Ways to Save Money on Your Business Trip

Business trips are a great way to network with other businesses and if you have the privilege of traveling for your company, congratulations—you have made it. While these trips can be stressful and enjoyable at the same time, budgeting for travel and finding ways to spend less will make things easier for you in the long run.

Be sure to create a customized budget for each trip according to the destination. It’s going to be significantly more expensive to go to Los Angeles than Detroit. Don’t just come up with an arbitrary number; research the place you are going and plan accordingly. You may want to temporarily hire a travel expert to set up a lot of the accommodations for you. There are also business travel plans out there that are packaged in a way that is more affordable than booking everything separately. Use discount travel companies; often you can do everything online.

 Try to book air travel for the middle of the week when the rates are the lowest. Avoid luggage fees by only using a carry on (if possible) or flying with airlines that don’t charge a luggage fee. Save any unused tickets and apply them to future travel.

Consider using alternative transportation while you’re there such as subways and bus systems. If you do need a rental car, ask for one with a full tank of gas and fill it up before you return it—that way you are only paying for the gas you use. Waive the insurance if your personal auto insurance or credit card can cover it as these policies tend to be very expensive and the need to actually use the insurance policy is rare.

You can decide to have lunch with your clients instead of dinner. Lunch menus are generally less expensive than dinner menus and a restaurant that is outside your price range for dinner may be affordable for lunch.  Focus on and plan the leisure part of the trip. You don’t want to be bored to tears when your meetings are over and if you plan activities in advance, you will spend less money. Stay in a hotel with a kitchen and buy ingredients for some of your meals at the grocery store to make them yourself. You can also take advantage of free breakfasts at the hotel. Finally, you should plan business trips as part of your yearly budget so you don’t overlook these costs and wind up in debt. All these tips will make business trips easier to manage and more relaxing. Make it happen!

© 2012 eMarketing 4 Business LLC

The Pros and Cons of Hiring Contracted and Temp Employees

When someone is searching for a job, most of the time, their goal is to obtain a permanent position, part-time or full time. They are looking for security, a place to grow in their skills, and they don’t want to have to worry about being unemployed again. However, there are times when a need for extra help arises and that need may not be long term. Therefore, a company decides to post an opening for a contracted or temporary position. People in search of this type of position may be a newcomer to their career field—college students and recent graduates, people who have had trouble finding work—people who have been fired and unemployed for months, even years, or people with a more undefined set of skills. There are specific characteristics and situations you will be looking for in a temporary or contract employee and there are positive and negative effects for the worker and the company from hiring a temporary employee.

Some reasons for hiring a temporary employee include employee absences, maternity leave, a sudden vacancy, special projects, or a peak in the season. When companies bring on temps, they can adjust more quickly to workload fluctuations. Their temporary status provides flexibility for them and for you: they may have other commitments to work around and you may not need them for eight hours a day, five days a week.

You can also evaluate the employee without making a commitment. You can determine if they are a good fit for your company and study their work performance—if you like what you see and the possibility is there, you can decide to offer them a permanent position. On the other hand, you know exactly how long they will be working for you as a temp and can release them without a lengthy explanation if you don’t see them fitting into your company long term. Temporary employees also save cost because you can offer them a lower pay rate and are not obligated to provide a benefit program and the same goes for independent contractors. With contractors, when there’s not work for them, you don’t need to pay them. When you hire through an agency, they can quickly help you find a qualified person and you can build a relationship with that agency.

With any temporary employee, there will be some need for training because there are skills and procedures specific to your company that they need to learn. Oftentimes, these employees have a lower morale because they don’t feel like an equal part of the team—although they should be treated with the same respect as any of your full-time employees. There are safety issues they must quickly be trained on and if they don’t learn them in time, there is a greater chance for injury. You don’t want to take any legal risks, either—make sure the timeframe and other terms of their employment are set in stone. For contractors, you do need to pay them according the market rate for the type of work they do and classify them correctly for taxes. They have control over whether or not they accept a project from you, making them less reliable. Finally,contractors are allowed to also work for your competitors—if they do great work for you, they’ll do great work for them.

All things considered, you may decide that hiring a temporary employee is just the thing to fit your current company needs. Just remember that most of the time, the benefits for you are the drawbacks for the employee, so make sure they are willing to work with them.

Pick Up the Phone!

What is one of the first things you do when want to schedule an appointment somewhere or set up a meeting with a client? You call them! But have you ever called a business and the phone just kept ringing and ringing? Sometimes there may a prompt to leave a voicemail, but then it goes unreturned or the phone rings 15 times and you just give up. No one likes when this happens to them, so don’t do it to other people. Answer your phone!

Of course, that may not always be possible when you’re in the middle of a meeting or out of the building. But when you’re sitting at your desk typing an email or taking inventory in your stockroom and the phone rings, stop what you’re doing and answer it. Email is chosen as the primary method of contact far too often—people still value direct interaction and often this is a faster and more thorough way to accomplish business. Ignoring phone calls can make people frustrated with you and assume you don’t care to get back to them. It can also lead to missed business opportunities, with customers and with other businesses. Besides, what if that phone call was about a customer wanting to change their appointment? Or what if a supplier had a question about your order, but since you didn’t answer, they just made an assumption and went with it? You wouldn’t want to be unprepared or end up with 50 black polo shirts when you needed 50 white ones.

Breaking the habit of ignoring phone calls will save you time, face, and headache. Do the best you can to pick up the phone as much as possible and return calls as soon as possible. Make it happen.


© 2012 eMarketing 4 Business LLC

Should I run an ad in the newspaper for a new employee?

That depends, what type of position you are trying to fill? If the position is for an employee that will not have to be internet savvy, then the answer is yes. If you’re looking for a person that will be using the internet for communication in their position you should advertise the position online.

Looking for new employees is just like looking for new customers. Get into the mindset of prospect employees and post positions where they are most likely to look. For an online service like Careerbuilder.com or Monster.com you should plan on spending between $300 & $500. These two employment websites give you a better opportunity to provide a detailed description and overview for your positions. If you decide to post in a newspaper ad, you’ll be looking at less dollars but less space to talk about your position. If you place your ad online plan on putting an email address so people can email you. If you go with an ad in the newspaper be ready to answer the phone, because the people will be calling you.

Whichever way you go, be as descriptive as possible with your position and be ready to communicate with people about your available position right away. Don’t delay in getting back to people, the best ones go fast! Make it happen!

© 2011 eMarketing 4 Business LLC

Do you need to train people on how to answer the phone?

Yes and put it in writing. You want to create a phone presentation on exactly how you want your phones answered, your customers spoken to and how to end a phone call. Sounds simple right? Then do it. It shouldn’t matter if it’s your spouse or an employee at your company answering the phone; write down exactly how you would like it done.

Here’s an example for you: (phone rings and person answers) “eMarketing 4 Business….” Was this sufficient? No it wasn’t because it doesn’t give a name or ask how you can help someone. People are calling you because they want information about buying your products or services, customer assistance, or they want to speak to another employee. Knowing this, the best way to answer the phone would be to let the caller know who they are speaking to and recognizing they may need assistance. How about: “eMarketing 4 Business, this is Randy, How can I help you today?”

Answering this way takes little effort and makes people feel at ease when they call in. To get consistent behavior and results you must have a consistent service plan in your company, so write down how you want it done. That takes all the guesswork out of it and now you have a standard in which you can hold people accountable for. Try putting things in writing more and you will surprise yourself with the results you’ll get. Make it happen!

© 2011 eMarketing 4 Business LLC