Category: Business Travel

As an owner operator you know how important it is to constantly keep growing your business. The only way to do this is to continue to get your name out there and expand your customer base. Without constant expansion your business is destined to start losing money as existing customers move, go out of business or try other trucking companies.

There are at least four easy to implement strategies that will help to continue to grow your trucking business that are low cost, very effective and highly visible. By using all four of these ideas you will increase your business profile in your community which will result in the best possible probability of bringing in new customers.

Strategy 1: Advertise

Advertising is critical, and how you choose to spend your time and money in advertising is even more important. If you don’t know the type of business you want to attract to your company then any advertising you are doing is sort of like shooting in the dark and hoping that your advertising will find its target.

You need to start by seriously thinking about the type of customer you want. This will then lead you to the type of advertising that is most effective and most likely to be seen by your new potential customers.

For example, if you are a livestock hauler you probably will find the best option for finding new customers is advertising at the cattle auction sales barn, farming and ranching publications and at agribusinesses and stock shows. Advertising in the local city paper is not likely to be cost effective and much less likely to catch your potential customer’s attention than advertising in an area that farmers and ranchers will access.

Strategy 2: Hire Professionals To Do What You Can’t

Sometimes owner operators try to do everything on their own. They may take on the bookkeeping, website management, advertising and marketing, invoicing, trucking and getting new business roles. This typically leads to the problem of just spreading yourself too thin and not really having the time or ability to be on top of the entire business.

A better option is to use freelance professionals that you can pay by the job or by the hour. With this option you get the benefit of having a certified accountant or bookkeeper, a website designer or social media expert, or even an assistant to handle all of the day to day tasks. By using a freelance professional you don’t have to hire someone full time, often they can work from a remote location so you don’t need to have an office or building, plus you can control the budget. You also won’t have to provide insurance and other types of coverage since they are not full or even part time employees, they are contract employees.

Strategy 3: Take A Business Course

If you are running a trucking business then you need to have a good understanding of how to create a sustainable business model for your company. Taking a business course is a must to get that theoretical knowledge so you can practically and strategically grow your business. A business course can be taken at a local community college, online or through reading a good book on the subject.

Taking a business course or learning more about business management will pay off in ways you have never imagined. You will learn more about cost effective business practices, tax breaks you may not have considered and even about marketing and sales opportunities that may not have been on the radar.

Strategy 4: Network With The Competition

For some truckers that own their own company the idea of networking and cooperating with other owner operators may sound counterintuitive. After all you many think it is best to be able to corner the market and develop your own unique niche and customer base. While this is somewhat true, having a good relationship with other owner operators and small or larger trucking companies in your area can also add to the calls that you get from new customers.

Often people call large trucking companies with small jobs, jobs that the larger companies are happy to pass off to someone else. In turn your small business may get a call about a large job that you can’t do on your own. Having the ability to provide a reference to the potential customer leaves a good imagine of your business in the customers mind; but there is another option to consider as well. While you may not be able to do the job on your own, networking and subcontracting with other owner operators in your area may open the door for you to take on those big jobs with confidence that you can supply the trucks and truckers required.

Another reason to network with other owner operators, especially if you are specializing in one type of freight or trucking service, is that they will refer customers to you if you do the same back for their specialization. The only way that you become aware of this is by having at information readily available.

Making it a habit to consciously engage in the four strategies listed above will help you to maximize your ability to grow your business. Of course top customer service is still essential, but that should be an ongoing practice with each and every load you haul.

Some 1.9 million women are physically attacked yearly in the United States, and 15 percent to 25 percent of all American women will report a sexual attack or rape at some time in their lives, according to studies carried out by the Justice Department and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

And professionals state that because the bulk of sexual assaults go unreported, the numbers from these researches might stand for just a fraction of the real number of criminal offenses versus women.

However while these numbers might appear frighteningly high, security authorities are fast to point out that women need not view themselves as helpless victims. We asked criminal offense and security experts the most efficient preventative measures a lady can take when walking alone to keep herself from becoming a statistic:

Blockages, high heels, and tight skirts are tough to run and fight in, while scarves and long pendants are easy to get tangled in. If possible, modify your fashion style or wear comfy garments when walking alone. You can constantly change into dress-up clothes later on. Or, think with how you would fight in your dress-up garments. Would you kick off your high heels or hike your skirt up around your hips to run or kick?

Make Eye Contact. It may be your first impulse to lower your stare as you walk to your location. But looking straight into the face of potential enemies is the much better option. “Eye contact could frighten off assaulters because they fear you will have the ability to identify them,” says Mary Ellen Burns, a speaker for the Boston Police Department.

