your least favorite part of flying on behalf of your business, you’re in good company. Having to keep track of all your purchases and making sure that they are eligible expenses can be time-consuming. 

To that end, the Expensify – Expense Reports, Receipts, Mileage, Time Entry and Travel app for mobile devices was designed to help weary business travelers save time, reduce paperwork and minimize the hassles that come with expense reporting duties.

All the end user has to do is launch the app and use Expensify to take a picture of a receipt, and then select which expense report the receipt’s image should go into. The app automatically scans the details in the receipt and generates the expense for your records. This is much easier than typing it in manually and then hanging onto the paper record.

More than 2.5 million users from 300,000 companies are currently using Expensify, according to the developer. 

Besides scanning in receipts, you can use Expensify to keep track of your hourly rate and how much time you worked on a particular job or project. You can use your smartphone’s GPS to keep track of the miles you travel. It includes support for worldwide currencies with automatic currency conversion. Companies are able to set up the app with their own expense policy details, implementing Expensify to administrate rules and tags for each user.

One interesting and useful feature lets users import their credit card transaction details, which comes in handy if they lost a receipt before getting a chance to scan it in with the app.

The upgrade made on March 26, 2015 is a user interface change, eliminating the old home screen. Now a large “plus” button that users tap to start creating their new expenses. Also added to the app was SAML support for improved authentication and more precise usage of GPS data.

Expensify is a free app and is available for use on Android devices and Apple’s iOS devices.

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Google Now’s new flight alert system is only one of the many improvements that Google has been quietly making on its Google Flights service, which has not been significantly advertised. Google Flights is a meta-search engine that lets you search through flights anywhere in the world for the best deals. It supports all major airlines (and many smaller airlines) and practically any destination. It gives you options for flexible scheduling, price ranges and even nearby airports.

With all of this functionality in mind, Google Flights now rivals Expedia, Priceline and other flight search engines — all with a clean and easy to use interface. By adding this new price watching assistant, Google Flight may be poised to become the easiest and fastest way to book flights at the ideal prices. Google even has a platform for hotels called Google Hotels which has gone similarly unadvertised. Though, of course, there is still ground transportation to book separately.

The best part of the Google Flights search is that there are no additional fees to worry about. It is purely a search engine and connects you to the cheapest flights available — you then book directly through the airline rather than having to book through Google. Other search engines, such as Expedia, involves additional fees and makes it so that you need to arrange any changes or adjustments through Expedia rather than through the airlines itself.

Of course, while Google Flights can be used by anyone with a computer, Google Now’s service is currently limited to Android devices. It is not known whether the price alerts feature will become part of the Google Flights website or whether it will remain a smartphone and tablet feature. Those who are interested in booking the cheapest possible flight may want to check with Google Flights before they book their next trip, just to make sure that they’re getting the best possible deal.

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Avoid Energy Drinks–Stick With The Coffee

“Energy drinks,” such as the ones with vitamins and herbs in them, tend to give you a brief rush and then send you down for a hard crash. Unless you want to lock yourself into a rollercoaster ride of alertness and exhaustion, they are best avoided altogether. Straight caffeinated drinks such as coffee or tea are less volatile.

Don’t Even Think About Driving

Studies have shown that driving while exhausted can be just as if not more dangerous than driving while drunk. It is always better to arrange for a car service in advance when you feel the exhaustion kicking in. Remember: even if you’re only a little tired on the way there, you’re likely to be extremely tired on the way back!

Get Some Exercise

It may seem like you should conserve your energy, but in fact getting your heart pumping and your blood moving is one of the best ways to wake your body up — at least for a short period. Before you head into your meeting, do a quick walk around the block or some aerobic exercises within your hotel room. Rather than exhausting you further, it will put your body on alert.

Have A Brisk Shower

A fast, cold shower is one of the fastest ways to wake yourself up when you’re feeling fatigued — though it may also be one of the more unpleasant methods. If you’re not willing to commit entirely to an icy bath, there’s a gentler option: drink a glass of ice cold water quickly. The cold will wake you up from within, though it may not be quite as alarming as the cold shower would be.

Of course, the best way to avoid exhaustion on your business trip is to avoid it entirely. Plan your trip carefully, pack light and give yourself plenty of time to rest. If at all possible, you should always plan to arrive a day early for any important meetings, so that you can conduct the meeting well-rested and refreshed.

The post How to Deal With Exhaustion While On Your Business Trip appeared first on Royal Coachman.

