Travel is a major cost for any small business and if you are a start-up, you will want to cut travel costs wherever possible. However, if your business requires that you or your employees undertake extensive travel on a regular basis, don’t worry because there are plenty of ways and means you can make use of in order to slash your annual travel budget. Why Travel?
There are lots of reasons why you may need to travel during the course of normal business.

Travelling to meet clients is something all of us have to do at some point since there is a limit to how much business you can conduct via email or telephone.
Marketing trips are also useful if you are trying to reach new clients – a marketing trip will enable you to fit in meetings with a range of potential clients and (hopefully) drum up new business.
Staff meetings are a necessary evil, but if employees work from home or you have more than one office, someone is going to have to travel in order to be present at key meetings.
Meetings with suppliers will often entail some travel. If your suppliers are in a different country or even continent, travel costs will be expensive, so making an effort to cut those costs will help preserve your bottom line.

Book Cheap Travel Online
The beauty of having access to the internet is that cheap travel can be booked online very easily. It might be easier to book the first flight you come across, especially if you are pushed for time, but make a point of looking around to see if you can find a better deal. Air travel, train travel, hotels and hire cars can all be booked at knockdown prices if you are willing to put some effort into finding the best prices online. There are lots of travel comparison websites online, so make good use of them if you need to book business travel.

Loyalty Reward Points
Never underestimate the value of airline loyalty points, and indeed any other loyalty schemes that give you access to discounted or even free travel. Big loyalty schemes such as Avios can allow frequent travellers to earn enough points to pay for free flights and hotels. Loyalty schemes are very valuable on a personal level, but for small businesses they can be a useful way of scoring free travel, so always sign up for a loyalty points scheme, even if you don’t expect to travel that often.

Business Travel Agents
Regular travel agents are great for helping you book your annual family holiday, but for business travel you are far better off using a designated business travel agent. Business travel specialists are used to dealing with complex travel arrangements and can help you plan a multi destination marketing trip to the Far East with the minimum of fuss. They can also advise you on visa requirements if you need to travel to somewhere that requires an entry visa.

Don’t Travel Unnecessarily
One useful way of cutting business travel costs is to not to travel unless you absolutely have to. Instead of hopping on a plane to go and visit a client, suggest a video conference instead. Video conferencing equipment can be booked on a pay as you use basis at most business centres. It is a useful way of conducting business meetings with multiple people in different geographical locations. Instead of wasting money travelling, you can log into a video conference and enjoy face-to-face contact via a video screen instead.

If business travel costs are eating into your cash flow, make an action plan to try and reduce unnecessary expenditure. And don’t forget to encourage your employees to do the same.

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