Keep Ears and eyes Open, Hands Free. It is essential to be alert to who and what is around you. Chatting on a cell phone or hearing headphones makes you simple prey for a predator. The only reason you may want to be utilizing your mobile phone is notify a pal of your location or to call for aid. Limit the number of packages you have to hold by using a knapsack or bag with a shoulder band. This will make sure that your hands are free to defend.

Take the Elevator Over the Stairs. And when in the elevator, stand in front of the doors, then if somebody you feel uneasy about gets on with you, you can step off right away.

Battle Your Inner Woman. Specialists say that women have the tendency to be sympathetic– do not be! History has actually shown that criminals often use the sympathies of unsuspecting women to tempt them into hazardous circumstances. Be as well-mannered as possible but keep moving if somebody asks for the time, directions, or help in or around their car. You can always aid the complete stranger by making a phone call to police from a safe location, or by finding others to return and assist with you.

Frequently change your walking routine. Plan out a couple of various courses that you can mark and take out “safe houses” in your mind at intervals along the method.

If a male in a vehicle is sitting alone near your car, or if you are parked next to a van, enter your automobile from the side opposite the strange automobile. If the parking lot is especially dark or deserted, it could be smart to go back and get a friend or guard who can walk you to your car.

WHEN IT ‘S TOO LATE.

The most crucial thing is to react immediately if you have actually gotten yourself into a violent circumstance.

If you are mentally prepared for a violent confrontation, you are more likely to win. Decide now that you will NEVER, EVER give up if forced into a fight. You don’t have to be physically stronger to win, just better prepared. Consider carrying self defense tools every day like a personal alarm, mace, or even a stun gun. In states where you can legally do so, you may even want to consider carrying a firearm. (But ONLY if you are willing to practice with it and get the training you need to fight with it.)

Run, Run, Run. Experts say that a predator with a gun will strike a running target only 4 out of every 100 shots.

Do not an attacker take you to an abandoned location. If he does, the possibility that you will be seriously hurt increases tenfold, says Burns.

Strike the Attacker Where It Counts. The eyes, knees, throat and groin are very prone, good locations to kick and gouge. Follow your instincts and try to determine if a counter attack by you is the best approach. If you do decide to fight, ensure your first move is as forceful as possible. It could be your only hope.

Attempt Anything and Everything. Extra strategies are offering your wallet, jumping out at a stoplight, doing something to cause an accident, or signaling various other motorists. If you are tossed into the trunk of a vehicle, experts advise you to pull the back tail lights, stick your arm out the hole, and begin waving wildly. The motorist won’t see you however everybody else will. This trick is shown to have saved lives.

Where does one start when traveling with your good clothing. You have invested a lot of money to dress right and be presentable on business trips and meetings when you arrive at your destination. Sometimes you need to get right off a plane or train and get right to work and that could involve having jet lag, being hungry, thirsty and carrying your bags from place to place.

Luckily, most of us use bags with wheels on them to scoot around the airport. Remember the days of lugging around huge pieces of stuffed luggage you could hardly carry? I do. What has been happening in the cell phone industry is the exact opposite of what is going on in the travel industry. Cell phones or smartphones are getting larger and carry on luggage is getting smaller. More and more we have to pack less and less in order not to be hassled by checking luggage or paying a penalty to the airlines for being overweight in our checked bags.

This brings me to the subject of this article, how to fold a suit jacket without incurring any wrinkles. I would like to stress that this technique can be used for men and women’s apparel alike. You could even fold shirts and lightweight outerwear with this method. The center piece of this fold, taught to me by my grandfather who learned it from his father, is to form the bulkiest pieces of clothing into the latest pieces. What has to be looked after is the structure of your jackets. When folding tailored clothing the most important part to avoid wrinkles is to not crease the shoulders or collar. These areas are pressed many times in a clothing factory to give you the shape needed to form to the body. That is what makes a garment fit so well, how many times it has been pressed during it’s creation.

The question being now is how do you fold a suit jacket to avoid wrinkles and not fold over the collar and shoulder area? Follow me here as it might get a little tricky explaining this, but in actuality it is not difficult to do and takes only a few seconds. You don’t need another person or a table to lay the jacket onto.

Take each hand and extend your fingers.

1-Put each hand inside the shoulders of your jackets with the opening of the jacket facing you. Now your hands should be placed under what is called the collar points of the jacket.

2-Put your two hands, palms together with them inside the shoulder area of the jacket.

3-Now with the right hand grab onto the left shoulder of the jacket from the inside and remove your left hand. You should now be holding the jacket with your right hand and your left hand is now free.

4-Use your left hand to lift up the collar and the lapels so they are now facing outward.

5-Using your left hand for support hold onto the top of the collar that is now up and with your right hand pull both shoulders to the right side as you twist with the collar in your left turning the shoulder pads inside each other.

