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The Art of the Business Dinner

Whether you run a small business, or you run a multi-national conglomerate, hosting a business dinner is one way to fortify ties with your clients and business associates. However, hosting a business dinner is not exactly like enjoying dinner with an old friend, there are a few measures you need to take to ensure that the sit-down is, ultimately, a success and that the purpose for which it was organized has been realized. This is what our JFK limo service specialists will be discussing in today’s post.

Before we get there, we would like to recommend the contracting of a reliable car service such as our LaGuardia airport shuttle service for your business associates. This will, not only, portray you as a true professional and create a positive impression, but will also indicate to your associates just how much you value and appreciate them. This will, in turn, serve to solidify your business relationship because everyone loves to go where they feel valued, won’t you agree? The following are a few more tips on how to go about a business dinner for a positive outcome.

Date and Time

Select an appropriate date and time that works with your schedule and inform your audience in advance in order to give them ample time to plan for it; preferably two weeks in advance. A business dinner generally lasts anywhere between 2 to 3 hours and alerting your business associates in advance allows them the opportunity to free their calendar, which will prevent them from hurrying through the dinner, ensuring that they stay long enough to fully delve and participate in the agenda of the dinner.

Do your Homework

Find out all you can about your business associates before the business dinner. Gather information from social media platforms such as LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook. It may sound sneaky, but gathering information on your associates’ interests, hobbies, personal backgrounds, favorite venues, will go a long way in helping you tailor the setting for the dinner as well as the more casual conversations to be had at the dinner table.

The Agenda

In most cases, when delicious food is on the table, people can get carried away and forget that this was, in fact, a business dinner. Regardless of the informal setting, you must keep in mind the real purpose of the meeting. Just like any office meeting, a business meeting must have a clear agenda, motions to be discussed, and conclusions to be made. Do not get carried away and deviate too much.

No Alcohol

This is not the 1950s where you would find whiskey at office dispensers. Remember, drinking impairs your judgment, memory, and ability to communicate effectively. Having alcohol at the business dinner will most likely distract you from the real objective of the meeting, and you don’t want to go back to the office tomorrow and realize that you did not concisely address all the matters you intended to address when you called the meeting. So, lay off the sauce for the night and maintain a business-like state of mind.

If you are thinking about throwing an office party, then read the article published by our Pittsburgh limo service friends at Regency Transportation to discover the best office party etiquette tips.

Posted on Mar 26 2019

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