Travel Agents

It’s estimated that more than half of all small businesses in the U.S. are home based businesses. The Census Bureau estimates that there are over 27 million home based businesses as of 2007. This has certainly risen since the down turn in the economy when many people lost their jobs. This shift has given way to the small, home based business of today and tomorrow.As an Independent Insurance Agent I run my business out of my home. The benefits are tremendous and technology allows more efficiency and productivity. I’m able to spend more quality time with my family instead of dead time on a commute to an office. I’m able to react to customer requests more quickly. And, I found out that I’m not alone. I meet so many people who manage their small businesses from their home, it’s fantastic.But, there is a problem. Most of these at-home small businesses don’t have home based business insurance. I find there are three common reasons these entrepreneurs don’t have business insurance. These are also the three reason’s you need a home based business insurance policy.
My Home Insurance Policy will cover me. It’s logical to think, since they own a home, somehow their home insurance company is going to cover any loss they may have. Unfortunately this is not the case. Most home insurance policies have a minimal amount of coverage for Business Property. So, if you have product, equipment, or supplies related to your business, at your home, there will be little or no coverage and, if the product, equipment, or supplies is away from your home then you’ll have even less coverage. Generally, you can increase this coverage through a special endorsement but most insurance companies won’t go higher than $10,000.
Besides limited Business Property coverage, there is minimal coverage for Business Liability under your home hazard insurance policy. Imagine a product you produce injures someone after purchase. Your home policy will not cover this type of liability claim. Or, say the UPS driver is delivering supplies and material and gets injured on your property due to a hazard. Will you have coverage for this loss? No. Are you a Realtor? You may have limited coverage if you’re out showing homes and your buyer is injured or you cause property damage. We live in a risk filled world, with people who are more inclined to sue than not. It’s in your best interest to protect yourself by having the right home based business insurance.
I’ve had my business at home for a long time and nothing has happened so I don’t think I need it. This is a common excuse I hear from many home based business owners. They don’t believe they face any risk. I once went to the home business of a seamstress. She had a room where she did alterations for her clients and she had cats. One of the cats was wearing a diaper because it was marking its territory in the house. What if the cats damaged a wedding dress or a stack of high end jeans waiting to be altered? Just because nothing has happened before doesn’t mean something won’t happen in the future. Give your clients assurance and confidence that you are a legitimate business by have the proper insurance.
Business insurance is expensive and I don’t think I can afford it. This couldn’t be further from the truth. Many home based businesses just need a basic home based business insurance policy. These can run as little as $159 annually depending on the type of business and the amount of coverage you may need. Also, you might be losing business because you don’t have any business insurance. To bid on contracts you usually need to show a Certificate of Insurance proving a minimum level of coverage. Having the right business policy can put significant dollars in your pocket, many times more than the cost of the policy.There you have it. 3 reasons why you need business insurance for your home based business. If you’re in Arizona feel free to call my office to ask any questions. If you’re in any other state, call an Independent Agent in your area for the right advice for your particular situation.

This is rightly named as the age of traveler-centricity and with the evolution of the new era of personalized travel; it is leading to research and development of a host of new so-called intelligent services. The command-and-control perspectives of traveling have changed a lot from the past and the focus has shifted more on the traveler and the productivity of each trip. It has become essential to maintain that the travelers have the greatest return on investment on each trip. New generations of young employees and managers, who have been growing up and dwelling in a digital age, are moving up the ranks as travelers. It has become essential to recognize the need for greater flexibility acknowledging that the employees who travel on corporate trips also consider a percentage of their trip to be a leisure outlet. With increasing globalization and rise in companies sending their staff overseas to network and connect with their offshore prospects/customers/suppliers, corporate travel is a highly profitable tourism segment. Before we talk about how tourism companies can better cater to business travelers, let us first look at why they prefer to use specialized corporate agencies over traditional agents

Why do businesses use Corporate Travel Agencies?

This might be the most basic question for a travel agency as to why they need to use agencies specializing in corporate travel when there are plenty of regular travel agents in the market. Here is the importance of corporate travel agencies who have online systems which allow business travelers access to their complete itinerary.

The following information is at the fingertips of the CTAs:-

full business itinerary details
up-to-date tracking details of flights (including delays or rescheduling)
transparent details about additional costs such as baggage fees or in-flight fees
travel alerts, if any, in the destined area
complete and up-to-date details about the visa procurement policies and identification required
currency requirement and conversion rates
What do corporate clients expect from Corporate Travel Agencies?

Negotiated Fares

The Corporate Agencies tend to have tie-ups with hotels, car rentals, flights etc. giving them access to lower fares which can be used only by the frequent business travelers. Discounted prices are not the only advantage though as they also offer flight upgrades, room upgrades, and VIP check-in lines as required.

