bored-meetingI never thought I’d say this, but I love business meetings now that I work for myself. When I was employed by other people, meetings meant hours of wasted time in conference rooms, cold coffee, infrequent bathroom breaks, covert notepad doodling and tiny self-pinching to make sure I didn’t nod off.

Yesterday I had meetings with two clients. The first was in person, and within 35 minutes, we had created an outline for a series of seminars he wants to create. Within an hour, I was back in my car with the notes I need to make the PowerPoint.

The second meeting was via phone. I spent an hour watching a practice session for a webinar, and I provided feedback during a 20-minute meeting post-presentation. On point. On topic. Done and done.

I’m guessing that the driving force behind the superlative efficiency of my business meetings these days is that I charge by the hour. No one wants to simply chat or to waste time with never-ending discussions or repetition. Now it’s discuss, decide, dismiss. I couldn’t be happier.

I actually make it a point to jump  right into business when I start a meeting with a client. They’re not paying me to get to know me. They’re paying for my expertise. And when I’m doing an initial call to get info before I put in a bid, I’m not getting paid at all, so I don’t want to waste time either. Thus, we make progress.

That isn’t to say that I don’t chat with clients. As I wrote a couple of weeks ago, I consider several of my clients friends, and frequently we start a conversation by catching up with news, joking around, commiserating… whatever. But when it comes to actual collaboration and getting things done, being a consultant has improved my meeting life by a thousand percent.