How to Have a More Productive Business Meeting

These days every organization seems riddled with business meetings.  Morning meetings.  Weekly meetings.  Team Meetings.  Project Meetings.  Board Meeting.  Meetings are often dreaded by those who run and attend them because they tend to waste time instead of being productive and effective.  In fact, most employees regularly dread them.  Often, they’re far too lengthy and cause more problems than solutions.  Many seem unnecessary and like things aren’t really accomplished and many end up leaving asking themselves the questions: “What was the point of that meeting?  How did that help me?”  Meetings often miss the mark.  Instead of being a cauldron lighting the fires of creative innovation where productivity and new ideas are formed, they tend to drain energy and feel endless.  But that doesn’t have to be the case at all.  In fact, a meeting can provide many benefits if it’s well-run and has clearly defined objectives.  Productive, valuable and engaging meetings require clear goals, open dialogue and a strong leader to ensure things run smoothly and efficiently.  Here are some tips for having a more productive business meeting.

First off, make every meeting matters or don’t meet at all.  You must decide in advance if a meeting is truly needed for the topic you want to discuss.  Invite only the necessary people.  Don’t waste others’ time and additionally, there may be no point to certain individuals being there because they won’t add value and may wind up distracting from the meeting’s goals and objectives.  Face-to-face time is only important when it matters; not because it’s routine or because you feel like you must meet regularly simply because it’s status-quo.  If you don’t need in-person feedback, try the old-fashioned method of mass emails.

Define your goals for every meeting and distribute an agenda in advance so attendees know what the meeting will entail and how they are expected to participate and what they will learn.  Create a structure for your meeting.  Simply by stating the ideal result, this often inspires participants and makes meetings more productive.  At the very least, it underscores what every meeting truly needs: a goal.  So with that said, before the meeting even begins, make sure everyone understands the true objective to the meeting.

Own your meetings and take charge of them and always keep them moving forward at a quick and efficient pace; don’t waste time.  Good meetings are the result of good leadership.  Take control of the meetings you lead and attend and make sure you keep the discussion timely, useful and relevant.  Show your colleagues that you respect their time and their busy schedules and daily responsibilities that need their focus and attention.  Set a specific timeframe for your meeting and stick to it; try to avoid running over.  Be concise and to the point by staying focused and on topic; don’t let your meetings get out of hand or take massive tangents.  Always keep your target goal in mind.

Make sure to cull the constructive input you need from everyone present.  In essence, the point of a meeting is two-way communication so it’s crucial to get honest input from everyone involved.  If you are leading a meeting, make sure everyone participates and is heard.  Make it engaging and interesting.  Don’t make people feel like the outcome of the meeting is already decided ahead of time and don’t stifle the discussion.

Keep track of the progress of a meeting and take copious notes so that you don’t repeat things in future meetings.  Set goals to get certain things accomplished and accomplish them.  Keep your group updated on certain developments which will in turn lead you to organize future meetings more efficiently.

Create a presentation or have materials handy to pass out to all attendees to keep them informed of where the meeting is going.  Have a plan and stick to it.  By using visuals, you are more likely to engage the participants of a meeting and get people to understand your point, goals and objectives.  This also leads to better feedback.

Set an engaging tone.  Find a unique way to turn a boring introduction into an icebreaker.  By doing this, you’ll be able to establish a rapport among the group members while setting expectations that everyone needs to contribute.  Business meetings don’t always have to be boring, monotonous and routine; make them fun by setting a positive tone from the onset.

If you are leading a meeting, be a good facilitator.  Don’t dominate the conversation or lecture and additionally, don’t let one participant take over; make sure everyone’s opinions are heard.  If some people haven’t spoken up, ask them what their thoughts are.  Make sure everyone is listening and engaged.  Try not to solely lead with your opinion and let others make their voices heard and listen in response.  Let others raise concerns and address them.

Solicit opinions and the ideas and perspectives of others.  Feedback is vital to any meeting.  Ask questions and engage others.  Turn your meeting into a brainstorming game.  Ask attendees to give suggestions not just on the topic at hand but even let them make suggestions on what they think are the most pressing things that need to be addressed.  Cover the most important points first so that you don’t run over time.  Not everything can be addressed in one meeting and you should always be cognizant of that.

