What is the best business decision: Cut travel to save money, or keep travelling to make money?
I get it. Your business needs to cut costs in these tough economic times, and eliminating all company travel is a good place to start right? Hopefully your organization has been fortunate enough to retain most of its employees and eliminating excess spending is the best method to keep it that way…
I couldn’t agree more that in order to keep the lights on a company must be responsible with its operating capital, but the question is why was your company travelling in the first place? In most cases it is to expand your operations, drum up sales and increase the very capital you are trying to protect by not travelling. Now I am a logical person who makes many decisions based on sound reasoning, but with so many disruptions to the status quo happening in business everyday maybe cutting travel is just another logical thing that needs rethinking?
Every business owner and entrepreneur knows the old adage, you have to spend money to make money, and travelling for business is often one of those necessary costs to grow your operations. Even with all the videoconferencing, webinars, and virtual meetings that dominate the business landscape there is still that need to connect with a business partner in the flesh. Trust isn’t always gained through a 70” TV screen in a boardroom…
Now as a business development professional in the travel industry it is easy for me to publish something that conveys the notion to jump on the next flight to somewhere far away instead of picking up the phone. Believe it or not it is not my intention to try and push people onto planes, but rather to ask the question, is cutting business travel right for your company? Is stopping the very activity that keeps commerce moving the best way to save your business? Maybe it is, maybe it isn’t.
One thing that I can say with certainty after 8 years in this business, if you are deciding to spend the money on travel then make sure you leverage every penny! What you currently regard as excess spending can actually be trimmed and streamlined to help you invest in the growth of your company.