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How does business travel work in startups?

By March 7, 2020No Comments

According to UK government statistics, 672,890 new companies were registered at Companies House in the year 2018 to 2019. This was 8.5% more than in the previous year, and the highest number of incorporations in almost a decade. Unfortunately, a high proportion of these companies are also likely to fail. 

There is a lot of pressure on new companies to get things right from the beginning. You may have a great idea, you may have an enthusiastic and willing team in place to implement it, you may even have venture capital ready to invest but, unfortunately, these things are often no measure of success. Frequently, it is the relatively small and mundane details which make all the difference to whether your startup thrives or becomes one of the 60% of new businesses which are statistically likely to fail within the first three years of operation. 

Corporate travel is one of those things which can easily eat up valuable funds if you don’t get it right from the beginning. It is very important to have a business travel management plan in place from the very beginning, setting out the circumstances under which business trips may be made, the limits as to what can and can’t be booked and what is needed in order to claim back corporate travel expenses. It’s also important that you maximise the benefit of any time spent away from the office on business trips – both in terms of minimising expense and in terms of getting the most out of human resources, when you may be working in with a relatively small team.

One of the problems when considering how business travel works in startups is that a small, newly formed company may end up paying over the odds for corporate travel because they are unable to make savings of scale. If you add in to this a workforce made up of Millennials who may be more used to individual travel, as opposed to business trips, and you could easily end up spending more than is necessary. 

Often startups decide to make do with using resources from within, rather than considering outsourcing, but this can be a false economy. Deciding to outsource your corporate travel can be the best way of saving money, whilst increasing efficiency and making sure that your team can concentrate on the most important business in hand: making sure that your startup is a success. 

 

How can Travelworx manage business travel for startups?

By working with a business travel management company such as Travelworx, you will save time and money, thereby making your startup much more efficient. Your business may be unique but your corporate travel requirements almost certainly won’t be anything new to Travelworx. Travelworx has many years of experience in managing the complex requirements of airlines and their crews, so managing business travel for startups comes easily to them. 

These are just some of the ways which Travelworx can benefit your startup or small business:

Allowing you to concentrate on your own priorities

Your team may be used to booking their own holidays and leisure trips, but they almost certainly won’t have the experience of the team at Travelworx. It makes sense to hand over your corporate travel to the experts, so that your team can concentrate on what they are good at, which is running your business.

Allowing startups to benefit from negotiated rates

One of the big problems for start-ups and small businesses in general, is that it can be difficult to benefit from the economies of scale which bigger businesses enjoy. It makes sense then, to work with a business travel management company such as Travelworx, who already have partnerships in place to benefit from the best possible negotiated rates for hotels, air fares and much more.  

Using our experience in planning

In a start-up, there is likely to be a relatively small team in place, who may well be spread out and working in different locations. Travelworx have many years of experience in planning so they know the best way to get your team from A to B and the best places to stay in order to make sure that you get to your meetings on time.