As glamorous as it may sound to jet-set across the country, schmooze with clients, and live off room service, just about every business traveler would beg to differ.
There are flights to catch, car rentals to book, endless airport security lines to navigate, and, of course, the hassle of keeping tabs on your paper trail along the way (because how else will you get reimbursed?).
And we haven't even mentioned the whole living-out-of-a-suitcase factor. Since carry-on bags give business travelers the ultimate mobility factor, we asked a few frequent fliers to help us put together a list of items they would never leave home without.
Stop paying for airport WiFi and stay connected with your own MiFi hotspot.
Unless you're interested in shelling out up to $12 to use airport WiFi, it's a good idea to invest in a WiFi hotspot of your own.
With its slim, credit card-sized package and simple access to 4G networks, personal MiFi hotspots like the Verizon Jetpack 4G LTE MiFi are a personal favorite of Yahoo! CEO Marissa Meyer and David Rush, co-founder and CEO of Evzdrop.com.
"It is a huge time-saver because you always know you can stay connected regardless of your location," Rush told BI. "It also makes meetings efficient and gets you instantly online with a great connection."
Ditch the pricey GPS navigation system on your rental car and bring your own.
Car rental agencies are notorious for tacking on hidden fees on essential accessories like GPS navigation systems.
Save yourself some cash by bringing your own along (plenty are small enough to fit in your purse or carry-on bag). If you don't already own one, it's simple enough to turn your smartphone into a GPS device all on its own.
Rig up a do-it-yourself smartphone stand for your dashboard, or invest in a ready-made mount for under $30.
Never lose track of boarding passes or expense reports with Lemon and Passbook apps.
The greatest challenge for business travelers is keeping tabs on their own paper trail –– that includes tickets, boarding passes and, of course, all those receipts.
We recommend putting Passbook and the Lemon.com app to good use.
Passbook is essentially a hub on your smartphone where you can compile all of your boarding passes, tickets, discount cards, and coupons.
And with Lemon, you can easily upload photos of receipts, put together summary reports, track expenses, and search receipts for specific items. When you're back at the office, just print out or email your reports to the right place.
See the rest of the story at Business Insider
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