Brad Rourke's Blog

"screwdriver collection" by Flickr user Evil Erin

As most of my readers know, my wife Andrea Jarrell and I are both “solopreneurs” — she has been at it a lot longer than me, but we are both quite accustomed to this way of working. Andrea is preparing for a panel where she will be talking about the trials, tribulations, and rewards of starting one’s own enterprise, and she asked me if I would be interested in pulling together a list of resources for folks who are starting their own effort.

As I thought about it, the exercise became quite fun — and I hope useful. Since 2003 I’ve been working in a home office and all this time I have been an early adopter of tools and techniques. I’ve got some setups that really work well for me. Maybe they will be useful for you too.

I’ve divided the list up into Infrastructure (things you need to physically or administratively set up), Tools (items you need to do your work, within the infrastructure), and Software and Services.

Infrastructure: Your entrepreneurial operating system

• Internet Provider — This is perhaps the single most important piece of “infrastructure” you can set up. Make sure you have the fastest and most reliable Internet connection you can afford. If you have a choice between fast and reliable, go with the latter. We use a Verizon DSL line that is rock solid. I have experiment with Comcast, which in theory would have given me faster speeds, but it was abysmally erratic. Sometimes fast, sometimes slow.
• Network — You will need a wireless router in your home. There is no need to use a “wired” system, wireless is fast enough and secure enough. Netgear is good. Make sure you change the password on the router so it is not “admin” or “password” which is what the default often is. And make sure you give it a unique name, too.
• Wireless Phones — Again, my chief concern here is reliability. The network is more important than which phone you use. For all-across-the-nation coverage, Verizon is superior to all others. If you don’t travel a lot, and another carrier is better for you in your area, go with it. For instance, westerners may want to go with Sprint. Avoid T-Mobile.
• Phones — Do not waste money or time installing a “new phone line” wires. Use a Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP) phone number like those available from Vonage (which I have used since they began, and very happily) or from your current phone provider. The advantage of having a VOIP line is that you have far more control over it. Vonage has a service where it will transcribe your voicemails and email them to you, and it is usually very accurate.
• Web Site — Yes you need a web site. No it does not have to be fancy if that is not required for your business. But something is necessary. You are best served paying the money and buying a domain name (yourname.com) and setting up whatever you want there. I use GoDaddy, which is very easy to set up and has lots of free add-ons. For your web site, you can just create a blog with some key entries. Wordpress and Blogger will let you do this, for free. Create a main entry, an “about” entry, a “products” or “services” entry, and a “contact” entry.
• E-mail — This is probably the most used piece of infrastructure you will have. If you get a domain name, it will probably some with a number of email addresses. Go ahead and set one up. Now you have some choices. You can just go ahead and use Outlook or another email program to check your email, or you can do what I do which is use the far superior interface of Gmail for your email. (Gmail is Google’s mail product). You will need to create an account in Gmail, and then you can have your Gmail account check the “yourname.com” account on a regular basis. (Bonus for the tech-savvy: use Google Apps to do this for better branding.)

Tools: The things you use to get work done

• Fax — As with phones, there is no need to set up a special fax landline. Use eFax, which will give you a fax number you can give out for a nominal monthly fee. When people fax to the number, you get a pdf emailed to you. Cool!!
• Cell Phone — Of course you have one. It might be useful, since you’re solo and may need to be able to get more done remotely and without backup, for you to have a smartphone. That’s like the iPhone, the Blackberry, the Palm Pre, or the like. It is very frequent that I need web access while I am on the move. I could not work without a smartphone.
• Laptop — I am an outlier on this. A lot of my friends love their MacBooks. I think it’s crazy to get a laptop so large. I am very happy with the Lenovo 3000 V200 series, which is a nice combination of size, power, and price. Make sure whatever
• MiFi — This is a relatively new product that is great. It allows you to connect to the Internet using wifi, even where there isn’t any. You set it up through your cell service provider (we use Verizon’s and love it).
• Backup — Make sure, make sure, make sure you have a backup system for your laptop. We use a “network connected storage” device by Iomega. It is basically a 1TB disk drive attached to our router. (A terabyte is 1,000 gigabytes.) The key is to remember to backup regularly. The single best solution I have yet found for this is to use a program called ViceVersa Pro. It runs in the background and continually checks my “My Documents” folder. If it changes, it updates the Iomega disk. This piece of software is a little tricky to set up but it is so worth the time that you are a fool if you do not do it. This piece of software is the chief reason I do not use a Mac — it only exists in Windows.

