{"id":575,"date":"2020-02-28T18:27:01","date_gmt":"2020-02-28T18:27:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jackofalltradesmasterofsome.com\/blog\/?p=575"},"modified":"2020-02-28T18:27:03","modified_gmt":"2020-02-28T18:27:03","slug":"consulting-travel-dining","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jackofalltradesmasterofsome.com\/blog\/2020\/02\/28\/consulting-travel-dining\/","title":{"rendered":"Consulting Travel – Dining"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Dining<\/a><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Since you will be on the road, you will be dining out. A\nlot. I\u2019ve tried to get creative about bringing granola bars and other dry\nsnacks with me on the road but most of the meals you eat will be at franchises\nand restaurants. The cost you incur by eating out can get high, but since you\nare traveling for work, all of your meals will be reimbursed. Each city you are\nstaying in will have a different rate per diem (latin for \u201cper day\u201d)  for how much you can spend on food daily.\nAlthough it may feel nice to burn through that entire dollar amount, you do not\nnecessarily need to if you are concerned about your health or waistline. Some\nclients will consider your per diem as a \u201cuse it or lose it\u201d policy so if you\nwere given sixty dollars a day, and you only used forty dollars that day on\nmeals, then that was the end of that. Other clients will consider the per diem\nas the default amount you get that day. So, if you were given sixty dollars a\nday, and you only used forty dollars that day on meals, you can still expense\nthe full sixty dollars and earn an extra twenty dollars untaxed for every day\nyou were on the road. Be sure to verify with your project director before you\ncomplete your expense report for the month on what the policy in place is.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eating out at restaurants usually comes with larger food portions\nthan what is considered a normal healthy portion. Try to cut your meal in half\nif you can. It may seem wasteful since most hotels will not have a fridge to\ntake the second half home. Even if it does, it can be difficult to take\nleftovers to a client on the road that may not have a microwave. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When you dine with clients, be sure you always pick up the\ntab. Even though you may be charging the amount right back to them in the end,\nit is still one of the major rules of consulting that a client should never pay\nfor a meal. Try not to order the most expensive steak on the menu either, even\nif you see the client splurging a bit. Even though he may recognize the cost is\nnot coming out of his pocket, it is coming from the company he represents and\nseeing you act carelessly outside the client office will reflect on your\nperception at the client office. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you are out to dinner with your team and the client is\nnot around, feel free to kick back a little. Traveling is hard and can be\nstressful. Dinner after long hours is a good time to relax and take a break\nfrom the work. It\u2019s not unusual to head back to the hotel after dinner and do\nsome more work, so give yourself the hour at dinner to watch the game or catch\nup with your coworkers socially, you deserve it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Are you interested in starting a career in consulting? Be\nsure to read the full book Jack of all Trades Master of Some; An Introduction to\nConsulting<\/a> available on Amazon.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dining Since you will be on the road, you will be dining out. A lot. I\u2019ve tried to get creative about bringing granola bars and other dry snacks with me on the road but most of the meals you eat will be at franchises and restaurants. The cost you incur by eating out can get […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":603,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-575","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-book","category-consulting"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jackofalltradesmasterofsome.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/575","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jackofalltradesmasterofsome.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jackofalltradesmasterofsome.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jackofalltradesmasterofsome.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jackofalltradesmasterofsome.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=575"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/jackofalltradesmasterofsome.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/575\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":576,"href":"https:\/\/jackofalltradesmasterofsome.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/575\/revisions\/576"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jackofalltradesmasterofsome.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/603"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jackofalltradesmasterofsome.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=575"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jackofalltradesmasterofsome.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=575"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jackofalltradesmasterofsome.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=575"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}