Posts

How to Get the Most Out of Virtual Team Meetings

StrategyDriven Managing Your People Article |Virtual Team Meetings|How to Get the Most Out of Virtual Team MeetingsWasn’t it obvious? The MFH (meeting from home) trend had to follow WFH. The spreading pandemic has forced businesses into a world full of remote work arrangements and travel restrictions. So, in-person meetings are out for the moment.

Meetings have been an essential part of an organization’s workflow. They offer a platform for information sharing, debating and discussing ideas, decision making, reviewing processes, and simply staying in touch with the team. They are also a critical part of an employee’s casual training and social learning.

But virtual meetings are plagued with issues like lack of employee engagement, technical problems, and distractions. Further, in the past, organizations have used conference calls, teleconferencing, and telecommuting as ways to partly support their operations and offer flexibility to employees. Being forced into a fully-remote way of working all of a sudden, most of these firms lack the professional skills needed to effectively conduct virtual meetings.

If you find yourself in a similar situation, use this effective guide (below) to run a successful virtual meeting and maximize your outcomes. Alternatively, you can consider hiring a virtual events organizer to help you conduct those virtual team meetings.

1.Define the Meeting Objective and Agenda

This may sound pretty basic; yet, it’s critical to spell out the meeting agenda with each standalone item having a clear objective. If possible, send a pre-read to each participant, allowing them to come prepared with the required data and supporting documents.

Plan your meeting agenda in such a way that you are able to wrap up within 30-45 minutes. A short-duration meeting makes it easy for everyone to focus on achieving the objectives. Encourage the presenters to minimize their presentation length. Background information can be provided when asked for.

Factor in enough time for all team members to share their views and suggestions. Remember the ‘go around the table’ session that we are used to before making a decision? You need to do the same thing virtually!

2. Find Ways to Improve Employee Engagement

Keeping employees engaged during a virtual meeting is by far the biggest challenge faced by organizations going remote. When employees are connecting to a meeting from a remote location, it’s natural for them to lose focus and interest in the online discussion.

Here are a few effective tips to make your virtual meeting more engaging and productive.

A. Commence with an Ice-Breaker

Virtual team members often feel isolated and may not be comfortable with the remote way of running a meeting. Starting with a virtual icebreaker, such as ‘Show us your work area!’ or ‘Give us a one-word recap of your day/month!’ can be a great way to get the ball rolling.

Such conversations can get everyone talking and ease up the atmosphere. Further, it will act as a quick pulse check, giving you an idea of the overall attitude and emotional state of the team

B. Make Sure All the Faces Are Visible

Meetings done via the video conference mode are the closest you can get to mimicking the familiar and intimate environment of in-person meetings. Ask your team to use a webcam, allowing everyone to see each other’s facial expressions and body language.

Top video conferencing platforms like Zoom and GoToMeeting can help keep the participants engaged with their advanced features, namely video and audio dial-in, screen-sharing, and recording.

C. Encourage People to Share Their Views

The best way to engage employees in a virtual meeting is to ask them questions or call on them to share their experiences or opinions. This will achieve two basic requirements for a productive meeting.

  • There will be no passive listeners. Even introverts will be encouraged to share their opinions.
  • People will pay extra attention to what others have to say.

D. Learn from the Experts

Find out how other fully-remote firms are functioning globally. For more than a decade, Toptal, the world’s largest remote firm, has been operating in a fully-remote environment with more than 4000 employees in over 100 countries. They have no physical office!

How do you think they operate? How are they managing their large distributed workforce? How are they able to run effective virtual meetings? Getting to know about their remote working experience will offer you interesting insights, helping you adapt to this suddenly remote work environment.

Go through their remote work playbook which includes time-tested strategies to building a productive remote organization of your own.

3. Set Up a Video Conferencing Etiquette

It is tricky to dictate meeting etiquettes in a remote working environment. Yet, laying down certain behavioral terms for running a successful remote meeting can help your employees know what is expected of them.

Communicate this basic list of etiquettes with each of your team members to keep your virtual meetings productive and professional.