6-With both hands, line up the lapels so the notch or peak line up.

7-Holding the collar again for support with the collar up and lapels together and using your right hand, push the shoulders back through to the other side. Now the jacket should be in half vertically and the shoulders still are in their rounded pressed form only inside each other.

8-For the last step, fold the jacket in half horizontally over your arm and there you have it. You just learned how to fold a suit jacket and pack it without wrinkles.

The jacket is now completely flat. The shoulders are not creased or crushed. The collar will keep it’s shape. You can now pack jackets on top of each other this way in your luggage by alternating where the shoulders lay making sure you are profiting from the best use of your luggage space.

Why pick the Dassault built Falcon 50 for your next business trip? Well, would you like the ability to arrive in style, rested and relaxed, the option to work on route, the avoidance of commercial airline hassle? If so, and you want to get to your destination in an aerodynamically efficient jet, then this jet is an excellent choice.

Whether you are just flying across the country or headed across the ocean, this jet, with its 6,480 km (3,500 nautical miles) range can get you there fast, effectively and without the need to fly commercial.

Because it can safely take off and land on shorter runways, it is also the perfect choice for smaller, rural destinations that may just get you closer to your destination than flying into a busy international airport will afford you, thus cutting down on travel time once you exit the aircraft.

The Falcon 50 is different from other business jets because it is powered by a three-engine system with an S-duct central engine and a more advanced wing design than other models; more so even than its popular predecessor the 20 Twinjet. It boasts superior fuel economy and has lower emissions, which in turn make it an eco-friendly aircraft that fits in nicely with the growing ‘green’ movement.

The cabin is luxurious, roomy and comfortable, and can be customized however you wish with seating for up to nine. It has 115 cubic feet of baggage space giving plenty of room for all articles to be safely stowed and the full galley allows you meals, drinks and snacks on the go. The enclosed lavatory doubles as a changing room, especially important for long-haul flights when your team wants to arrive at the destination fresh and relaxed. Each seat boasts temperature controls, light and window shade controls and the electronic map controls all from a HD media center with wide screen and touch screen capabilities, or you can simply use your iPod or iPhone for these options as well with easy plug in abilities. Surround sound and large monitors make working en route an option and with the seating meetings can be easily conducted for working out those last minute details.

At a top speed of 915 km/hr., the Falcon 50 is an efficient jet capable of handling all of your business needs with flair. Everything has been though of to give you the comfort and productivity you have come to expect from Dassault business jets.

Business trips are already stressful. Business men seem to be constantly on the phone as they arrange their day around important meetings, struggle to guarantee that they have the proper transportation arrangements to and from every single airport and then they still have to prepare for the actual business meetings. There are quite a few things that can cause unnecessary stress on a business trip, but living by these five tips will help every trip run a little bit more smoothly.

Airport transportation

Some limo services offer worldwide service, which can be a huge relief. No matter where a business person travels, he can rest assured that a reliable limo will be waiting to pick him up from the airport. Most airports also offer shuttle services if they are located nearby the hotel. Having a chauffeur is a nice convenience, but it is not always necessary. Many businesses in the rental car industry offer convenient pick up services as well.

Making sure that reliable transportation from the airport to the hotel may not seem like a big deal, but it can save the day if there is not a taxi service available.

Business Amenities

After leaving the airport and stepping out of a limo, most people on a business trip want to relax. By the time that they realize that the hotel does not offer what they need, it is too late to get a refund, and this will cause some unnecessary stress.

Most hotels offer at least a few business amenities, such as high-speed internet. The less common ones, like a fax machine, may not be available for public use. Individuals that are about to take a business trip can help eliminate this stress by calling to check that hotels have everything that will be needed before making a reservation. If conference calls will be done via Skype or another similar program, it is important to ask about how fast the internet is as well.

A Flight Bag

Right above the importance of reliable limo services is how comfortable the flight itself is. Instead of being one of those people who boards the plane and then has to search around for everything that they will need on a long flight, be one of the people who has everything that they will need in a bag that will fit under the seat.

Make sure to include reading material, headphones, a phone charger and a laptop if it will be used. For those that are going on their first business trip, take the time to do some research about what you should, and should not, bring.

Eating

Eating before getting on a plane will mean that there is more time for sleep. Simply boarding a plane and then drifting away in a peaceful sleep to wake up and only have an hour left to go sounds like pure heaven, and this is what most people should strive for. This can help to drop jet lag, and leave a person ready to go as soon as the plane lands.

Eating is something that should also be considered while on the business trip. Individuals are encouraged to take the time to check out nearby restaurants before they book a hotel room, and call to ask about services at the hotel that they plan to stay at. If there is a current renovation project going on that eliminates room service for guests, it will be nice to know before arriving.