Software and Services: What you work on, and with

• Accounting — If you are in business, you need to manage your money. That means you probably need Quickbooks. Even if you have an accountant, she or he will probably still tell you to get Quickbooks. So get it. There is a definite learning curve so set aside a weekend to figure it out. You do not have to go hog wild — just set up the bare minimum you need. But do it. It’s like Quicken . . . only better.
• Office Programs — Yes, you can get free office software, all of which is highly compatible with Microsoft Office. If you do not share documents too frequently with colleagues, this can work very well. The product is Open Office. But most people get Microsoft Office. You probably should, too.
• Calendar — If you get Microsoft Office, you will have a calendar and email program (Outlook). This is fine. But I travel a lot and I sometimes travel without my computer. This is the main reason I have migrated just about everything I can over to Google tools: Gmail, calendar, tasks, contacts. They are free. If you use Google Apps (see above, and it’s not free) it is more secure.
• Collaboration — To collaborate with clients and colleagues, I routinely use Google’s collaboration tools — especially Google Docs. These are essentially documents you create online. You can give other people access to them on a password basis, and they can make changes to the document too. A record is kept of all changes so you can roll back mistakes. It is a great way to work on any number of things.
• Notes — As a solopreneur, you will spend a lot of time working on your computer. A note taking program is very useful. I use Evernote, which automatically syncs up with the web, so I can actually access my notes from anywhere.
• Virtual Assistant — A lot of people are nervous about leaving an employer, in part because they have gotten used to having backup for administrative tasks. There are a number of people who are jumping in to fill this need.
• Twitter and Facebook — This may seem funny to have as a “business tool,” but I firmly believe Facebook and Twitter belong here. I am not thinking of them as marketing tools — though they can be, and reams have been written about how best to do and not do that. But I am thinking of them as supports for your solopreneur efforts. If you cultivate decent networks on these services, you will have a group of people you can turn to for help, advice, and troubleshooting on a moment’s notice. For instance, need a virtual assistant? Ask your Twitter network whom they recommend!

There, I hope that’s helpful. Once I hit “publish” I am sure I will think of some more ideas. Maybe I will do an “intermediate” post sometime in the future!

Playing Restaurant

When I was about eleven, I learned how to make my favorite cheese sandwich: white bread, mayonnaise, American cheese. Yes, I grew up in the midwest. Shortly after I learned this special skill, I developed a fun game to pass the time: I would play “restaurant.”

More precisely, I would play short order cook. I would pretend I was a cook at a diner, with lots of orders coming in. Only thing was, everyone ordered the one thing I could make — an American cheese sandwich. So I would make sandwich after sandwich, as fast as I could, pretending I was a cook deep in the weeds during a big rush.

I got to thinking about this the other day as I reflected on my own career arc, current strategy, and future plans. I wondered, “Am I playing ‘restaurant?’”

Treading Water

A lot of my friends are solopreneurs — lone people plying their trade on a project-by-project basis. I have been working independently since 2003, and proudly so. But sometimes, I see other friends who are happily ensconced in organizations, managing, meeting, memo-ing. Then I look at my own workstyle, in which I write from about 6:30 am until 10:30 am, have a stretch of less productive time, and then come back hard from about 2:00 pm on. Sometimes I go deep into the night.

The things that rarely occupy this time are the things that routinely occupy my office-working friends’ lives. I have few meetings, the phone rarely rings (almost everything is email, txt, Twitter, and IM). There is zero office politics. The way things are right now, I can get a ton of stuff done. It leaves room for lots of possibilities.