  • Let’s start the meeting on time.
  • Come prepared for the meeting. This includes adhering to the bare minimum dress code you would follow in a regular office environment.
  • Ensure that the device and software used is working well. This includes the mic, webcam, WiFi connectivity.
  • Turn your video on. We can see you! Also, please maintain eye contact with the camera.Mute your mic to cancel out the background noise that you think will disturb your colleagues.
  • Stick to the agenda and keep a track of time. Any concerns can be taken up after the meeting.
  • Avoid multitasking.
  • Share your views but actively encourage your colleagues by hearing them out. Only one person speaks at the time.
  • Avoid too many body movements to prevent blurring.
  • Avoid negative comments. Let’s be positive and boost each other’s morale!
  • Intervene politely if a discussion wanders off the agenda.

4. Get Rid of Technical Issues and Distractions

Nothing kills the momentum at the beginning of a virtual meeting like a delay due to poor WiFi connectivity, software update notification, or damaged hardware. Such technical issues are most common with employees using their own devices. A simple system update notifications and alerts can get everyone distracted, thus wasting time and bringing down productivity.

Make sure you do a thorough assessment of the system your employees are using. Encourage them to use office devices that are equipped with the required software, thus tackling such distractions.

Before starting the meeting, assess the quality of the WiFi network at your employees’ disposal. In case they are using a poor-quality connection and unable to afford a better one, consider reimbursing a portion of their monthly data connection expense.

Finally, though virtual meetings offer the convenience of connecting with the team from any location, things can go haywire if the attendants connect from an inappropriate place. For instance, the living room is the busiest place in a house. An employee connecting from here will experience distractions from family members, visitors, and pets, derailing the meeting decorum.

Encourage employees to log in from a quiet place like their study or bedroom to avoid such distractions from creeping into the meeting. Ask them to use the background screen and put their mic on mute when not in use for a seamless video conferencing experience.

5. Appoint a Master Yoda

I find Star Wars, the American epic space-opera, entertaining yet full of leadership lessons. The character Master Yoda is wise, authoritative, and plays a central role in inspiring, coaching, and aligning the thoughts of the team. He also calls out unacceptable behavior that’s letting the team down.

You need a Yoda by your side to point out any inappropriate or slack behavior without sounding disrespectful. In such a case, like the Star Wars’ Yoda, the assigned person can help keep the meeting conversation candid.

Further, the Yoda will help keep the virtual team receptive, guide the conversation, and ‘take the pulse’ of the team on certain critical questions or business decisions.

6. End on a Productive Note

At the end of the meeting, clearly outline the next steps with the time frame and accountability. This will fuel the agenda for your next meeting and so on. Have a minute taker who notes down the key meeting proceedings and future action areas. The minutes of the meeting should capture the What, Who, and How of each action item and share it with the team.

Also, capture employee feedback through online survey tools like SurveySparrow or Poll Everywhere. The feedback from the attendees will help improve the quality of virtual meetings in the future.

Summing Up

Technology is an enabler. But it cannot replace real human connections. The current pandemic situation has forced all businesses to rely on technology to connect with their employees. In such a scenario, running successful virtual meetings can be an overwhelming experience, especially for firms that aren’t used to a remote style of working.

Use the effective tips shared in this guide to get the most out of your virtual meetings.


About the Author

StrategyDriven Expert Contributor | Pratik DholakiyaPratik Dholakiya is the founder of Growfusely, a content marketing agency specializing in content and data-driven SEO. He regularly speaks at various conferences about SEO, Content Marketing, and Entrepreneurship. As a passionate SEO and content marketer, he shares his thoughts and knowledge in publications like Search Engine Land, Search Engine Journal, Entrepreneur Magazine, Fast Company, The Next Web, YourStory, and Inc42, to name a few. He can be reached at Twitter @DholakiyaPratik

The Pros and Cons of Becoming an Entrepreneur as a Senior

StrategyDriven Entrepreneurship Article | The Pros and Cons of Becoming an Entrepreneur as a SeniorSeniors typically have a lot of time on their hands after they retire, and after being retired for a few years, it’s common for them to want to take up a new hobby, learn something new, and for some, to start a business. Some seniors have great success as an entrepreneur in the elderly years, especially those that either ran a business or worked for a successful one before.

If you are a senior and have aspirations to become an entrepreneur, you need to think about a business plan in order to be successful. What are you selling/what is your service? Do you have experience in this field? Do you have a legitimate chance at becoming successful/how long will it take to become successful? Here are some things to consider.

What are the Pros of Becoming an Entrepreneur as an Elderly Person?