Business trips seem to be known for being stressful and full of eating in a limo while talking on the phone on the way to a meeting. Business trips can be made that much easier by following some of these business tips, like making sure to pick reliable limo services and sleeping on the plane.

Canadians working abroad are afforded many opportunities to grow and advance in their careers, a fact which significantly impacts their decision to go overseas. Whether you remain in the Commonwealth, go down to the states or travel to faraway lands, there several good reasons to find employment outside of the country.

1. Living abroad provided opportunities for adventure and personal growth.

At the end of their lives, very few people have regrets about traveling too much or seeing too many foreign countries. Living and working overseas provides opportunities to experience different cultures and gain a broader perspective on world events. Canadians working abroad are more versatile and attractive to future employers because their resumes display a level of self-motivation and perseverance that other job applicants may lack. People who work overseas have demonstrated a level of drive that will set them apart from other people in their field.

2. The Commonwealth makes it uncommonly easy.

While the British Empire is not what it once was, the citizens of the Commonwealth have an advantage when it comes to traveling to other member nations. A citizen of the United States may have an easy time working in one of the territories, but they have a much harder time getting the necessary paperwork to start a career in New Zealand, for example. Countries in South America and Africa are members, and so are Australia and India. In total, there are 53 member states, including several islands in the Caribbean and South Pacific. Canadians working abroad could find employers in any of these areas.

3. You gain additional skills overseas.

Canadians working abroad have opportunities to polish different language skills and learn to adapt to a diverse setting with new challenges. Depending on the country and type of industry, there can be unique regulations or a whole different cultural approach to the situations you encounter. For those who ultimately want to prepare for management roles, it helps to broaden your horizons by seeing how backgrounds and personal dispositions affect attitudes on the job. The ability to look out for yourself in a wide range of settings, even completely new parts of the world, will tell future employers that you need less handholding than your peers.

4. It’s great for family and friendships.

Sure, taking the kids out of school can mean a complicated adjustment, but those who attend school in different parts of the world experience a more inclusive education. Other families may take their kids on a week-long vacation once a year, but yours can have the chance to learn in-depth about other cultures for years at a time. Travel can be a transformative experience, especially for the young. What’s more, the friendships formed elsewhere can be lasting bonds regardless of whether the family eventually moves back to Canada. Back home, the whole family is equipped with interesting stories of life in distant lands, which can be a way to help entertain new friends.

Ultimately, Canadians working abroad enjoy many benefits beyond those available to people with domestic employment.

If you’ve recently requested estimates from companies offering document translation services, you may have noticed a price for “DTP”. So what does it mean?

DTP, or desktop publishing, is a fairly broad term that refers to creating documents with pleasing layouts on a computer. When it comes to translation, DTP means adjusting the format of the document to ensure that it looks neat and matches the original work’s format. Some agencies may refer to it as typesetting or even layout.

Why DTP is Important

Document translation services will explain to you that the length of a translated text differs from the length of the original. It can land up being shorter or longer, depending on the combination of languages which means the layout doesn’t match the original perfectly. The layout issues can either be minor or major – if a paragraph becomes longer in a Word document, for example, so the entire document lengthens. This isn’t a big deal usually, but should the translated text in an image extend beyond its original boundaries and thus becomes illegible then there is a problem that needs solving!

The document translation services process typically included post-DTP proofreading. This allows the team the chance to see the work in its final form (they’re not usually able to see the layout during translation). They can then spot any problems.

DTP and Microsoft Word…

This is the simplest of DTP routes. In fact, clients might even wonder if the daunting phrase “DTP” is even at all necessary for a simple Word document. That’s why many vendors offer DTP as a separate service. That way, if you don’t want to pay for layout and prefer to do it yourself, the chosen document translation services will simply deliver a raw, unformatted file.

Microsoft Powerpoint

Powerpoint files are a little more challenging than Word files for layout. This is due to the fact that there is no flow of text between pages and therefore Powerpoint files aren’t that well suited for text expansion. When the translation turns out to be longer than the original copy, it expands past boundaries and displays incorrectly.

Images are another common problem. A Powerpoint file typically contains text in images that cannot be edited. This is where document translation services come in handy. They can extract the text from the images for the translation team to work on and then insert it back into the image.

The Proofreading Phase

This is usually an optional step in the DTP process. Ideally, though, all files should go through a proofreading process, even if it’s just a quick review. In fact, this is crucial with the more complex files. With Powerpoint and Word documents, a reviewer who has worked on the translation will suffice. With more complex formats, though, a specialist may be required to export the document to PDF to go over and add notes or implement changes.

Both DTP and the post-proofreading services are separate from the translation process and that’s why they are quoted as a separate rate. That way, if you think you can format a text yourself, you can skip that phase.