[BrianAnderson]

Don't bill for travel as income. Either bill it as an expense, or what is often more convienent/easier to manage since the client doesn't worry about it is if you have a car, is take the tax write-ff at 58 cents per mile (or whatever that figure is). For airfare, bill if you are doing work on the plane. The rest is the cost of doing business and should be built into your hourly rate.

If you are under contract, yes bill for the first meeting. If not, depending on the relationship, there are two ways of handling this. The first, and what I do with the clients I am most comfortable with, is simply add those in at a later date as line items. The rationale is because the second way to do it is bake it into your hourly rate post-contract (Notice everything is either they pay directly or indirectly). Many clients, when you explain how you need to structure rates go with option 1, BUT and this is a huge BUT, with new clients, never explain option 1. Sales is all about slanting and simplifying. Trying to sit down and explain this subtlety will likely mean you lose the business.

So moral of the story is the easier it is for the client to do mental math, the easier it is to win business. Trying to explain subtleties that are important to you are a waste of time. Add in a clause to your contract that expenses are not included in your quote and will be billed separately. Depending on your field, you also may want to include things like stock photography, software licenses, and/or hardware are not part of the quote.