But, sometimes, I worry. Should I be doing more? Am I just going through the motions of “working?” Am I treading water? Am I pretending?

I think these kinds of questions are ones that other solopreneurs also face. Twitter has given many of us a window into some water cooler cultures that we are not part of. I see lots of my friends “going into meetings,” or “having conversation with the boss,” and “talking to HR.” If I don’t do these things, am I just, in the end, making a bunch of cheese sandwiches and pretending I am the real deal?

Having Direction

I think the key lies in whether I have a direction or not. What’s my path? Having few in-the-flesh coworkers means I can get a lot of strategizing done. It also means I can succumb to one of two temptations. I can not write down any of my plans, in which case they are just dreams. Or, I can spend so much time on my planning, developing fancy slide decks for no one but myself, that I can fool myslef into thinking I am already GE. There’s a happy medium to be struck.

But I need to have plans, a direction. And they need to be written down. Otherwise it’s just cheese sandwiches.

Sometimes this planning can raise self doubts about how far I have come, or not come, but that’s OK. As solopreneurs, we are still writing the rules and for now — we are where we are.

Maybe you can tell I’ve been thinking about my own direction these days. There are some exciting things in store. But I always need to remind myself to keep it real. Don’t pretend I’m bigger than I am.

Nor should I pretend I’m smaller than I am: Maybe, I will look down and notice that those aren’t cheese sandiwches I’m making, but whole meals. A sub. A steak. Mashed potatoes.

Maybe I’ve been feeding people all along.

"Kindling" by Flickr user oskay

Last week, a story was circulating through social media platforms that illuminated a real bonehead move by Amazon. It was deleting copies of George Orwell’s 1984 and Animal Farm from people’s Kindles without their knowledge.

Turns out the books being deleted from the popular e-readers were unauthorized editions, and in the Kindle terms of service it is made clear that Amazon is within their rights to do such a thing . . . but still. The passionate community of Kindle users (our household owns two) was up in arms.

Of course, the irony of going Big Brother to delete 1984 was not lost on most commenters.

Amazon made a quick announcement admitting the mistake, but it was pretty generic. It wasn’t enough.

So yesterday Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos issued this statement:

An Apology from Amazon

This is an apology for the way we previously handled illegally sold copies of 1984 and other novels on Kindle. Our “solution” to the problem was stupid, thoughtless, and painfully out of line with our principles. It is wholly self-inflicted, and we deserve the criticism we’ve received. We will use the scar tissue from this painful mistake to help make better decisions going forward, ones that match our mission.

With deep apology to our customers,

Jeff Bezos
Founder & CEO
Amazon.com

Often, when a CEO is forced by circumstances (or her or his own boneheadedness, or other events) to issue an apology, they don’t go all the way. It’s a “mistakes were made” kind of statement that satisfies no one.

If you are telling me you are sorry, I want to know you are truly remorseful.

This statement is the clearest, most forthright, most constructive corporate apology I can remember. It takes courage, as a leader of a public company, to stand up like this.

Somehow I have gotten on an “Internet marketing guru’s” email distribution list. I typically just archive the notes without reading them, but for some reason (I think because it came in on my Blackberry) I read the latest one.

It was touting a free “telesummit” which is a fancy word for a conference call. It was arranged like a conference agenda, with a series of speakers. Each speaker had clearly thought deeply about how he wanted to portray himself and what take-aways the audience could expect. Even though the subject is not my thing, I could see how someone might get something out of each specific session.

But add them up and the effect was dramatic. After this conference call, I will have learned:

• 9 “step-by-step” methods for something
• 12 “keys” to other things
• 13 methods, processes, or strategies
• Two “ways”
• Two “myths”
• Two “secrets”

This is an interesting and important thing to remember: When building agendas, the overall effect is often less than the sum of the parts.

Just something to keep in mind when making plans. There needs to be a coordinating force.

