Work and travel have gone hand in hand ever since the first cave dweller noticed that the cave across the valley might want to swap some ripe berries for a deer hide. Sales don’t happen on your doorstep. You have to go and make the dream come true.
Given that work and travel are inextricably linked, perhaps we better look at some work and travel tips for modern-day digital nomads.
Access to Brand Guidelines
This tip works in two ways. First, you need an online style guide. Once set up, your style guide will act as your brand guidelines across all projects (see here for further information on brand guidelines and boosting brand consistency). Here’s how it works.
Let’s say you are creating content during your business trip. Perhaps you are keeping a blog while attending an event or maybe you’re scoping out a location that may be useful to your company in an upcoming project. Whatever the scenario, you are going to be creating content (copy, images, video, etc.). What are you going to do with it all? A style guide with discrete sections allows you to store your data in an easily accessible way that your colleagues can access and collaborate on at will.
Secondly, if you need support in putting together branded content while you are away from your desk, a store of online brand guidelines gives you all of the information at your fingertips. There really is no downside to having this information collected in one place.
A Focused Itinerary (it makes all the difference)
There’s a temptation to look forward to your business trip and accidentally forget to prepare yourself for what you’re actually going to do when you arrive. We all think of travel as good times shared with new friends in interesting places. The reality is that you’re going to need to get from the airport to your hotel. You’re going to need to eat something. You may need time to shop for supplies. Your business appointments may have times and locations attached to them that you cannot get wrong. The list goes on.
Many people overlook their travel itinerary because they think they can just ‘wing it’ on the day. But if your experience is anything to go by, winging it probably rarely works. If you’re planning on simply “seeing how it goes” in an unfamiliar setting while on the move, there’s only one thing to say – good luck!
Beware the “Clingers-on”
If you’ve ever traveled alone, you may already know of the clingers-on. They are the people in bars and restaurants and hotel lobbies who are also traveling alone. They dress in smart casual clothing that says “I would like to chat but if not that’s fine because I can always sit and look deeply involved with the spreadsheet on my tablet”.
They will show you videos of their son’s wedding. They will take great pleasure in telling you about the cost of the new bathroom they had to install back home because a pipe burst. These people are a travel nuisance. Learn how to steer clear if you want to spend your evening doing anything but smiling and nodding.