Keep your meetings as brief as possible.  You should always remember that people don’t have vast attention spans and can easily get bored and distracted.  Make your meetings timely and fun.  Pay attention to the participants’ body language.  If you see that people need a break, give them one.  Don’t let your meeting run more than an hour if possible.  Try to schedule them once a week.  Remember, you don’t need to meet every day.

Make sure your meetings don’t happen in a vacuum.  Close with an action plan and let people know what was decided and what comes next.  It’s easy for people to walk out of a meeting and forget what the point was.  Don’t let that happen.  Ask people to send follow-up suggestions by asking them to take notes during the meeting so that they can remember key points.  Make sure you have a system in place to keep track of what was decided on.  Assign tasks to people for after the meeting.  Make sure they’ve culled the proper information for follow-up.  It’s key that you let everyone know what the next steps are and close by briefly outlining what will happen and be discussed during the next meeting.

Lastly and most importantly, show your appreciation.  Always close by thanking the participants for their time, effort and input.  Make them feel like they were part of the process and key to making the meeting a success.  Always close on a positive note.

So what have we learned here today?  How have you made your own business meetings more efficient and effective?  Have you used the suggestions and tips I’ve laid out today or have you used other methods for meeting success?  Leave a comment and let me know your thoughts!

Here are some interesting articles you might want to check out about how to have more productive business meetings:

“The Top 10 Tips for Better Business Meetings”: http://webinar-services-review.toptenreviews.com/top-10-tips-for-better-business-meetings.html

“Conducting Effective Business Meetings”: http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/conducting-effective-business-meetings.html

“11 Simple Tips for Having Great Meetings”: http://www.fastcompany.com/3013013/dialed/11-simple-tips-for-having-great-meetings-from-some-of-the-worlds-most-productive-peop

“Five Steps to Better Business Meetings”: http://www.pacificopenbible.com/five-steps-to-better-business-meetings/

For more information on the real estate services provided by Emerge212, check out our official website at: http://www.emerge212.com

Until next time…

Everything You Need to Know About Growing Your Online Business Presence

It’s not a question of when; it’s a question of how.  In today’s digital age, entrepreneurs and small businesses must have a strong online presence.  With the vast majority of the population using the Internet to locate businesses and products, those just starting out need to think seriously about their online presence so they can reach their target audience quickly and efficiently and grow their brands.  Many entrepreneurs want to be more active on the Internet but they tend to struggle with how to get started and define a voice of their own that is unique.  Here are some tips to help you get up and moving.

First off, having a great website does not always lead to a high volume of traffic.  Search engine optimization, commonly referred to as SEO is a collection of techniques that help sites achieve strong search engine success.  With most people relying on Google, getting recognized and having your website be one of the top ones to populate when people are searching for the type of product you are selling is key.  It is reported that nearly half of online consumers uses search engines to find products so make sure you attain first page positioning on search engines.

Another great tool is article marketing and is actually a particularly fast-growing online marketing mechanism that offers some SEO benefits as well as increased virtual communication with your target audience.  Many companies are actually writing or hiring SEO writers to write compelling articles that offer top-notch information and search engine benefits based on the use of keywords that consumers search on.  There’s a variety of ways to share such articles.  For example, through blogs or for those that aren’t aware, there are even free online article sites to which you can submit.

Additionally, there’s pay-per-click or sponsored-link advertising.  While there are definitely vast opportunities for free online promotion, the most common rule of advertising is actually paying for it.  In fact, Google, Microsoft and many other companies offer pay-per-click or sponsored listed opportunities.  While you might not want to shell out the money, spend what you can as this is a sensational resource for reaching your audience.  If you’re not aware, this is where businesses pay to achieve high positions in the “sponsored” link sections of consumer searches.  Costs for placements do vary so don’t be discouraged if you are tight on start-up funds.  You can usually bid on a per-click cost to achieve higher positions so in essence, you pay to generate visitors to your sites as they search.  “The key to success with [pay-per-click] is to have effective ‘landing pages.’”  For those that are unaware, these are pages on your site where users “land.”  While pay-per-click can be solely a short-term way to generate traffic to your site, it can most definitely be used until you’re able to fully afford SEOs.