I have recreated the agenda below:

"Agenda" by Flickr user Dinocom

How to Exploit the Power of Free Giveaway Events to Generate Hundreds and Even Thousands of Hungry Leads

• Unlock the top 3 step-by-step techniques to make your giveaways profitable

• The #1 secret to getting joint venture partners lining up at your door
• How even “newbies” can begin creating a successful targeted email list quickly
• Learn a tried-and-true way to begin building a huge list of subscribers through partnerships
• The secret “Win-Win-Win” formula for giveaway event success

Lead Gen Secrets of an Unknown, Behind-the-Scenes, Lead Generation Guru Who Turned $50 Into a Multi-Million Dollar Lead Generation Company

• The step-by-step method to turn $50 into a million-dollar lead company
• The #1 secret you must know to be in the 1% of successful lead generators
• A fool-proof way to identify leads and turn them into cash
• A paint by number process to lead generation that will leave your competitors in the dust
• 3 vital steps for fail-proofing your lead generation process

Powerful Methods of Using the Internet to Automatically Generate a Flood of Qualified Leads With Little to No Experience

• 3 key lead generation strategies to building strong lists online without much effort
• 3 crucial ways blog content can sway your readers into signing up for more
• The single biggest online money making myth and how to keep it from infiltrating your success
• 5 simple outsourcing techniques that will create less work and more leads
• 3 “must-have” lifetime customer strategies to maximize the power of your first sale

A Step-By-Step Formula that the Average Person Can Use to Instantly Generate Leads In ANY Niche of Your Choice

• 5 simple step-by-step ways to gain targeted leads quickly
• Discover the biggest mistake businesses make when trying to obtain leads
• Find out 3 vital keys to creating an effective landing page that 98% of your competition is not doing
• 3 cost-effective techniques to boost your visibility and bring in more targeted leads
• The #1 proven method to grab the attention of your target market

See what I mean?

Peter Shankman and Sarah Evans have co-written an article titled, “Is your social media expert really an expert?” If you have spent even a little bit of time exploring social media, you probably know that these are two very credible, serious people. Their 25-point list is very useful to anyone thinking about seeking outside help.

It’s tempting to reproduce it here, but that would be way wrong. You should  go read the list then come back here.

Are you back? OK, good.

"the teen, the shark" by Flickr user egarc2

You probably noticed there are really three themes at play. Call it three ways to be a loser when it comes to advising others on implementing social media:

1. Being a charlatan. You know the type. They exist in all fields. They actually call themselves “gurus” or “experts” yet there is no trace of them on the Internet before 2008. They talk big and tell you about a brave new world where revenue doesn’t matter and everything is some kind of “conversation.”A charlatan sees money in the fact that many people are at sea when it comes to social media — and he or she is there to sell some snake oil and skip town.
2. Being a shark. This is the person who sees social media as just another way to make real the world of Glengarry Glen Ross where the dictum is always to “get them to sign on the line that is dotted.” They see Twitter as a great way to “push” marketing out to “eyeballs.” They concoct schemes to boost followers and friends without regard to quality, just so the numbers are pumped up. To a shark, social media is a low-cost way to target new dupes.
3. Being a geek. The geek has fallen so in love with the social media tools that she or he can’t see the purpose behind using them. They don’t seem to grasp that, at some point, someone has to buy something to make it all worthwhile. They don’t think about the needs of the organization, nor do they think about how to integrate social media with other outward-facing (and some inward-facing) functions in the organization. They don’t mean wrong (unlike the first two types) but they can be quite damaging in terms of blind alleys and false starts.

A friend of mine recently compared the current times to 1996, when few organizations really knew what to do, if anything, with this growing thing called the Web. Consultants cropped up like mushrooms and dispensed lots of lousy advice. This friend is of the opinion that it will be about two years before organizations have really decided on a stable set of social media strategies and, in the meantime, lots of charlatans, sharks, and geeks are going to make a killing.

I’ve been fiddling around with social media for a while now. Long before that, I was active online. I had a blog before the word was invented. And I promoted that blog (it was an occasional column about California politics I called Content) through a simple email list that I grew to a couple hundred in my spare time. That was back in 1996 or so.

That’s all to say, I dig these tools and I tend to adopt them early. What’s more, I’ve been using them in a certain way for more than a decade now — and most intensively in the last five years.