Becoming an entrepreneur as a senior has many pros, here are a few:

You Can Live Comfortably in Your Elderly Years

If your business becomes successful, you have the opportunity to live extremely comfortably in your elderly years. For many seniors, it’s hard to live comfortably when on a fixed income, however, if you become a successful entrepreneur, you won’t have to worry about living frugally any longer.

Living comfortably in your older years can open a lot of doors for you. You will have the chance to go on that dream vacation you have been dreaming about, you’ll be able to live where you want, go where you want and you won’t have to rely on social security.

You Will Pay Your Debts

In addition to living comfortably, you will be able to pay off any debts that you may have. Whether you have debt from buying a home, credit card debt, medical bills you need to pay, or any other kind of debt, becoming an entrepreneur will be able to help you pay off all of those debts. You will also likely be able to keep yourself out of further debt as long as your business remains successful.

An employee from a retirement community in PA pointed out that it’s refreshing and comforting to see elderly residents live debt-free and no longer have to worry about paying off years of debt.

What are the Cons of Becoming an Entrepreneur in Your Golden Years?

Though there are copious benefits of becoming an entrepreneur in your elderly years, there are also some cons that can be extremely detrimental to your overall well being.

The Start-Up Cost

Becoming an entrepreneur is rarely cheap, in fact, it is often fairly expensive and can end up costing you large amounts of money. If you are living on a fixed income and are solely dependent on social security and your savings, you may want to reconsider becoming an entrepreneur unless you are sure your business will thrive.

If you truly want to become an entrepreneur in your elderly years, but you recognize the start-up cost can be an issue, consider starting out small. Instead of creating an entire business from the ground up, start a part of your business to see how successful that is so you don’t end up losing money.

Additional Life Stressors

Seniors are especially susceptible to stress and this stress can have an extremely negative impact on their health. Seniors that experience large amounts of stress may not be able to handle it the way that they used to or the way that younger adults do, and becoming an entrepreneur sets a person up for large amounts of stress.

Once up and running, your business may not be stressful, however, starting out most likely will be and this can not only take the joy out of becoming an entrepreneur, but it can also affect your health as a senior citizen. Think about how to either avoid stress as an entrepreneur or rethink your business plan.

Make The Choice That is Right For You

Whether you chose to start a business or not, it’s important that you make the choice that is right for you. If becoming an entrepreneur in life has been your dream and now is your chance, create a business plan, and do your best to get rid of the cons. Like any major decision in life, there are pros and cons, so as long as you make your choice favoring the pros, you are bound for success.


About the Author

StrategyDriven Expert Contributor | Kelsey SimpsonKelsey Simpson enjoys writing about things that can help others. She lives in South Jersey and is the proud companion to two German Shepherds and spends her free time volunteering in dog shelters.

Actionable Steps To Improve Your Business’ s Financial Position

StrategyDriven Managing Your Finances Article |Business Finances|Actionable Steps To Improve Your Business' s Financial PositionBusinesses have been hit hard in recent times, as the pandemic situation has given many business owners cause to worry about their finances. Not that worry is anything new, of course. The life of an entrepreneur has always been a difficult one, as there are all kinds of other factors that can cause financial worry, including the threat of the competition and the ever-changing marketplace which can leave some businesses struggling.

Chances are, you might be struggling within your business, and your financial position might not be as affluent as you would like. This might be because of the factors we have suggested, or there could be other reasons why your business isn’t as fruitful as it could be.

Of course, it might be that your business is doing just fine. If this is the case, then great! Still, no matter how well your business might be doing, we’re sure you would like to reach further heights of financial nirvana.

So, whatever the case is for you, be you happy or otherwise with your financial situation, here are some of the actionable steps you can take to make improvements.

#1: Assess your current situation

To know how well you are doing, you need to get on top of your accounting. If you have an accountant or any other type of financial adviser, sit down with them to discuss your finances. Do the same if you have people on your payroll that deal with the monetary sides of your business. Together, work out where savings could be made, or where other changes need to be put in place and take the necessary steps to make an improvement to your financial position.

And if you haven’t already, consider cloud ERP solutions for your business. These will give you a clearer picture of your finances, with Business Intelligence tools to help you evaluate every part of the financial side of your business. Using the data before you, it should be possible to get a better understanding of how well your business is doing financially.