There’s always good old social media as well which is free of cost.  To grow your online presence holistically and incur no monetary charge, use sites such as Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.  You can also use Pinterest and YouTube for visual marketing.  This is a great way for your company to network with consumers for free and capitalize on word-of-mouth marketing.

As I do every week for Emerge212, blog!  There are vast advantages to blogging, not just self-promotion but as a way to engage your customer base and start a conversation and dialogue flow with them.  I’ve said it before: a blog is today’s online “diary.”  You can build your blog directly into your website or link it to popular blogging sites such as WordPress or Blogspot (which, as you can see, is what we use).  Don’t be scared off by some of the back-work HTML code that goes into creating a visually pleasing blog.  With a simple online search or purchase of an easy to follow instructional book, you can create a beautiful blog quickly.  A blog is also a great way to drive traffic back to your website.  I highly suggest jumping on the blogging train and posting at least once a week.  It’s a chance to give your consumers information that is of interest to them beyond just promoting the products and services you sell.  Approach your blog with vision and foresight.  Think of it as your most creative tool to help increase your online presence.

Try exchanging links.  This is actually a very common tool that small businesses use.  It’s simple really.  You find partner sites that are willing to provide a link to your site in exchange for you doing the same.  This is a great, and. of course, free way to help flow traffic to your website.  If you partner with a well-established site that has a high amount of daily traffic, you’re doing yourself quite a service and can eventually help you reach your desired search engine positioning.

Use RSS feeds.  If you’re unfamiliar with them, these are a great way for your website visitors to stay in touch with what’s going on with your site.  Some popular feeds are Google Reader or Google Alerts.  By adding an RSS button on your home page, readers can subscribe to an ongoing feed that updates them as new items are added to your site.  It’s quite simple actually, just add an RSS widget to your site and I guarantee it will help drive repeat traffic.  RSS feeds enable sites to syndicate data automatically.  When users subscribe to your feed, they no longer have to manually check your site for updates instead they are directly informed as content changes or new content is added.  In fact, their browser constantly monitors your site and informs your users of updates.

Lastly and maybe most importantly, learn how to “mobilize.”  As the iPhone, iPad and Android devices have begun to take over, most users tend to access the Internet via these devices.  Having an app is a great way to maximize your contact with consumers.  You can also use text message and mobile site updating as a way to increase activity between your site and mobile user which will help you grow and retain website traffic.

So what have you learned here today?  Have you tried some of these techniques for growing your online business presence or are there others you’ve used that you’ve found more effective?  Leave a comment and let me know.  Your feedback is always welcome!

Here are some helpful and insightful articles you might want to check out about growing your online business presence:

“The 4 Building Blocks of a Strong Digital Presence”: http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/230680

“Three Tips for Growing an Online Presence for Your Business”: http://www.yola.com/blog/three-tips-for-growing-an-online-presence-for-your-business/

“8 Specific Tactics to Establish and Grow Your Company’s Online Presence”: http://socialmediatoday.com/thenetworkchefs/1934106/8-tactics-to-grow-your-online-presence

“A 7-Step Process for Expanding Your Online Presence”: http://blog.wiredadvisor.com/build-your-online-presence/

For more information about Emerge212 and the real estate services we provide, please visit our official website at: http://www.emerge212.com

Until next time…

How to Avoid Self-Sabotage in Business

Self-sabotage in business is not uncommon especially for young entrepreneurs just starting out.  Just as self-sabotaging thoughts, beliefs and habits can get the best of us in our personal lives so too can they in business.  Behavior patterns that are classified as self-sabotaging are those that create problems and interfere with long-standing goals which obviously are something one must avoid in business.  Self-sabotage prevents people from attaining what they most want out of life and in turn, out of business.  One expert describes self-sabotage as something that: “Not only prevents you from reaching your goal, but also becomes a safety mechanism that protects you against disappointment.  In other words, your brain is protecting you from getting hurt by doing what it thinks is best, which is keeping you within your comfort zone.”  And in fact, in order to avoid self-sabotage you must move out of your comfort zone and try new and unique techniques and tactics.

