Meetings are a fact of business, whether you’re running a virtual call with a major client or setting up time for weekly check-ins with your team. But without a clear objective, meetings can easily go off-track.
So how do business owners run effective and meaningful meetings? Founders in the Business for All Community provided their go-to tips in running efficient business meetings. Here are some of the strategies they shared with us.
Have a Plan
The secret ingredient to running productive meetings? Agendas! Listing out meeting items can help your clients, partners, and team prepare for the meeting ahead of time, resulting in ultimate productivity:
“Sharing an agenda with adequate time for participants to review and prepare. Include questions in the agenda that folks should think about before the meeting to stimulate engagement.”
— Starsha Valentine, co-owner of Community Kitchen Works
Keep It ‘Short and Sweet’
As the saying goes, time is money. This founder recommends to keep your meetings short as possible. Not only will it keep your meetings focused, but it can also save valuable time for attendees:
“Have your agenda laid out, make sure your material is gaining feedback, and make it short and sweet if possible.”
— Peter Forest, owner of Forest Photography
Go Digital: Use Collaborative Meetings Tools
In a time where many owners are running meetings remotely, this founder looks to apps to create effective meetings at his organization:
“I’ve been using an app called Fellow and sending out an agenda via Slack before every meeting, in addition to sending an agenda email. Team members can add to it as well. Communicating agendas ahead of time has helped me and my team with structure as we go into our meetings.”
— Cross Allan, founder of Lyrical Opposition
Looking for mentorship with fellow founders? Visit the Business for All Community for peer-to-peer support and advice.