discount airfare cheap airfare – lowest low cost

Jaynine Howard asked:




Business Owner do you typically try to save money by flying Coach? I recently needed to book a plane ticket from the North Carolina to Las Vegas, Nevada to attend a conference. Like most of you, I first searched the discount airfare websites. I could not find the exact flight combinations I wanted so I went to my favorite airlines website. Image my surprise when there was a three hundred dollar difference between a First Class ticket and Coach ticket. I know you are thinking “well, duh”. Believe it or not, the cheaper ticket was for the First Class seat. It was $503 and the Coach ticket was over $800.00. But, the savings didn’t stop there. I want you consider these additional savings next time you make your flight reservation.
 
1. No Luggage Fee – not only did I save $25 per bag but my bag was over the weight limit. I did not have to pay for my luggage or the overweight luggage fee. This saved my business at least $25.00.
 
2. No Long Line – I did not have to stand in long ticketing lines or long security lines. This resulted in saving me time. Time is money. I was able to get to my Gate and begin working on revenue producing activities while waiting to board my flight. This generated approximately $150 in revenue producing activities.
 
3. No lost luggage – my luggage was tagged “Priority”. I did not lose my luggage which was full of paperwork to include notes and business cards from the conference I had attended. If these items had been lost or delayed in reaching my destination I would have lost valuable time following up with potential clients and joint venture partners. Opportunity may have knocked and I would have not been home to answer the door. You cannot put a price on lost luggage.
 
4. Free meals, beverages and snacks. When you fly first class you do not have to pay the normal fee of $7 or $10 for a meal. You also do not incur the $3, $5, or $7 snack charge or the beverage charge. Even if I had shopped before the flight and brought my own snacks I would have still had to spend money. Flying First Class saved my business approximately $15.00.
 
5. Comfort, ability to work and arrive well rested. Not only did I arrive well rested but because I was comfortable I was able to read an entire book on the flight. I was able to use the six hour flight to conduct revenue producing activities. This netted my business approximately $1000.00.
 
My grand total of savings from flying First Class was approximately $340.00 for my business. The additional revenue producing activities I was able to complete for my business was valued at approximately $1100.00. When you fly Coach you are often squished into a seat and too uncomfortable to work on the plane. You pay additional fees for your luggage, food, pillow and blanket. Sometimes it just makes good business sense to do your homework before buying your plane ticket from a discount airfare website. You just may get to fly First Class and arrive at your destination well rested, work completed, more money in your pocket and your luggage waiting for you.

Alan

Shannon Kilkenny asked:




Every event whether it’s a meeting, party, seminar, conference, charity event, or your high school reunion will have common threads regardless of what it is, where it’s held, when or why it is happening. The following common threads are found in every organized event. Make sure you plan each of the following steps thoroughly and you are guaranteed success.

1. Plan Your Vision: Your vision is the main reason and focus for having the event? It is a combination of your goals and objectives.

2. Set the Goals and Objectives: A goal is the general purpose of the event that provides a road map for the planning process. An objective is a measurable, attainable target that contributes to the accomplishment of the goal. An event can have one or multiple goals and objectives.

3. Select a Site: Location, location, location! Every event needs a site! Pick the location to match and support your vision, goals and objectives.

4. Create Promotion/Marketing Materials: You must get your message out. You need to get the basic information to the right people in the right amount of time so they know when to show up, where to go, and what to do when they get there. The message could be as simple as the date, time, and location via the telephone or as complicated as a multi page brochure for a multi-day conference with numerous events combined in one event. Or perhaps some major TV advertising and sophisticated website design for online registration.

5. Identify Your Participants/ Guests: Without them, you would not have an event. Whether they are invited guests, paying participants or required attendees, people will be coming to your event. Know your audience and target them carefully.

6. Create the Agenda/Timeline: Whether it is written down or planned, every event has a timeline. There is always a starting point and a finishing point. This is detail outline of the activities. What is happening from hours before the participants arrive to the follow-up when the event is complete. And it is the schedule of what is actually happening throughout the event. The agenda can be two types. The one the participant receives and follows and the one that the people working the event receive and follow. This tells people where to go, or what to do when you get there.

7. Establish a Budget: Money comes in and goes out. With some events no obvious money will be coming in, such as a wedding or company social. Create a budget nonetheless to make sure not too much money goes out. For larger events, budgets are a must especially when profit is one of you objectives. Without a budget it is hard to set guidelines and measure results.

8. Select the Food and Beverage: It may be a pitcher of water and mints at a one day seminar, a sit down dinner for 10,000, an all day concert where vendors will be brought in to serve the public, coffee and doughnuts at the morning sales meeting and/or soda, cookies in the afternoon for an all day conference, or appetizers served during a 3 hour cocktail party for 700 people. This is a wide and general segment of an event and will vary widely depending on the vision, goals, and objectives and of course, money.

9. Arrange for Transportation: You may need to transport 800 people from 10 hotels to the meeting site twice a day or it could be just getting yourself to the site on time. You may need to arrange the travel needs for the entertainment, speakers, and VIP’s, including picking them up at the airport. Or this may include contracting with an airline for discount airfare or negotiating with rental car companies for special rates to offer to your participants.

10. Hire Staff/Volunteers: This could range from checking in your participants for your workshop, or 100′s of volunteers at a conference or sporting event. It could be the caterers, musicians, florists, cleanup crew, equipment setup, valets, ticket takers, MC’s, speakers, or the balloon lady. It almost always takes more than one person to successfully coordinate an event.

Dennis