I’ve developed a method for marketing and tending to my “personal brand” (oh how I dislike that term, though it is apt here) that I have come to call “Blob Marketing.”

Blobs Vs. Targets

Most of theories of marketing or promotions that I have come into contact use a target as the metaphor. Some members of your audience are your bull’s-eye. They are who you want to reach, because they have money, or can act on your ideas, or whatever. They are the special ones in your universe. Outside of that ring is a group of high-propensity folks, who probably are into your stuff and could be turned into customers or evangelists for your brand. Outside of that ring are people who are on the fence, and outside of that are people who might have just heard about you once, and so on. As the rings get larger, the level of attachment is reduced. Your job is to get people moved from the outer ring into the bull’s eye.

For years I tried to use that model and I found that it did not work for me.

Here’s why: I produce too many disparate elements to sequence them like a target. I’ve got a blog, I’ve got my Facebook account (now I have a public page to go along with it), I’ve got my Twitter account, I’ve got an email list I mail to each Friday, and I’ve got a bunch of colleagues, friends and family who sort of know what I do and are interested once in a while.

I see each of these audiences as amorphous blobs, sort of like this:

Working The Blobs

You can see that some people overlap from blob to blob, but not all. Also, it is not necessarily predictable and tidy. For instance, you can see that some of my work colleagues get my email, and some read my blog. Few follow me on Twitter or are friends on Facebook, which are two of my main methods for getting my ideas out there. But all the overlaps are valuable, even ones that aren’t necessarily where I would put the middle of the bull’s-eye if I were turning this into a target. (Note that this is not an exactly accurate depiction of my blobs, I am just illustrating the point. Plus there are blobs I am missing, like YouTube, Posterous, and elsewhere.)

The trick, it seems to me, is to follow a few principles:

• Add content to each blob on a regular and predictable basis, but don’t flood that blob (ten Tweets a day is OK, but not ten blog posts)
• Try to vary content from blob to blob (so the overlap people don’t get bored due to redundancy)
• BUT, cross promote and don’t worry about a little bit of duplication (people need repetition before they will take action on a new idea)
• Try to track and monitor so you know where your overlaps are (this will help you know what nodes are most important so you can adapt tactics)

Your set of blobs probably looks very different than mine. But I bet you’ve got one.

I nearly jumped for joy when I read that some phone companies were phasing out their automatic delivery of White Pages.

(Granted, there are some households that do not have Internet access, but that number is dwindling year by year. Last May it was about 1 in 5 and dropping.)

Open Mailbox by flickr user Lara604

A Waste

The White Pages and their Yellow buddies are, for the majority of consumers, a nuisance. They are bulky, out of date immediately, and increasingly don’t have the information one wants (as more people use cell phones as their primary connection). They’re also a waste of money and resources — there someone has to deliver the things, they need to be printed, shipped, stored, etc.

And yet they are delivered to me whether I want them or not.

Then I learned that most telcos still give out the books becuase they have to. Local jurisdictions require them as part of their operating agreements.

I get that we can’t penalize non-Internet users and shut them out — but can’t it be something they opt-in to, rather than something I need to opt out of?

Switching To Opt-In Marketing

That got me thinking about other organizations’ marketing efforts.

For example, I have an email list that I have built up over many years. (I’m supposed to send one out today, in fact.) Looking at my stats, I am certain there are people who have long been on that list who simply tolerate receiving it — they haven’t opened and email in years. What if I were to run a “census” and ask people to affirmatively say they want to remain on the list? It might be painful to watch the number on my list drop, but those that remain really, really want to hear from me.

Think about how much you send out (whether by mail or by email) that people did not ask for. What if you switched over to entirely opt-in strategies?

I wrote recently about how organizations can use people’s social media feetprints to find talent. There’s also been lots written about how careful people need to be with what they post in the social media sphere lest they inadvertently make themselves unemployable.

Footprints by Flickr user kimba

But I think if you’re looking for a job and you’re not using social media proactively, you’re crazy.

