Lunch

I am a huge fan of lunch.

More specifically I am a huge fan of a long lunch.

Owning and running a business often means unsocial hours. The basic requirements of any growing business include early starts and lots of late nights. Working breakfasts, early interviews with potential new employees or journalists, networking and black tie events which run late into the night and other gatherings all impact on the availability of the social time available to the busy entrepreneur.

I’m not complaining though I love what I do and the time it takes which I gladly commit.

But in a busy working week with lots of competing demands for time and attention, client meetings, team workshops and supplier presentations it is often difficult to carve out proper time to sit down with important business contacts, clients or like minded companions. Lunches are often grabbed on the run, eaten at a desk around work or industry reading or even missed.

“Harsh taskmaster.”

Meetings as we all know run to that ever present and very harsh taskmaster which is Outlook.

This is why I am such a fan of regular long lunches. working or social or any mixture thereof.

Before proceeding I admit that having stated how precious the time is for an entrepreneur I am completely aware of just how fortunate I am to be able to be able to carve out time for a proper lunch every now and then. Many are not so fortunate, they don’t have the capacity or the work place freedoms or the roles and responsibilities which require them. It certainly hasn’t always been possible for me either.

But being a huge fan of food and restaurants too I do like to try to find the time to eat out and I love trying the many different restaurants and huge range of cuisines available in London.

“A leisurely business lunch … can yield huge returns.”

I have found that a leisurely business lunch, with time set properly aside to properly explore business issues or client issues and expectations in a social setting, can yield huge returns and insight.

Participants are much more relaxed and converse more freely about their issues and concerns. I have definitely found that more is shared and learnt during the easy discourse over a restaurant lunch than is so often the case with a strict ‘to time’ business appointment. Friendships form and deepen.

On a personal note, I like how the ability to choose a venue, or have one chosen, adds social variety to what is often a long working week. I love the social interaction and variety of being in business so it comes as no surprise to me that I love the social interaction and variety to be found in the many different restaurants to be found around where I work or further afield.

Whether talking business with like minded professionals keen to share experience, ideas and knowledge or spending quality time getting to really know a client over and above the confines of the client meeting room or even just, with friends, reclaiming personal time lost to after hours work pressures I love a long lunch.

Very recently I have been particularly fortunate to lunch with a hugely respected owner of a wealth management firm similar to my own who I always learn from. I am fascinated that we have as many differences as similarities in our respective businesses and love exploring them.

Also, an assembled pan-industry group of asset management representatives, direct to consumer platform operators, investment directors and fund distributors who willingly and freely kicked around the issues we are all facing in retail financial services from our own perspectives.

I really feel I am now much the more informed and very up to date on some of the wider issues in my profession than I may have been before we got together to share a lunch at the fantastic Omnino Restaurant and then split the bill.

On a more personal note, having had to commit quite a few evenings to the business recently, I also managed to grab some time back to have a purely social lunch with a really close friend who introduced me to a superb sushi and sashimi restaurant, SticksnSushi, which somewhat unusually is run by Danes. I hadn’t been before so it was a double treat. Superb company with stunningly presented and extremely tasty food.

To conclude, I don’t think there is a better way to get to know clients and industry peers more deeply, and very importantly for a busy entrepreneur for sheer work life balance purposes, to maintain important friendships or just to satisfy foodie urges I just can’t recommend the occasional long lunch highly enough.

Go on, you know you deserve to make time for lunch!

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