Many small business owners and entrepreneurs wear many hats while running their companies. Meetings with clients, vendors, consultants and employees can take up a huge amount of time. Sometimes when a meeting is scheduled the purpose may seem valuable and when it is run correctly, most people leave it feeling that they have accomplished something.
However, the original purpose of a meeting can be lost when it is poorly planned and organized. This can waste valuable time. For this reason, business owners need to understand exactly what it takes to run a good meeting and minimize time spent in them. Here are a few things to consider when planning a meeting:
Is the meeting really necessary? Often certain issues really don't require a meeting at all and can be discussed through a brief phone call or addressed in an email. Try to stay away from scheduling unimportant meetings and find other ways to communicate with people for less important issues.
The right people. Make sure that you aren't wasting someone else's time by inviting them to a meeting that they don't need to attend and don't have a meeting without key decision makers in attendance.
Send out reminders. Many people are busy with other things. If you invite them to a meeting you may need to remind them again a day or an hour ahead of time. Depending on what software you use to send invitations, you can usually request to confirm whether they will be attend the meeting.
Set an agenda. You should send out an agenda before the meeting to address specific topics that will be discussed. Without this your meeting may quickly lose focus and time will be wasted.
Stick to your agenda. The purpose of having an agenda is to outline what will be covered and the goals of the meeting. Make sure that you don't fall off track.
Create action plans at the meeting. If you reach a decision during your meeting make sure you create an action plan while the attendees are there rather than following up with them afterwards.