Coffee shops serve as new place for business meetings

Smoke-filled board rooms are being replaced by the aroma of fresh-brewed coffee in a casual setting.

Business professionals have found coffee shops to be informal, comfortable places to meet a client. For people who work from home, meeting clients in a coffee shop is a way of creating an informal but business-like setting. Business reps on the road find that coffee shops cater to their needs by offering not only a choice between regular or decaf, but free Internet access.

Annette Emmons, manager of Cape Girardeau's Grace Cafe, 835 Broadway, says some people consider the cafe their second office.

"They bring their laptop and meet here," she said. "It's a mutual meeting ground for them."

"There seems to be quite a bit of business going on," commented Steve Turner, manager of the coffee shop at Barnes and Noble Booksellers, 3035 William St. "In the last five years it keeps growing and growing."

Doing business over coffee may be a recent growing trend, but it is an old concept. The insurance firm Lloyds of London began in a London coffee house in the mid-18th century. In New York in 1792, a coffee house at the foot of Wall Street became a central meeting place, and in small cities a coffee house functioned as a place where messages might be left and picked up, according to the Web site Answers.com.

Coffee is a common denominator on several different levels, Emmons said.

"No matter what culture you come from, or what part of the world, coffee is something people can share," she said.

Cape Girardeau mayor Jay Knudtson said that as mayor, he often finds himself talking with people over coffee, and has held community forums over coffee.

"It's a disarming environment in which to have a very meaningful conversation," Knudtson said. "I can get a real pulse for what's going on in the community within a coffee shop. There's a tremendous diversity that exists in coffee shops."

As a banker, Knudtson said he finds clients are more relaxed and comfortable in such an informal setting. In his office at First Missouri State Bank, Knudtson said, "I'm the guy behind the desk. Some feel intimidated with that."

Sitting at a table with a cup of coffee, "We're able to get on a level playing field," he said. "Part of being successful is trying to break down barriers. Part of what I try to do to be successful is identify what environment a client is most comfortable in."

Dr. Gerald McDougall of Southeast Missouri State University's business school said he finds several advantages to taking business outside the office setting and sharing coffee or a meal: finding middle ground, meeting each other half way.

"It's a way of taking advantage of more hours of the day," he said. "It provides a relaxing, informal setting. You get to know somebody and are able to be in a peaceful area, not distracted by normal business activity -- phones ringing and being interrupted."

Joe McKeon of Western Mutual Insurance Company said he likes to meet clients over a noon meal.

"They appreciate you when you buy them lunch," McKeon said.

McKeon said he conducts business over a meal more than over coffee, but agrees that he finds the trend shifting from conducting business over dinner or drinks or on the golf course. It's a matter of getting to know the client well enough to know where he will be most comfortable and ready to do business, he said.

Knudtson said he prefers to save golf for relationship-building with a client when business is secondary and concentrating on the game gives each a chance to see characteristics in the other that might not emerge in a discussion.

"Golf has never served as a venue for me to negotiate or discuss business as opposed to sitting over coffee or iced tea," he said.

Meeting clients over hot coffee is a way of making human warmth part of doing business, said Emmons of Grace Cafe.

"It's part of God's grace," she said explaining how the coffee shop got its name. "Whenever we're dealing with the public, it's what we're supposed to do -- give that grace."