MBA1236 How to Attend Conferences For Less

Hey O. Welcome to the Hundred Dollar MBA show. Because a smarter entrepreneur is a better entrepreneur. That's why we deliver daily 10 minute business lessons for the real world. I'm your host, your coach, your teacher Omar Zenholm. I'm also the co founder of the $100 MBA, a complete business training and community online. And in today's episode you will learn how to attend conferences. If you're building a business, going to a conference is a great way to grow your network, to learn what works in the industry, to make connections with industry leaders and potential clients and make a lot of really cool friends. Friends that are like minded people that are doing the same thing as you. But hey, conferences are getting more and more expensive, let alone the cost of travel and accommodation when you get there. And I totally get it. When I started out, going to a conference was a huge expense to that I just couldn't afford in my business at the time. I just didn't have the budget for it. But instead of just saying no, I'm not going to go to a conference or conferences, I developed some strategies to attend conferences for less money. So I want to share with you these strategies so you can apply them and go to more conferences for less. They're going to change your perspective. They're going to help you grow your business and help you make those real world connections you can't make otherwise. Can't wait to get into this one. So let's get into it. Let's get down to business. Today's episode of the $100 MBA show is supported by Earth ClassMail. If you run a business, you need a business address but it doesn't mean you need to open up a business office. You can work from Home and Earth ClassMail can hook you up with a business address and scan all your mail and upload it to your account in the cloud so you can check all your physical mail anytime, anywhere. I love it, I love it, I love it. And we use EarthClassMail because we love it so much and Earth ClassMail wants to hook you up with a free month to get started. Just go to earthclassmail.com mbamonth again it's earthclassmail.com mBamonth use coupon code mbamonth I'm a big believer that in person connections are huge. As an entrepreneur it really helps you one get perspective, build relationships with like minded people. But also it gives you a chance to work on your business and not in your business for a few days. But hey, they can get costly. I was looking at some of the business conferences out there, and it seems like the cheapest ticket these days are going for $500, some a thousand, some a little over a thousand, some even more. And then you got to factor in travel costs, getting to the city, the accommodations while you're there, all your meals when you're there. It could add up quickly, and before you know it, you realize, I don't know if I can afford this. And you push it back and you say, maybe down the line. Well, I'm here to say that you can do this on a budget. I've done it on a budget, and it's totally possible. And it's not going to totally downgrade your experience. In fact, in a lot of ways, it'll enhance the experience. And I'll show you why. Let's talk about the biggest expenses when it comes to going to a conference. The three major expenses will be the ticket price, your accommodation, and of course, your flights, your travel. Let's talk about travel first. The first thing you want to do is list all the conferences that you'd be interested in, and you can spend a few hours doing a Google search on business conferences, blogging conferences, small business conferences, marketing conferences, social media conferences, all that type of stuff, right? Podcasts and conferences, and make a list. You'll notice there are a lot of conferences out there. You might end up with a list of 30 to 40 conferences within an hour. So when it comes to your transport, which one of these are the closest to you? When I say closest, I say if it's in your city where you can drive, or it's driving distance where you can take a road trip. If you could save a few hundred dollars on a flight, that's going to be a huge, huge savings. If not, which one is closest in terms of a flight and just rank them or give them a score from 0 to 5 in terms of how efficient or how cost efficient are they when it comes to transport. So if there's a conference that's right in your city, that's a five. If it's international, it's a zero. So anything that's close to you driving distance, that's going to save you a few hundred dollars right off the bat. Let's talk about accommodations. Well, obviously, if the conference is in your city where the commute is an hour, even two hours, you can, you can actually drive back and forth every day and, you know, sleep at home. But if not, get on social media, get in your Facebook groups and ask people who's attending these conferences or would like to attend these conferences this year, the ones that you've earmarked, the ones that you want to go to now. A great way to save money on accommodations, rather than booking a room in the hotel or the hotel that the conference is at, is booking an Airbnb, booking a whole home with two or three bedrooms where you can share with two or three people. When you divide the cost of the Airbnb, you're going to see it's a fraction of the price of what you would pay a luxury hotel or an upscale hotel, which usually is the case when it comes to these conferences, even with a discounted rate that they have now. When it comes to flights, when it comes to accommodations and even tickets, the earlier the better. So see if you can plan this as early as possible because you're going to get the best price on your Airbnb or even the hotel. If you're forced to use a hotel, if there's no other option, you can get the early bird or the discounted room rate that often the conference will give you. Same thing with transport. Booking a flight as advanced as possible is going to save you the most money, but asking other people to share accommodations with you, if everybody has their own bedroom, it's still going to be totally fine. You're going to get to know people even more and you all could kind of share expenses, even your Uber to the conference from the Airbnb. We totally did this a few times at conferences with our friends that were going to the same conference and one, it saved us a lot of money. Two, it was sometimes more comfortable than the actual hotel. Three, three, it was just more fun and we even rented a car and it ended up being cheaper than going to a hotel in separate rooms. Now let's talk about the conference ticket. It's always, always, always the best option to buy your