When you have assessed your current situation, you will be able to work out the way forwards. The following suggestions might be useful to you, so keep reading.

#2: Assess your marketing tactics

For any business to make a profit, marketing has to be key. The more you can to do to get the word out about your business the better. However, you don’t want to waste money with your marketing efforts. If you are investing a lot but seeing zero or minimal return, then you need to rethink what you are doing. It could be that you are targeting the wrong demographic, for example, or you could be using a marketing method that no longer appeals to customers.

So, here’s what you need to do. Firstly, analyze your marketing tactics. You can do this using analytic tools, so check out the link and put them into practice if you haven’t already. Speak to your team too, and ask them for their opinion, and collect feedback from your existing customers to ask about the relevancy of your marketing.

For those marketing tactics that are working, keep using them. But consider how you might improve on what you are doing, and what tweaks you could make to make these tactics work even better for you. And then think of the marketing tactics you need to ditch. While they may have worked in the past, it is important to remember that time moves on and that you might need to try different ways to engage with potential customers. Check out these digital marketing trends if you haven’t already, and take a deep dive in to work out what might be practical for you.

#3: Sell those things you no longer need

Not only will you make more money if you sell some of your unwanted assets, but you will reduce your storage costs too! So, take a look around your business and consider the items that are no longer relevant to you. You might have surplus desks or pieces of computer equipment, for example. If they aren’t being used, and if they are unlikely to be used in the foreseeable future, it might make sense to sell them. Consider the same for any other items you have lying around your office, or that are filling up space in your storage areas. When you have made money from them, put a portion of that cash into your savings if you don’t need to spend it immediately, as you will then strengthen your financial position in the future.

StrategyDriven Managing Your Finances Article |Business Finances|Actionable Steps To Improve Your Business' s Financial Position#4: Shift your surplus stock

Especially if your business is seasonal, it is important to sell off your surplus stock before you need to get rid of it through less-profitable means. So, mark down your prices and highlight them on your website. Send word out to your customers via email or social media. And if you’re still using leaflet drops to market your business, send the word out door-to-door about your discounted products. You will then make money rather than lose it, and for the short-term at least, you will see a rise in your financial position.

#5: Check for government grants

In certain circumstances, you may be eligible for a government grant. If you were to innovate in any way, for example, perhaps with a product or service that could make a difference in people’s lives, you might be able to apply for a grant from your local government. Similarly, if you were to make green improvements to your business, you might also be eligible for some money. It’s with checking, so have a look at grants.gov for anything you might be eligible for, and continue your research online for other pots of money you might be eligible for.

#6: Deal with your business debts

The longer your business is in debt, the worse off you will be, as you will never have the opportunity to fully spend your profits on things your business needs. So, do what you can to reduce or eliminate the debts that are currently holding your business back. You might want to consider consolidating them, as if you can combine your current debts into one low-interest loan, you will make life much easier for yourself. You might want to contact your lenders too, and ask if they will freeze interest charges to give you a better chance of paying off your debts. You should also pay more than the minimum payment each month, as this way, you will be paying off more of the debt rather than just the interest charges. There are further ideas here on how to manage your business debt, so have a read, and get rid of them as soon as possible.

StrategyDriven Managing Your Finances Article |Business Finances|Actionable Steps To Improve Your Business' s Financial Position#7: Stop spending more than you should be

If you want to improve your financial position (which, of course, you do), you should take a long hard look at your expenses. If you are paying too much in certain areas, stop! There are all kinds of ways to reduce your business expenses, so read the linked article, and start to make those savings. Of course, going beyond your expected expenses, you need to think about frivolous spending too. If you are buying unnecessary things for your business, then you are simply wasting money. Assess your spending, and keep in mind that saving is better than spending when you’re tempted to buy something you shouldn’t.

These are just a few of the steps you should be taking to improve your business’s financial position, so go back through each one, and commit to further research to help you increase your business profits.

We wish you every success with your business!

4 Useful Marketing Tools for Start-Ups

StrategyDrivenOnline Marketing and Website Development Article |Marketing Tools| 4 Useful Marketing Tools for Start-UpsEvery business needs strong marketing to improve their visibility and see success. It might seem that marketing is an easy task to complete, but it is an ongoing effort and can prove more challenging than you may first think. A good marketing strategy must be memorable and eye-catching, drawing in the target audience and perhaps even reaching a secondary demographic. It represents the company’s ethos and promotes these values as well as the products and services the business provides.