What you can do with it:

• Create a portfolio. I’ve written about this before. Resumes rarely convey your real highlights. They can’t; they’re too stylized. Your social media footprint can do that. On your blog, on your “about” page, you should have a linked, bulleted list of your key accomplishments.
• Prove your reputation. It’s easy to say that you’re important in your field, or that others regard your work highly. But how do you prove it? A list of three references may or may not get called. But if you have been sharing and generally been a good social media citizen,  the good will you’ve generated will be on display for all to see. Connect with others in your field, and share tips and ideas with them. Use the usual suspects — Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn.
• Find places to interview. Duh, obvious use. But it’s a biggie. Ask around, keep your eyes open, be in a lot of conversations. You’ll be able to see who’s looking for talent. And you’ll see who knows about such things.
• Research a prospective organization. Before you make an approach, you can check an organization out a bit. LinkedIn is great for this, because you can filter by employer. Who’s worked there? Do you know them? Guy Kawasaki has a great tutorial on using LinkedIn to screen potential employers (to avoid nightmare bosses).
• Watch the prospective organization. Let’s say you’ve gotten that first interview, or even an informational interview. If your statistics systems are set up right (that is, you should be using statcounter or sitemeter on your blog so you can see where people are coming from when they visit your site), you can gauge their interest. Are they checking you out? Doing a good job of monitoring can also help you decide whether the fit with a given organization would be a good one.
• Control follow up. Of course, the follow up letter is a time honored way of making sure the impression you left your interviewers with is actually the one you want them to have. (”As we discussed when we were together, I am a rock star in these four ways…”). If you use email, it’s also a way to leave hooks. Include relevant links to things you’ve written. Watch to see if they click on them. You can tell how interested they are and also calibrate your own responses by watching your stats.
• Stay on the radar. Hopefully, you have gained a sense (by asking in your interview or through research) of what, if any, social networks the hiring managers are a part of. It’ll be either Facebook or LinkedIn — in each they may be a part of a subgroup. Don’t be weird and in-you-face about it . . . but be active in ways they may see.  Connect these efforts with your stat-watching. Share links, using url-shorteners that allow you to see traffic stats.

The overall approach is to be active, be visible, and monitor. Don’t just send in the resume, get the interview, and leave it at that.

From the moment you decide to consider working at a firm, you are in a relationship with them, so be proactive about it. It may not get you the job, but it’ll put you higher up on the list.

Any new trend generates jargon. It’s necessary in order for people to talk about the ideas embedded in the trend. Pretty soon, the people who follow the trend use so much jargon it loses its meaning. We’re about at that point with this thing people are calling “social media.” Amber Naslund suggests a good thought experiment in which we need to describe social media without using certain buzzwords or catch phrases (e.g., “You need to join the conversation.”)

Photo of The Conversation by Edouard Vuillard is by Flickr user cliff1066

People in organizations need a clear understanding of the value — to them — of pursuing social media. Unfortunately, many of the people who are most excited about and evangelists for social media put everything in a kind of gee-whiz, the world’s changing mode. To anyone older than thirty-five, this holds painful echoes of the way people talked about the “new” economy in the late 1990’s.

The argument amounts to this: “You need to be in the social media space because it is new, and many people, including me, see it as cool.” Why? asks the organization leader.

At that point, many will trot out statements that make no sense but that are meant to sound smart. They will say that a brand is “a conversation,” or that people want to be in a “relationship.” Both are silly things to say. I do not want to be in a “relationship” with my bank; I want easy access to my money and I want it all there when I go to get it. Similarly, I may have a conversation about a brand, but as a consumer I understand that a brand is simply a way of conveying in shorthand what qualities I might expect from a given product, service, experience, or cause.

The thing that is missing in so much of this is the key element of why an organization might give a fig about social media. So here it is: the decision. As an organization, I want to influence people’s decisions so that they decide to do what I want them to (examples: buy my product, attend my school, go to my theme park, support my cause, trust my brand, view me as a thought leader).

