Small business owners are on a whole other level of busy. One of the things we look into as we start to work with an entrepreneur is how they organize the basic heartbeat of their business. Is there a rhythm? A routine to handle new sales and financial data? Are there regular meetings or standups?
If we find an entrepreneur who’s continuously slammed for time, and not making progress on their big goals, one of the things we’ll suggest they implement is a simple meeting cadence.
Meetings have a justifiably bad rap, and many are a waste of time. If you run or attend meetings in your business, make them essential.
The Cadence
We’ve had good luck with a nested series of meetings for the ’top team’ in companies we’ve run or worked with. Remember the companies we work with typically have $2M to $10M in revenue, so adapt this plan if your firm is smaller or bigger. Our cadence is dead simple and it goes like this:
1. Weekly ‘Exec’ or ops meeting - Data/dashboards/reports come into the meeting, and tactical decisions come out. A very hands-on meeting to discuss critical priorities like customers, cash, operations, people etc. Usually 45 mins to 2 hours max per week.
2. Monthly budget and ‘bigger issues’ meetings - Deeper look at actuals vs budget; discussion of weightier issues that don’t fit in the weekly meeting. Things like cash needs, product direction, new hires etc. Usually a couple hours or longer depending on agenda. If you are part of our Fractional Advisory service, we’ll join you in these meetings, or host you in an equivalent.
3. Quarterly ‘think’ meetings These may evolve alongside board or advisory meetings as your company progresses. Use them to get out of the normal routine and try to get offsite to reduce distractions. ‘Offsite’ doesn’t have to be fancy, just somewhere where you can think, talk and make big plans with your key team members or trusted outsiders. Nature and great food are awesome ingredients. Getting together physically can also be a huge plus for remote or hybrid teams. Topics can include sales or product ideas, a deep dive on a new competitive threat, or anything else that can’t be readily addressed in a shorter time period.
How these meetings work together
When your daily routine brings you a rush of data, ideas, and concepts, you can slot them into the right spot, and reduce your cognitive load. If something doesn’t need to be dealt with immediately, you can say, “that’s a good topic for our Weekly/Monthly/Offsite.” As you and your team gain confidence these meetings will actually occur, you can reduce the free-form anxiety that can build up when issues don’t have a place to get resolved.
Having an effective structure of meetings is a part of building the systems that can help you grow your company. Experiment with meeting cadences, and find what works for you.
Further Reading
Liran Belenzon, The Power of Cadence for Building Your Startup Operating System
David Sacks, The Cadence: How to Operate a SaaS Startup