Travel Management

First business trip in two years

· 2 min read
Plane flying at sunset

Photo by Nils Nedel / Unsplash

I just came back from New York, where I've visited one of MarsBased's biggest clients. It has been my first business trip in two years.

Not every company can afford a CEO who doesn't travel for business for two years, especially when the CEO drives +90% of the sales, like in our case. Luckily, MarsBased can.

Some background: for much of my adult life, I have travelled a lot. Conferences, events, client meetings, nomadic lifestyle, you name it. I didn't have anyone waiting for me back home, so I took advantage of it. In recent years, this has change, so I have slowed down, because family comes first, and when my baby was born last year, I took almost three months off.

Nomadlist chart
Trips per year, according to my Nomadlist profile

All in all, this trip made me realise a thing or two:

  1. The business didn't care: For the last two years, the company has kept growing at the same pace, regardless of whether I travelled or not. Same thing during my three months off. Makes you wonder how much of all that travelling was really necessary 🤨
  2. Being bootstrapped pays off: We are 100% bootstrapped. We have no investors asking why I'm not flying around meeting clients every week. We are also a lifestyle business, which people use as an insult or to patronise me about not being ambitious enough. I'll start calling the other ones "deathstyle businesses" instead.
  3. I forgot how to travel: Funnily enough, I forgot the basics for this trip: no e-sim, no charger adapters... Both legs of the flight were horrible, too: long waits, small and overcrowded planes, and shitty wifi.

Now, don't get me wrong, the trip has been hella fun and we've had very positive conversations with our client. It has been extremely productive and it has made us bond further.

I look forward to doing it again, but I know that doing this too often would dilute its outcomes. I am 100% convinced that if this one has been so great, it's because it's the first time we've done it, in 8 years of working relationship.

I, more than ever, am grateful every day to have a 2-minute commute from my bed to my desk.

How much of your travel actually moves the needle? When was the last time a trip changed something for your business?