A $30 Cup of Coffee

Several years back I went to Sacramento to visit a friend of mine from college. Mike had just moved to the area to attend law school and it was nice to see a friendly face from the East Coast! But after catching up over Starbucks, I was dismayed to find a parking ticket on my car! Turns out I’d been in a residential zone and my $4 drink turned into a $30 lesson.

But the odd thing is that, even at the time, I wasn’t too upset. Sure, I didn’t feel like paying for a ticket, but when I thought about it, I saw that $30 as an investment in our friendship.

Nowadays my criteria for the $30 coffee is a little different. I watch carefully to park legally, but I’m happy to drive an hour or two to see a friend for dinner. Or visit someone’s open house or celebrate a birthday. When I travel I try to find opportunities to meet people I’ve chatted with virtually or meet new entrepreneurs.

Some people are shocked when I mention that I live “an hour away” or that I took off the afternoon to meet some friends at a Napa winery (okay, that one’s a little more easy to understand!), but for me it’s simple: instead of paying a parking ticket I’ll “pay” in my time, gas for the car, parking – in order to have that cup of coffee.

It’s not really about the coffee

Or the drinks or the dinner. It’s about making an effort to really invest in relationships. My good friend Mike “Ambassador” Bruny calls this process “Hashtags to Handshakes” and when we met for the first time in December it was as if we’d known each other for decades.

The more often you can meet clients in person, the more you might accomplish.

Don’t get me wrong, I love the virtual aspects of my business. But when you’re just starting a project or are doing a very detailed project working in person is a huge time saver. It can also help you build rapport quickly and you can gain insights to their personality. How else will you know your client has an addiction to M&Ms or a wicked sense of humor?

Later on when you’re thinking of client gifts it won’t be so easy to complain “but I have no idea what they like!”

Business is mobile

When I’m traveling to meet with a client or colleague, I try not to make this wasted time. Often I’m on the BART train in San Francisco (when they’re not on strike) and use this time to read my backlog of interesting articles on my iPad or write a blog post. If I’m driving, I’ll set up my bluetooth and call into my own conference line, hit record and talk out an idea or memo note for my team.

And sometimes when you’re traveling, it’s nice to just have the quiet and solitude. Working doesn’t require you to sit behind a computer 9 hours a day between the hours of 8am and 5pm. If you want to work early, go to the gym, take dinner with a client, and work until the late hours of the night, do it. Don’t let the schedule of a traditional company or the expectations of someone else keep you from making time for people.

In the end, when it’s all said and done, it’s the relationships with people that will truly matter. And relationships don’t grow unless you nurture them.

Action Step: Who lives near you or may be visiting soon that you can make a coffee date with in the next week? Here’s a tip – send out a call on Twitter or Facebook: “Anyone local to #Sacramento and a fellow #entrepreneur want to meet up for coffee this week? Message me!” (obviously replace with your city or tag me and I’ll meet fabulous new friends in Sacramento without you 😉