Turn Off Automatic Syncing

Many phones and other devices automatically sync their files to a backup location. Common cloud services include iCloud, Dropbox and Google Drive. When your files are synced to a third location, they can be vulnerable to intrusion. iCloud, in particular, recently patched out an exploit that allowed people to continuously guess at a password (called a “brute force” tactic) until they got in. Some phones will even automatically upload to social media accounts like Instagram and Facebook. Make sure that all automatic uploads are turned off, or you won’t have control over what is uploaded and when.

Encrypt Everything

Confidential data should always be encrypted before being uploaded. Simply putting documents in a password protected, encrypted .ZIP file will be far more secure than just uploading it to Dropbox or another server. If you’re not up to date on current encryption standards, there are also cloud services that automatically encrypt documents as they are uploaded. For your account itself, you should change your password often and you should keep lengthy passwords that are difficult to guess.

Only Use Secured WiFi

Do not connect to WiFi signals that aren’t secured. You can tell when a WiFi signal is secured because it will ask for a password. If you connect to free WiFi in a park or cafe, you never know where the Internet access is actually coming from. Anyone could be providing that signal. As your data is transmitted–which includes your login information to the accounts that you log into–it can be scanned and saved by anyone. Likewise, you shouldn’t go into a public place and use WiFi information that is posted in the public; it could have been posted by identity thieves.

Of course, everything stated above also applies to your own personal data at home. Don’t forget that personal data can easily be used to steal your identity or even for the purposes of blackmail. Anything that is uploaded to the Internet, whether it be through your computer or your phone, can automatically represent a security vulnerability.

The post How to Keep Your Business Data Safe While On the Cloud appeared first on Royal Coachman.

Prepare Yourself in Advance

If you’re going on a long haul flight it is very likely that there won’t be any WiFi access; most long haul flights are going over the ocean, after all. You’ll need to be able to work without connectivity, so make sure that all of the files you need to work on and all the programs you need to access work well offline. The last thing you need to do is fine yourself on a flight with nothing to do.

Make Sure You’ve Got Your Tools

It’s very rare that a laptop is going to last you a full 16 hour international flight; even a tablet or iPad isn’t going to last that long. Moreover, you’re probably not going to carry three laptop batteries in your pack. Make sure that you have options. Carrying a laptop, a tablet and a smartphone with you may seem like overkill, but it means that you can continue to work when each slowly dies (and they will die).

Don’t Push It Too Far

If you start feeling restless, fatigued or stressed, get up and walk about the plane. The flight attendants are used to it on long haul flights — in fact, it would be harmful not to. Don’t try to focus too much on your work. You’re already locked in a metal cylinder that’s 25,000 feet in the air; trying to force yourself to work is a surefire way to give yourself claustrophobia. Take music, games and other relaxation methods with you to ensure that you can relax when you need a break.

The post How to Do Business On Your Next Long Haul Flight appeared first on Royal Coachman.

Be yourself

That frustrating interview tip applies equally for all communication settings. Being yourself and working with your personality are fundamental to good communication. This means, recognizing your strengths and weaknesses and applying your effort accordingly. If, for example, you a little introverted but great with facts and figures you will always have something to contribute in any situation. It also means that you’ll never appear fake or overconfident, two surefire ways to undermine your communication style.

Get used to being outside your comfort zone

Nothing new is ever achieved if we all stay inside out comfort zone. You should seek opportunities to communicate with people you’d not normally talk to, who’ll challenge your views and opinions. This is good generally but specifically will help you to communicate your ideas better to any audiance.

Technology can help

The information age offers introverts a safe haven at the click of a button. You can use all sorts of modern media as a communications method, meaning that the spoken word and person-person interaction is minimized. Don’t however, totally rely on this; particularly for communicating decisions. Rather use it to enhance specific areas and to mitigate the weaknesses we discussed earlier.

Ground transportation is another aspect that we can help with. As one of the top 50 limousine companies in the U.S., Royal Coachman can offer you one guarantee: if you organize your transportation with us we’ll support you with an immaculate level of service.

How? With a fleet of more than 150 vehicles, highly trained staff and a company has a history of delivering outstanding transportation. Your transport requirement, no matter what size, is important to us and we’d love to be your ground transportation partner, either in our home areas of New York and New Jersey or through our affiliates, worldwide. Call our event support team to find out what immaculate service is like.

The post Communicate Better, Even if You Don’t Like to Talk appeared first on Royal Coachman.

An apartment away from home

A popular choice, particularly overseas is the serviced apartment. These typically come fully furnished and have equipped kitchens and all the amenities to be found at home. They offer the dislocated executive a high quality experience with little of the downsides associated with renting.

