Dress to Impress

Over the last year and a half I have started traveling for business every couple of months. Usually on these trips I am visiting a contractor which does business for my company. Ultimately my role is to perform an audit or provide oversight into how well they are executing their contractual duties. I have also starting giving briefings to high level managers and decision makers. In other words, at times my job requires me to put forth a professional, credible persona.

A large part of that professionalism is dressing the part. In my normal work environment we don't have a dress code. As an unspoken rule, shorts and sandals are a bit too casual except on special occasions, but day-to-day a tee shirt and blue jeans is perfectly acceptable. I am sometime teased by friends and family because I almost always wear the same thing whether at work or at home: a collared polo-style shirt and blue jeans. When I travel or have a presentation to give that outfit does not give the impression I need to present.

For those situations I currently wear a pair of black slacks, a solid color button-up shirt, and a tie. My entire "dress" wardrobe consists of one pair of dress pants, about four button-up shirts, and less than a half dozen ties. In other words, I can get through a week of business travel and then I am out of fresh options. The problem is that I am finding that in some situations I am still a tad under dressed.

A particular weakness in my current plan is that I know my dress shoes are not up to snuff. I bought them for $30 at WalMart. They are black. They are simple. They also look like I bought them at WalMart... My shoes are clearly due for an upgrade.

Next, in cold weather, or really anytime mother nature is not cooperating, I also look like a schmuck. At issue here is that I only have one real jacket, and it is completely casual. It is a decent jacket for walking around town, but it is more at home on a camping trip than in a board room. Because I am from the South the jacket also is not up to the insane weather conditions I have encountered during my travels this winter (a high temp of -6 is NOT a temperate climate). Thus, I need a better selection of outerwear that is classy and able to stand up to all types of weather.

My last big hole in my professional wardrobe is my briefcase. Again from WalMart for about $30, I bought a messenger bag / soft side brief case. It is made out of nylon and looks more at home on a college campus than by my side during a "power lunch." To top it all off, back in January when I took a trip, the shoulder strap broke as I was walking through the Cincinnati airport. In order to slog through the airport with all of my stuff I really need a bag with a shoulder strap.

A few days ago I was about to buy a new strap for the ailing bag. Then I saw that my options were either pay $18 for a decent padded strap, pay $12 for another crap piece of nylon with plastic hardware and no padding, or worse yet buy a strap of neon green or rainbow color. Rather than throw good money after bad I started looking for a replacement briefcase.

Today I popped into the luggage store at the local mall to see what I could find. I was immediately put off by the $300-400 cases they had filling their shelves. The sales clerk tried to help me out but when I said my price range was $60-100 she just laughed. I was ready to leave but she then told me to feel free to dig through some bags that were behind the counter and lined up below a display case. There I found some treasures. Ultimately I selected a bag that was listed as a Kenneth Cole case new for 2001 (like I care for a classic black briefcase what year it was "in style"), and it had been marked down from $250 to $179 to $139 to $99 and finally down to $79!

I still agonized about the price for a while before I realized that it was just barely more than I paid for my old WalMart bag plus one replacement strap. I decided that it was time to buy a quality product that would hold up for years (it even has a lifetime manufacturer warranty) and project the type of image that is expected of me for important meetings and business travel. This is one of those cases where spending a little money now to make the right impression could pay massive dividends with raises and promotions down the line. Now, if only I can find the same kind of deal on the rest of my professional wardrobe as I did on that case so I will be totally ready to dress to impress.