In-depth information about the travel industry

Corporate travel agents have access to many travel resources and most importantly, quickly, than any other leisure travel agent. Additional information helps to make the business trips convenient and comfortable.

Changes in Itinerary

When an airline ticket needs to get rescheduled or cancelled, chances are the airline or the online service provider will charge lofty fees. When booking with a corporate travel agent, most of the times schedule changes can be done at zero or minimal extra charges.

Viable emergency contacts

It is important for the business travelers to reach the correct person at the need of trouble. Corporate travel agents have the experience and professionalism to relieve stress for both the traveler and the company.

What you need to consider as corporate travel increases?

Business Travel Barometer reported that corporate travel is witnessing an accelerated growth. However, when poorly managed, it may be no longer an advantage to companies and may, in fact become a burden. There are some factors which the corporations and CTAs must consider to get the best out of the time spent traveling.

Adopting a travel policy

The corporate must define a travel policy which is applicable to and respected by travelers at all levels. This policy should be used to establish the standards which will help to track the improvement of business travel. It will eventually help to reduce the costs of the entire package.

Do not limit the traveler’s autonomy

The management is responsible for budgeting the travel policy which helps to improve cost management however, it is also essential to give a degree of autonomy to the traveler. The policy should be flexible enough to allow the employee to adapt the trip as per the situation.

Traveler’s security should be a major concern

Business travelers need to have security in place. The company needs to stick to its definition of standards to ensure the employee’s integrity. The CTAs should have reliable partners (travel insurance, airlines, hotel chains etc.).

Mobility and automation

To optimize time and ease the processes, the administration of management platforms should have automated processes. This means they should adopt mobile solutions where search options, travel alerts, ticket reservations etc. can be accessed quickly, easily and on the go.

Corporate Travel Trends in 2016

Corporate travel trends tend to change regularly. 2016 has also not been any different and the travel management companies (TMCs) and corporate travel agencies (CTAs) are quite focused to provide steady if not strong axis all over. A growing MICE sector, investments in mobile and big data and enhanced focus on duty of care are some of their areas of focus.

Rising prices

The consolidated buzzword among global suppliers, airfares, hotel rates etc. is the rising fares. It is sometimes the move of the suppliers to generate discounts which encourage travel if there is a strong decline in demand. A positive 2016 world economy has been bringing an increase in air fares of a few percentage points, hotels are expected to see 4%-6% rise in average global rates and the competition will remain moderate in the car rental services.

Duty of care

Risk management is one of the major points of emphasis for corporations. Corporate customers are allowing new policies and improved technologies to monitor employees’ location in case of an emergency, especially when they are travelling to foreign destinations. For instance, Concur Risk Messaging helps to identify the travelers moving around in the world and alerts them with alternate travel arrangement as and when needed.

Focusing on MICE

Meetings industry is a major growing sector and the corporate travel trend is developing on it. The corporate travel agencies should better start aligning the various meeting procurement methodologies with its transient travel sourcing. One of the ways could be to broaden the variety of meeting services by incorporating incentive trips within it.

Investing in technology

A sharper focus on increasing value and becoming more traveler-centric can be done by bringing in mobile friendly technologies. Mobile and big data are definitely the two most significant technological investments which any corporate travel agency must focus to make their platform more appealing.

Business travel analysis after Brexit

Following Brexit, ACTE and CAPA shared their speculations. According to them, the greatest short-term effects on the travel industry will come from the weakening of the pound against other world currencies. Greeley Koch, executive director for the Association of Corporate Travel Executives said that the business travel industry will trend on currency fluctuations; with some companies taking advantage of the weaker pound and traveling more, while others may withhold business travel until world markets find their own level.

Impact of terrorism on corporate travelers

Travel policy makers and administrators need to be guided by rising terrorism scare. For executives and staff undertaking travel on behalf of businesses, the travel agents and corporate travel agencies (CTAs) should prove the reassurance for their safety through the travel policies. It is more than likely that the surveys conducted over corporate travelers reflect the general concern of the global business travelers about the spate of terrorism. However, there is no denying the fact that terrorist threat is changing the patterns of business travel. The key impact of this is to keep in mind that the companies providing travel services for business travelers need to enhance their focus on security and the associated risks in delivering the services to corporate clients. According to a recent finding, travel managers have higher estimation of their policy’s effectiveness in addressing risk compared to skeptical business travelers.

Concluding

Although the corporate travel sector has continued to progress, there are a plethora of challenges faced by the industry. A rapidly changing consumer market, the emergence of new business models, the impact of technology, man-made and natural crises are some of the fulcrum points that need to be considered before planning corporate trips.