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Business Travel RUNWAY TO SUCCESS
Taking Your Office On The Road
Anyone who has ever sat in an ancient FBO without so much as a modem port while staring across the runway at a WiFi enabled commercial air terminal will appreciate the irony of general aviation business travel.
Although in theory, the ability to be PIC of your own destiny should make you a better business person, in reality, the lack of business infrastructure at many general aviation facilities threatens to isolate you from the very business you are traveling to pursue. Throw in weather delays and equipment problems, and it’s easy to start wondering if general aviation travel really is a reliable means of business transportation.
But fear not. With a few gadgets, some creativity and a bit of careful planning, you can be as productive on the road as you are in the office, even if you are stuck in Amarillo for a week waiting out the weather.
To stay connected on the road, it’s important to have cell phone with long battery life and a national rate plan. Stay away from plans that charge extra when you are not on their network, since many of the places you’ll wind up probably will not be “on network.” Always carry a rapid charger for your phone, as well as a car charger. Investigate your company’s telephone system and find one that will forward calls to your cell when you are away from the office. Two small business telephone systems that do this are BizFone and TalkSwitch.
If you’re a one-person shop, consider switching to Vonage or a similar IP-based telephony service. The way IP-based phones work, you plug a black box into an Internet connection, then plug a phone into the box. When someone dials your number, it goes to the box, where ever that box is connected to the Internet. This means that if you are in a hotel with high speed access and plug your box into the Internet, when someone dials your number, the phone will ring in your room. Vonage will also route calls automatically to your cell phone when the box isn’t plugged into the Internet, letting clients reach you any time, and more importantly, any place.
For keeping up with the flow of data that drives your business, it makes sense to invest in a wireless card and plan for your notebook computer. You can use traditional WiFi cards and hope the FBO or hotel you are stuck in will have access, but don’t count on it. An unlimited, national data plan from Verizon or AT&T (about $80 per month), backed up by a WiFi card that can plug into the hotel’s network if they have one, will keep you well connected just about anywhere in the continental United States.
If e-mail and contact lists are your main needs on the road, take a good look at the Treo 600 from PalmOne (see this issue’s Cool Stuff for details). This device could eliminate much of the need for your notebook PC while on the road. It also pays to keep in mind that there’s no guarantee you will be able to connect to the Internet at all while you are traveling, so make sure the data you need is with you, either on your hand held or stored on the drive of your notebook computer. Sophisticated, web-enabled services like SalesForce or Quicken’s new online version of Quick Books won’t be available if you can’t connect to the net.
To keep your contacts locally, check out ACT! or GoldMine for the PC, Now Up To Date for the Macintosh, or a little-known program we use called SalesSmartz, which can be used by both Macintosh and PC users. All of these programs allow you to share schedules and contacts with others in your organization on a network or over the Internet, and they will also keep local copies of the data on your hard drive for those occasions when you are isolated in Waco.
If you plan on traveling for more than a week, consider bringing a color ink-jet printer, and a bag we like to call the “portable office.” This pack should have a small quantity of everything you’d need to run your office, including stationary, envelopes, FedEx labels, stapler, tape, spare pens, and extra business cards. A decent ink jet printer runs about $30 these days, and the portable office only weighs about 10 pounds.
Get Points, Save Money
Many heavy travelers belong to hotel rewards programs that give you points for each stay. Check out the Wyndham ByRequest program, which gives you free high speed Internet access, free local and long distance calls, and free faxes at any of the chain’s properties in the United States.
Sometimes business travel, even when you’re flying the airplane, can be a drain. But by being prepared for unexpected delays and taking steps to ensure that you’re never out of touch, you can be as productive at an FBO as you are in your office. And your customers won’t even know the difference.
—Sean Fulton
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