| In 2003, I took my business on the road for three | | | | every day or two. 3. Plastic. During our 2003 trip, we |
| months while traveling by car around much of North | | | | had to keep hitting up ATMs for cash, because quite |
| America. In 2007, I took almost as long for a road | | | | a few places where we had to pay for things did not |
| trip from Massachusetts to Alaska and back. In those | | | | accept credit cards. In 2007, the only places where |
| four years, several things changed that significantly | | | | we really had to have cash were a few tolls and a |
| affected some practicalities of taking care of | | | | few tourist attractions. We had one Canadian |
| business when away from the office and one's home | | | | ten-dollar bill with us left over from the previous trip, |
| base for that long a time. If you're planning extensive | | | | and apart from that we were able to charge nearly |
| business travel and haven't been on the road in a | | | | everything. When a panhandler tried to hit us up for |
| couple of years, some of these changes might come | | | | cash, we were able to say truthfully that we had |
| as a surprise to you, too. 1. Internet access. In 2003, | | | | none. We were putting everything on plastic, sorry! 4. |
| high-speed Internet was a specialty item in the | | | | Cell phone coverage. Our surprise here was that |
| hospitality industry, restricted to a few name-brand | | | | there wasn't as much improvement in cellular service |
| hotel and coffee-shop chains. Before I left on my | | | | for the more remote sections of the U.S. as we |
| 2007 trip, several people told me blithely, "Wi-fi is | | | | expected. Along interstate highways, you can pretty |
| everywhere now." I'm glad I looked skeptically at | | | | much expect to get a signal. But otherwise, where |
| that assessment. During ten weeks of travel in | | | | population density is low or nonexistent, cell phone |
| Canada and the U.S., only one-third of the time did | | | | coverage is usually likewise absent. A big exception |
| wi-fi work conveniently and right away in the room | | | | was national parks. I had a long conversation with a |
| where we were staying. Another third of the time | | | | friend back home from Denali National Park in Alaska, |
| we were able to use wi-fi after quite a bit of | | | | where the whole county has only 1800 or so full-time |
| technical fiddling or by going to the motel office or | | | | residents. 5. Mail forwarding. This change isn't the |
| restaurant. And the other third of the time, we | | | | progress toward efficiency that you might expect. It |
| would have been without Internet access had wi-fi | | | | took longer in 2007 than in 2003 to get postal mail |
| been our only option. I had three backup options for | | | | forwarding going and longer to stop the forwarding. |
| this contingency: going online on dialup with the | | | | My postmaster explained that forwarding was now |
| modem in my laptop; using my handheld phone | | | | centralized and computerized. Whereas previously, |
| computer (an AT&T 8525) to pick up email; and | | | | individual post offices had been in charge of |
| telephoning my virtual assistant to ask her to check | | | | forwarding mail addressed to residents in their service |
| my email for me. 2. Receipts. If you're planning to | | | | area, now this was handled at the regional mail |
| deduct business travel expenses on your taxes, then | | | | processing facility. My postmaster could put in the |
| you need to save receipts and you need a written | | | | request to start or stop mail forwarding, but he had |
| record of the expenses and their business purpose. | | | | no direct control over the process, and it took 7-10 |
| What changed since 2003 in this regard is that more | | | | days for the forwarding and the no-more-forwarding |
| and more businesses provide receipts on thermal | | | | orders to take effect. Be prepared for these and |
| paper whose ink fades and smudges with the least | | | | other changing conditions, and you'll have a better, |
| exposure to sun or friction. This means that if you | | | | easier and more prosperous time away from home. |
| shoe-box your receipts into a pocket or a | | | | Marcia Yudkin is the author of Web Site Marketing |
| compartment in the car before you record your | | | | Makeover and 10 other books. She publishes a |
| expenses, you could be unable to decipher your | | | | weekly newsletter on creative marketing, Marketing |
| evidence. I'm not sure what the IRS's take on this | | | | Minute ( ). Find out more about her report "Take |
| development will be, but I'm glad I had the discipline | | | | Your Business On The Road" at . |
| to record the expenses in a little notebook at least | | | | |