Meeting Minutes Can Save Your Projects And Your Time

Posted by Karen Bishop | 409 Comments

Just recently, I was working with an acquaintance on a small project. We didn’t document our first initial conversation about a potential project. The project moved forward only to find out that our understanding of the roles and responsibilities differed.  Even though two of the three people involved had the same understanding, person number three didn’t remember it quite the same way. It caused delays, confusion and ultimately the project was postponed. Now, if we had meeting minutes from our initial phone conversation, we would have a basis to refer back to as proof.

As a new entrepreneur, our plates are always full. When you start a new venture, you more than likely will do everything yourself: marketing, sales, IT, accounting, customer service, and there’s no administrative assistant that you can call on.

With an already full day, who has time to add another task to that ongoing list? I sure don’t. But as challenging as it is, to do everything on my own, the one task I try to make a habit of is taking meeting minutes. It’s a simple task that can be easily forgotten especially when you are working for yourself.

Our brains are full of to-do’s as entrepreneurs and as humans we forget.

Writing down key points from a meeting, specifically, meetings that happen over the phone can save you time, in some cases money and a whole lotta hassle in the future.  It can clarify any discrepancy’s when speaking again with a potential, partner, vendor or client.

If each person walks away with two different understandings of the original conversation and there’s no documentation, it can hurt the potential of a project. It can be something as simple as spending too much time rehashing specifics that were already discussed. Which happened in my case.

Meeting minutes don’t have to be extremely formal it can be simple or as complex as you need it to be. You can find a ton of free simple templates online to get you started.

Like this one, (download for free)

You can create your own template. It should include at the very least,

• The date of the call
• Who attended the call
• The purpose of the meeting
• The key things to remember during the meeting (actions, next steps, to-dos)
• The outcome

Send a copy of the meeting minutes to everyone at least 24-48 hours after the call. This gives them a chance to challenge or confirm what was said during your call.

After that, you’re off to the races! You now have your expectations, who said what and what actions to take until you meet (or speak) again.

Cheers!

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