When It Is --and Isn't -- Worth Meeting in Person Strategic investment in travel can save both money and time.

Drew Martin, founder and CEO of MeCam wearable video cameras, thought it was pretty cool that he could work with his Taiwan-based manufacturer strictly over e-mail, Skype and Google Hangout. "When people asked how many times I'd been to Taiwan, I was proud to say, 'Oh, I didn't have to go over there,'" he says.

But when disagreements arose over design and money, he spent months trying to work things out remotely. Then, at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, he finally met his manufacturers face to face. "We went to dinner, had a couple of drinks, went to a couple of meetings together. It made all the difference," he says.

He was able to explain his vision for the company; trust was built, and money changed hands. And the problems? Gone. "What had set us back about three or four months we got done in about four hours," he says.