There are so many challenges that you have to face when running a business from home, especially where communication is concerned. One of the things that people struggle with most is running effective virtual business meetings.
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If you are planning a meeting, you could always rent a meeting room in a hotel or coworking space but geographical restrictions mean that this isn’t always possible. If you do need to run a virtual business meeting, here are a few simple rules to make sure it runs smoothly.
Use The Right Tech Tools
You may assume that video conferencing software, like Zoom or Skype, is best for meetings. But even though having a face to face interaction is beneficial in some cases, adding a video element also increases the risk of technical difficulties. If possible, you should use video but it’s important that you have a backup plan in place if things go wrong.
If you want a reliable meeting, you should look into VoIP Phone Services instead. Phone services that use your internet connection are much cheaper and they’re very reliable. You can also connect with people from around the world, so if your business operates internationally, you won’t have to pay expensive international call charges.
It’s also important to invest in a good business computer if you are going to be hosting regular virtual meetings. If you don’t have a reliable computer, you are far more likely to run into technical issues.
Follow Normal Meeting Etiquette
Just because you’re in a virtual meeting, you should act as if you were in a real face to face meeting. That means don’t get up and walk around the room or eat your lunch during the meeting. If you let standards slip, your meetings will soon become unprofessional and very unproductive. Once one person starts breaking the meeting etiquette, things will soon snowball so you need to take a zero tolerance approach and make sure that you set clear expectations from the beginning.
Acknowledge Everybody
It’s easy to forget about people in a virtual meeting, especially if you are doing it on the phone. When people feel that they have not been acknowledged, they will be less likely to contribute and you could be missing out on some great ideas. At the beginning of the meeting, greet everybody by name and give a bit of background about who they are and what their role is if the attendees do not already know each other. If you notice that certain people are quite quiet in meetings, you should make an effort to ask them direct questions and get their opinion. Some people struggle with the lack of face to face interaction in a virtual meeting so they just need a bit of prompting.
Keep Them Short
Normal meetings often run on for too long and waste everybody’s time, and that’s more of a risk with virtual meetings. It’s important that you have a clear agenda for the meeting so you can stay on track and make sure that you discuss all of the important points without wasting any time.
Virtual meetings can be a bit difficult to get used to but as long as you follow these rules, you can still have productive meetings from the comfort of your own home.