I'm in a meeting! Have to go to a meeting! Let's have a meeting!  Perhaps the word "meeting" is meant to impress others; to show them how busy you are. I am shocked to see how many small business  with 3 to 10 employees , schedule hours of weekly meeting, many without an agenda.

While I believe that meeting can be useful, there has to be a legitimate purpose for the meaning; an agenda to be followed and a time frame to complete the meeting. The following is a "before meeting" list of things to consider before a meeting is called.

• What is the purpose of the meeting?
• What do you expect to accomplish?
• What happens if you don't hold a meeting?
• Who on the staff can best address and contribute meaningfully to the purpose of the meeting?
• What tools ( paper work, reports, etc) are needed to best accomplish the purpose of the meeting?
• With answers to the above questions, an agenda and time line for the meeting should be established. A meeting should be timed to fit the agenda, not an agenda to fit the time.
• The next question is where to hold the meeting? Is it best to hold it in the office or at another location? What are the pro's and con's?
• The last questions is the time of day to hold the meeting. The participants should be fresh to address the challenge presented.

By the time you have completed this process you either will decide that meeting is not necessary or you will have a very productive session.

Another meeting option is to hold "instant mini-meetings". These are done as to appear spontaneous, but the person calling the meeting has taken the above list and trimmed it to a 10 minute meeting. This is an effective way to save  time when a challenge arises, but there is no need for a "full meeting".

All meetings, one on one or a full staff meeting should be well planned by the business owner. This helps achieve the desired result and will save time.

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Having something to say is always more important than wanting to say something.

Have a great day!