A further challenge for start-up businesses is creating these brilliant campaigns but on a small budget. Marketing can be expensive, but most small businesses can’t afford the rates of hiring a billboard for a month or creating a TV advertisement. If you’re concerned about how you will afford your marketing for your start-up venture, here are some useful and affordable tools for you to use.

Understand SEO tactics

Search Engine Optimization, in essence, is boosting your company’s website up to higher rankings in search engine results pages. This is important as there are many, many businesses all around the world that provide the same services and products yours does and as such, it is easy to get lost in the listings and lose visibility. To ensure that your business website appears on the first page of results you will need to apply SEO tactics, such as carefully written blogs and mentions in articles on other websites.

Social Media

The use of social media has become a dominant method in marketing over the last two decades. Many ‘influencers’ have made careers out of being spokespeople for brands via their social media platforms. Although you might not be able to afford the cost of hiring a popular individual to promote your company just yet, you can still utilize social media to build your following and start to share information with your customers, and best of all, most of these platforms are free to use!

Printed Materials and Signs

A more traditional method of marketing is printing leaflets, booklets, and posters as promotional materials. This is still a useful practice, especially if you’re attending an event such as an industry convention. If your company has a booth it’s worth having a bespoke sign made to attract passers-by. For example, this company that specializes in custom signs Orlando, could help you increase your visibility and make sure your sign is unique to your business.

Podcasts

Podcasts have steadily grown in popularity and could be a very useful tool for your start-up. A podcast will take more time to prepare and could end up being more expensive to produce, but it would be worth it if you have the budget and the resources to do so. Similar to a blog, your business podcast could include interviews with special guests from the industry, discuss new ideas and developments, and allow listeners to write in and have their say.

Promoting your business and your products is essential to keep it going. It can be difficult to manage marketing when you’re a start-up, especially if you’re an individual or a small team with many other things to focus on. However, you mustn’t neglect your marketing, use these suggestions to help you get started.

How To Easily Get More Eyes On Your Brand

StrategyDriven Marketing and Sales Article |Get More Eyes on Your Brand|How To Easily Get More Eyes On Your BrandBusiness is all about creating a product and/or service, and keeping customers engaged with it/them. In short, that’s pretty much all there is to it. Of course, there are heaps and heaps of aspects that go with that sentiment, but it’s a pretty straightforward concept at the end of the day. One of those aspects that requires lots of work and attention, though, is the marketing side. As a business, you need to attract people and maintain those relationships for as long as you can.

When it comes to keeping the relationship flowing, you need to provide consistent content, show you care and be as reliable as you can – among other things. Attracting them in the first place can prove t be a tricky task, too, though. Making people notice you in such an impulsive and fast-paced world like today isn’t a walk in the park for most budding entrepreneurs. Our computers and apps have made things a little more convenient, but there are still some tricks that we need to pull off. Here are a few fundamental ideas if you’re looking for some inspiration:

Lookup All The Methods!

Before you make any moves in terms of forming strategies, you’ll want to figure out what’s best for you and your business. Some companies will suit certain methods, so it’s only right that you figure out what looks best on you. It’s also right to learn about how to market efficiently. You don’t want to spend hours of life (and quite a bit of money) on a campaign that doesn’t work. For instance, you might feel you want to learn how to advertise in china or something equally significant when all you really needed was a quick social media campaign. There are loads of ways to do it – you’re only bound by your creativity.

Get Your Social Accounts Built!

As we mentioned before, social media works very well. You should absolutely make sure you have the big social media platforms covered. This is because billions of people are operating on them each day, and you don’t want to miss out on any kind of lead. Social media is free and easy to work with, so it’s a real no-brainer.

Work With A Marketing Agency

Marketing agencies are fantastic little firms if you’re looking to boost your exposure and build relationships. Their sole purpose is to make companies a lot bigger and better, so you might want to hop into bed with them if you’re struggling to do so yourself. They’ll be able to help out with SEO, apps, competitions, and all kinds of different facets.

Do The Job Perfectly!

Finally, and very simply: get the job done. Word of mouth is an excellent means of marketing, so you’ll need to impress your customers/clients. If you can build a reputation, and make people want you more and more, then you’ll have the general public executing a marketing strategy for you while you kick your feet up. Free publicity!