I traveled two weeks ago to Maui, Hawaii for a quick getaway week with my wife. It was a chance to get away without the kids in school, a chance to recharge the batteries and a chance for some sun on my face until after winter here in the rocky mountains. As a small business owner and the CEO and head of my own destiny, these trips can be a time crunch when setting aside time for business to be accomplished. My wife warned me she didn’t want to spend our time away with me hooked into the resort WIFI and being on my phone the entire trip. I have to say that I am impressed with the cell phone service that the Hawaiian islands have and their connectivity.
From where I live and the way I traveled, using miles earned during the year for a free trip, it takes about 8-12 hours of travel time to get from portal to portal. 12 hours in my business can be thousands of dollars in earned income and even more in potential business. I have difficulty getting any work done stuffed into a commercial airline economy seat while opening a laptop and trying to make a desk out of the few cubic feet offered. It makes for poor working conditions which also makes for poor work product.
Another issue I have doing work while traveling has to do with the privacy and security of doing work while traveling. You never know who is reading over your should and never know who is interested i “what you do for a living,” often spending time what you are doing with the nosy neighbor sitting next to you. On this trip at least I had a sleeping wife next to me that only needed a shoulder to sleep on. You can imagine how easy it was to work in that condition.
Finally, technology is only as good as your conditions allow. There was no WIFI on this flight, I ran out of power only a couple hours into the flight and no phone calls can be made easily to business contacts or others while in flight. It’s like lost time you can never get back and each hour that goes back runs up the losses associated with the trip.
Private aircraft eliminate many of these problems. I have been on a private jet where there was a private desk separate from the sleeping area. It had power outlets for my equipment, desk space for papers and books, WIFI and plenty of ways to speak to clients and business contacts through phone connections. It is a worker’s dream space while traveling. The space is as good as any private corner office. This increases the productivity and the quality of the product while making it safe. After all, private jets are just that, private.