Alex Noudelman | Have You Got Time For Coffee?

By Alex Noudelman

As usual, I’m having a busy week. I always try to limit my appointments to one a day – two at most, but only if they’re likely to be short. That ensures I have enough time to get all the other stuff done. This week, I’ve had to postpone one meeting because I was simply running out of time to deliver some work to a client, who had decided, as they often do, that the deadline had suddenly moved to the end of this month, rather than the first week of next. Just a normal week then!

So you may be very surprised that I still managed to take a few hours out today to meet up with someone I met through networking some time ago and like immensely. We try to get together on a regular basis, but actually realised today that we hadn’t really seen each other to talk to at any length for several months. Shocking! We’ve never done business together and there was definitely no work-related agenda to the meeting today. Just an opportunity to chat over a cup of coffee… Well, two as it turned out!

Sometimes I get asked where I find the time to do this and the answer to that is easy; you can always find the time for something you really want to do.

But there’s something I think they’re missing when they think I’ve just got time on my hands to sit around and “do nothing” – I stress these are their words, not mine.

You see, some people think that if you’re not actually dealing with clients or doing something directly related to your business, you’re slacking.

I, however, have a different view.

Informal conversations with friends or colleagues are usually surprisingly productive. If there’s no particular agenda, you tend to chat about what you’ve been up to, who you’ve met, where you’ve been, how business is going generally. And who knows what nuggets may be contained in all of that.

I regularly get together with people I’ve met through business for no other reason than to just keep the relationship going. Why? Because you never know what you might start talking about and whether or not you have a “light-bulb” moment, when an idea pops up that you previously hadn’t thought of.

Every meeting is a possibility. Who knows what might come of it. And remember, you don’t have to be “in” your business to work “on” it. In short, never underestimate the potential of a conversation over a few coffees. It’s very rarely time wasted and could, in fact, turn out to be time very well spent indeed.

Never be too busy to seek out new opportunities. These can be anywhere and everywhere and sometimes crop up in the most unlikely of places.

Sometimes a cup of coffee with a colleague can lead to something much bigger