First off, stop procrastinating.  If you have a great idea, act on it!  Why wait?  You aren’t doing yourself or your business any good by sitting on the idea and not making it a reality.  Do whatever you need to do to make things happen for yourself.  If you start something, finish it.  It doesn’t have to be perfect.  If we always waited for things to be exactly perfect, we would never get anything accomplished.  Odds are that once you’ve finished something and gotten it off your plate, you will find that you are happier with the end result than you may have been had you spent and wasted countless hours putting it off because you were afraid it wouldn’t live up to your standards of success.

Make a “To-Do” list.  Most entrepreneurs can’t focus on tasks at hand because they are always reacting to requests that break up their day and cause them to lose their concentration.  A quick solution is to plan your day ahead of time.  Make a to-do list at the end of each day for the next day and try with all you can to stick to it.  If something comes up that appears “urgent” and requires your immediate attention, compare it to your list and see if it really is the most pressing thing you need to focus on that day.  It might not be.  If it is more important, than you have no choice but to do it but if it isn’t, defer it to a later time.

Don’t waste time being a micromanager.  Have faith and belief in your team members and trust their capabilities and in the fact that they are doing their jobs well.  You never need to manage every aspect of the work your employees are doing.  You obviously hired them for a reason: their competencies, so trust in them.  You’ll find that you are a lot more productive when you aren’t wasting your time micromanaging your team.  It’s actually a form of self-sabotage to be a micromanager because you lose focus on more pressing matters that need your full focus and attention.

Recognize your weaknesses.  If you don’t look at the flaws in your business model, then you are indeed headed down the road to self-sabotage.  Look at your weaknesses as a chance to turn them into positives that will only benefit your personal growth and the growth of your company in the long-run.  Weaknesses aren’t a sign of failure and if you come to terms with them, then you can work towards correcting them which will ensure success down the road as you work to achieve your ultimate goals.

Find a support network.  It’s easy to become reclusive when you’re first starting out as a business owner.  You become so immersed in your new project that you often lose sight of the bigger picture.  By getting out and networking with fellow entrepreneurs, you can support one another and hold each other accountable.  This helps you foster relationships within your community.  When you establish relationships, then you can reach out for help when needed.  Issues are always going to arise and if you don’t have support around you, then you will be self-sabotaging your business in the long-run.

Don’t forget to delegate.  There’s no shame in asking for help.  When you’re starting up a new venture, it can often be very overwhelming for one person and there’s no shame in admitting that.  The reason that new businesses hire employees is to share the workload.  If you can’t afford a vast number of employees, hire an intern to help you do the more mundane tasks such as mailings and other less pressing errands.  The less time you spend focusing on the little things, the more productive you’ll be.

Be open to change.  Don’t be stubborn when approaching your business.  You need to be willing to admit that your first idea might not always be your best idea.  If you’re too rigid in your day-to-day thinking, you are indeed sabotaging yourself whether or not you mean to.  Remember, there is always room for improvement.

Lastly and often most importantly, find people that hold you accountable for your actions or in essence a “no” person.  You don’t need a bunch of people constantly stroking your ego.  You need to surround yourself with people that will be honest with you and point out flaws and mistakes and be able to offer ways to improve.  Additionally, don’t shirk the blame on someone else.  If you mess up, cop to it.  If you look at yourself as “superhuman” in business, it will only hurt you in the long-run.  Remember, no one is perfect and you don’t have to be.  Surrounding yourself with honest people makes you more honest with yourself and takes away the pitfalls of self-sabotage.  Seeking feedback is always a positive idea.

So what have you learned here today?  Have you found yourself on the road to self-sabotage in business before?  If so, how did you cut it off before it got out of hand?  Leave a comment and let’s start up a conversation.  Your feedback is always welcome!

Here are some articles you might want to check out about how to avoid self-sabotage in business:

“How to Avoid Self-Sabotage”: http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/201738

“4 Ways to Stop Sabotaging Your Success Today”: http://rebekahradice.com/stop-sabotaging-your-success/

“6 Effective Ways to Stop Sabotaging Your Own Success”: http://happyblackwoman.com/6-effective-ways-to-stop-sabotaging-your-own-success/

For more information about the real estate services provided by Emerge212, check out our official website here: http://www.emerge212.com

Until next time…