conference ticket as early as possible. Conference tickets will be discounted, heavily discounted, with the early or early early bird specials as low as 50 or even 60% off of the regular ticket price. The later or the longer you wait, the more expensive it's going to get. The and of course there is a possibility that they will be sold out. If the ticket price is still too steep for you, reach out to the organizers of the conference, say, hey, I love your conference, I'd love to attend. Is there any way you offer any special discounts for any types of people, students, veterans, whatever it is, non for profits, they may have a discount. Also ask is there a way I can earn a discount through sharing through social Media sharing your conference, blogging about your conference when I'm there shooting a vlog, whatever it is, most conference organizers will be open to offering you some sort of discount in exchange for some promotion. Now remember your list of conferences you made. Earmark the ones that they're doing for the first time. It's the first year they're running their conference. Now, there are pluses and minuses to a first year conference. The pluses are that it is going to be a special experience. It's the first year. Anytime a conference is running for the first year, it's always special. And I experienced this personally going to a whole bunch of inaugural conferences. And it's always the best year that first year. Because it's an intimate group, it's a smaller group, you feel special. Two, it's going to be the lowest ticket it's ever going to be. Every year after that they're going to raise prices, so you're going to get a deal. But of course it's an unproven conference, so there is some risk. But if you can get the right speakers and the right people to attend, the right people around that group, it's going to be a great experience. So those are some tips when it comes to saving money, getting to the conference when you stay there, as well as your actual conference ticket. And remember, when it comes to transport, if you're grabbing a whole bunch of friends that are going to the same conference in your local area, you can carpool, you can split the gas money if it's a road trip. This is totally doable. I forgot to mention that. Also in the accommodations, if you choose Airbnb, Airbnb now has the option where you can split the actual cost of the Airbnb with other Airbnb users. So you can email people and say, hey, let's split this. Just create an account Airbnb and you'll be able to split the cost and they'll divide it two, three, four ways up to you, making it super convenient. Guys, I got more tips when it comes to saving money when going to conferences. But before that, let me give love to today's sponsor. Today's episode is supported by WP Engine. If you're looking to build a website for your business, the three most important things you should look for is reliability, security and great customer service. And WP Engine is five stars in each category. You want to make sure it's reliable. Your site is always up. We use WP Engine for our site, the $100 MBA and reliability is so important. Because we have a daily podcast. We got to make sure that we publish every day, right? Security is so important. You don't need downtime because some stupid hacker decided to inject something into your database. It's not personal. Hackers just do this. And lastly, custom support. If you need any help, you need any updates, you need somebody who has got technical knowledge to help you out, and that's where they shine. WP engine is amazing and we teamed up with them to get a special discount for listeners. Just go to 100nba.net wpengine and use coupon code WPE20OFF and you'll get 20% off as you get started. Again, that's 100nba.net wpengineering coupon code WPE20OFF. Now, when you're at the conference, there's going to be some expenses. Meals, snacks, food, drinks, airport transfers, things like that. Let's start with airport transfers. Of course, carpooling is going to help you. If you know a whole bunch of people going to the conference, you can say, hey, let's carpool with an Uber. Split the cost. If you're all going to the same Airbnb or same hotel, this helps. Even if you're not going to the same destination, Uber Pool will drop everybody off, saving you some money. If you're staying at a hotel, check with the hotel. Some hotels will offer a airport shuttle to and from. Or the airport shuttle is at a minimal cost, much cheaper than taking a taxi or an Uber. What about your meals when you're there? Well, one of the advantages of an Airbnb is that you'll have a kitchen. You can actually have a decent breakfast. You can make eggs, you can make a decent cup of coffee, you can buy a few things from a local supermarket, and your breakfast is taken care of. In fact, you could pack your own lunch. You can make some sandwiches, cut up some fruit, put a juice box in there. Why not? That way you're saving on breakfast and lunch and you save your budget for dinners and drinks, where most of the socializing happens at conferences, at night, during, you know, happy hour, cocktail hour, a group dinner. This is where the connections happen. But lunch is a quick thing that people eat, you know, between the conference, so no reason to spend on eating out. Hey, we're talking about saving some money here. If you're on a budget, these tips are going to help you get to those conferences with no excuses. Hey, it's even healthier to pack your own lunch, so no worries, guys. I hope today's episode has inspired you. If you've been on the fence and saying, I don't know if I can afford going to a conference, there are ways to save money. There are ways to do it on a budget. You. Even if you just go to one conference a year, it's going to be worth it. But also, if you apply these tips, it's going to allow you to go to more conferences rather than going to one or two. Maybe even go to three or four now that you're saving all this money. All right, thank you so much for listening. I hope to see you in tomorrow's episode. But before I go, I'm going to leave you with this. Some of these hotels that run conferences in major cities will charge an arm and a leg for a room, 250, $300 a night, plus taxes, plus fees, plus if you want to buy their breakfast. It's just pretty insane if you ask me. I remember we went to a conference in Fort Lauderdale and we paid for four nights in a pretty decent Airbnb, as much as the hotel wanted to charge us per night for one room. So definitely check that option. It's going to save you a ton. All right, thank you so much for listening. I'll check you in tomorrow's episode. Free ride Friday. I'll see you then. Take care, Sam.