So, I would make the case for social media in those terms:

• People make decisions based in large part on recommendations from peers or trusted figures. Increasingly, these recommendations are passed along through social media tools.
• The key characteristic of social media that makes it different from other media is that the contributions, comments and other responses of users are seen as intrinsically important.
  
• To influence people’s decisions, we need to monitor and play a role in these user responses.
  

For these purposes, important social media tools include: blog posts, comments on blog posts, user forums, email lists, reviews by consumers on shopping sites, and online communities like Facebook, Twitter, and Flickr. Each of these is a channel in which user responses and activities are key. They are all areas where an organization can seek to gain a presence.

But if these attempts don’t have a fundamental connection to the decision I want people to make about my brand or my organization, it’s just wasted time and energy.

Especially among nonprofits and community organizations, meetings are a plague. They seem to be called at the drop of a hat, they run over time, and all too often the chief result of one meeting is another meeting.

By Flickr User tiarescott

But if you focus on the purpose of the meeting, and follow some simple guidelines, meetings can become useful.

Here are nine tips to consider:

• Be prepared to lead. It’s been said that a committee is a beast with many stomachs and no brain. You need to provide the brain — leadership. In today’s workplace, there’s a lot of talk about “collaboration” and sometimes that is a smokescreen for not stepping up when it’s time to lead. Be prepared to follow the agenda, keep to the time, and shut people off who ramble when it’s not time to do so.
• Use smaller chunks of time. In most organizations, there’s a “default” length of time that most things take. In most nonprofits it’s an hour, though one I have worked with assumes that any meeting will take 90 minutes. You can shrink that time and it won’t hurt anything. When you call the meeting, give a start and an ending time — and make the ending time be earlier than the norm might be. Is your default length an hour? Try scheduling a 45 minute meeting.
• Have an agenda. You must, you must, you must prepare an agenda. Think about the purpose of the meeting: are you making a decision, getting information, sharing updates, brainstorming? Put the agenda together accordingly. Put fewer items in than you think you can cover. Don’t make it long just because you think the items look lonely on the page.
• Share material ahead of time. If the meeting is to review material, it must be shared ahead of time, with enough leeway for people to read and think about it. That means at least a full day before, in most cases. It does no one any good to receive materials for a morning meeting the night before. If the meeting starts and it is clear that the materials have not been shared in enough time, end the meeting (if it is the main subject) or skip that item (if it is one of many on the agenda). Next time, people will share their materials, I guarantee it.
• Start on time. Every meeting that doesn’t start on time is a guarantee that the next one will start later. Often, due to anxiety or other factors, people will want to “wait five more minutes.” Instead, just start. When they do saunter in, don’t back up just for them. People will get the idea and show up on time.
• Follow the agenda. Your job as leader of the meeting is to follow the agenda and pay attention to time. If the conversation moves off of the agenda and it seems fruitful, step in and make sure people are aware of this. “We are shifting to a new topic. That probably means one of the remaining topics won’t be covered. I just want to make sure we know that. OK?”
• Recap decisions made. If there is no outcome to the meeting, it was more than likely wasted time. Even if the meeting’s purpose was open-ended, like brainstorming — capture what was decided or discussed. Make sure everyone understands the decisions made or the key items talked about. Allow time at the end to do this.
• End on time. One reason people hate meetings is that they run on and on . . . and over. Adhere to the end time you advertised. End early if you can (people will want to come to your meetings).
• Follow up. After the meeting, as soon as possible, share notes on the key items discussed, key decisions, or key questions (depending on the meeting). If you take good notes, you can do this in your sleep. (Or designate someone to do so.)

Some optional things to try to really compress your meetings and make them more efficient:

• Hold the meeting standing up. (You’ll be more efficient.)
• Limit the meeting to fifteen minutes. (You’ll get to the point!)
• Institute an anyone-can-leave-if-the-meeting-is-useless policy. (It forces meeting planners to hold a useful meeting if they know everyone can just walk out.)
• Hold the meeting by chat. (People can multitask easier and won’t resent the time spent as much.)

What are your top meeting tips? Share in the comments!