In the hotel market, suitable offerings can also be found with ‘residentially-inspired suites’ provide business people away from home with laundry facilities, Wi-Fi, space to socialize and 24 hour access to a gym. They also have the family in mind – a vital aspect of keeping the executive on an extended trip happy – with things families need, including; board games, baby monitors and night lights. People who occasionally expect the family to stay need to have a bit of space and a suitable kitchen, so these suites are designed with this in mind.

Changing needs

It is not just the upturn that has led to an increasing demand for extended stay accommodation, the people and the dynamics are changing. The younger generation has different needs to previous generations of corporate long-stay travelers. They may need ‘common areas’ where they can hang out together or high quality fitness facilities on site. The younger traveler also wants access to retail and dining facilities in the local area more than they want suburban peace. It is rare that a formal sit down breakfast is necessary during the week, here a bagel and coffee on the go – so longs as its good quality is much more what’s needed.

We hope this short post helps to orientate you the next time you need to be away from home for an extended period. When it comes to getting business travel right, Royal Coachman is a Limousine company that knows its customers are an exceptional people that need exceptional service. We operate in New York, New Jersey and, through our affiliates, worldwide and are rated within the top 50 limousine companies in the U.S. We can offer your event a seamless transport plan, which delivers exactly what your customers need without them even knowing it. We’d love to be your transport partner, so speak to our business travel team today to ensure one aspect is immaculate.

The post Staying Longer For Business, What’s Changing appeared first on Royal Coachman.

Avoid These Company Meeting Time Sucks

In your working life, your are going to find yourself attending several conferences a year. These could be directly related to your industry or they could just be team building excursion conferences to boost team morale.You may or may not want to attend any of them. The majority of conferences targeted towards your particular position or line of business are an excellent source of networking contacts you can use. Whether for sales opportunities, possible clients, or potential employees. However, it is easy to waste time during these events that you could be using for better opportunities. If you want to make sure you get the most out of these conferences you are attending, just be sure to avoid these conference time wasters.

1. Tardiness

Conferences usually involve several meetings back to back. This means they are usually planned down to the very last minute, so you can’t expect to get the most out of a conference if you continually arrive late. It’s conceivable that you may end up missing the most important part of a speech by showing up after the event has already started. There are some movies that make absolutely no sense if you miss the first few minutes, this could be applied to missing the first part of a presentation.

2. Interacting with Colleagues

While you may be more comfortable hanging around the people you work with on a regular basis, it isn’t conducive to developing new business contacts. Step outside of your comfort zone and introduce yourself to new people. They may end up providing you with an exciting opportunity in the future.

3. Attending Everything

As mentioned before, these conferences are jam-packed with meetings and presentations on a wide variety of subjects. Some may be completely irrelevant to your line of work. Don’t waste precious time sitting in on a presentation that has nothing to do with what you do. Pick and choose the sessions you want to attend by selecting those that are beneficial to you and your work industry.

4. Leaving for Lunch

You have probably paid good money to be at a particular conference. Chances are that breakfast and lunch are also included. Although the day may seem long, staying at a conference for lunch is a perfect time to talk to new people and develop new business relationships.

5. Not Taking Notes

You may pride yourself on having a semi-photographic memory, but you may find yourself disappointed when trying to recall something interesting or important you heard during a presentation. You are going to be bouncing from one presentation to another and trying to soak in as much information as possible, no one will fault you for writing things down.

 6. Hiding in the Back

While you may think you are being inconspicuous by sitting in the back during all of the presentations, you are actually bringing negative attention to yourself. Important people in your industry attend these conferences and by sitting in the back you are giving off the impression that you just don’t care. Sitting in the front will not only allow you to hear everything being said, you will also appear attentive. If you aren’t putting in the effort or giving the attention these conferences require, you are wasting your time by attending.

While they may not be the most exciting part of your job, they can definitely be beneficial to your career advancement. Don’t underestimate the importance of meeting new people and listening in on a presentation that could further your position with your company. These conferences are put together by peers in your industry for the sole purpose of giving people the opportunities they need to move up in the corporate world. Don’t miss out on your chance by wasting their time, as well as yours.

We hope that this was useful; we can offer more concrete assistance in other area of event organization – ground transportation. As one of the top 50 limousine companies in the U.S., Royal Coachman can offer you one guarantee: if you organize your transportation with us we’ll support you with an immaculate level of service.

How? With a fleet of more than 150 vehicles, highly trained staff and a company has a history of delivering outstanding transportation. Your transport requirement, no matter what size, is important to us and we’d love to be your ground transportation partner, either in our home areas of New York and New Jersey or through our affiliates, worldwide. Call our event support team to find out what immaculate service is like.

The post Top 6 Business Conference Time Wasters appeared first on Royal Coachman.