The Meeting. It’s an essential part of everyday business. Whether you are gathering to pitch your work, discuss a project, or just have a friendly update, here are our top ten tips for making a good impression at your next meeting.

1. Bring One for Everyone - Oftentimes when meeting potential clients for the first time, you will bring samples of your work, brochures, business cards or other swag. Be sure you know who is attending your meeting and always pack a few extras so no one is left out.

2. Allow Time for Setup - Getting to the meeting location on time is one thing… But walking across a large campus and setting up takes time as well. Give yourself enough time so that your meeting starts right on time.

3. Always Respect Their Time - At the beginning of each meeting be sure to ask how much time you have to meet. Be mindful of this and adjust your agenda as needed.

4. Never Interrupt - The worst thing to do is interrupt someone who is speaking. Write down your thought and save it for when they’re done. Interruptions often lead to tangent conversations ultimately getting off topic.

5. Always Take Notes (or be prepared to) - Whether or not you intend to take notes, always make sure you are ready to. Take notes of your thoughts, ideas, what others say and what you say. Being able to review these later will help immensely.

6. Stick to the Agenda - Whether your agenda is verbal or written be sure to state what will be covered in the meeting. This will help everyone stay on task and on topic. At the end of the meeting it will be easy to recap the meeting and discuss next steps.

7. Always Allow Time for Discussion - When pacing your meeting make sure you leave time at the end for discussion. Give the opportunity for questions from everyone involved and have a couple questions prepared to ask.

8. Never Chew Gum - Fresh breath is important; however, chewing gum during a meeting is simply unprofessional.

9. Don’t Text - Make sure your iPhone/Blackberry is tucked away and on silent. Texting, emailing, and paying more attention to your phone than the meeting will make a very bad impression.

10. Follow Up With A Thank You - After your meetings be sure to follow up with everyone involved to say thanks for their time. This is a great way to ask additional questions if need be or propose next steps.

Those are just a few simple ways to improve your meeting style. What types of things do you do? Any do’s and don’ts that you stick to? Let us know.

I admit it. When first introduced to Twitter I quickly passed it up because it was hard for me to find value. I thought it was just another way to communicate your status like “just had pizza for lunch” …. and what is the value in that? However, after much debate, I forced myself to tweet, and use Twitter until I understood exactly what was happening. That was 2,000 tweets and about 600 followers ago… Now I get it. I can easily point out the value to coworkers, friends, and most importantly clients. In the past 3 months Twitter has seen incredible growth and it is not just because @Oprah joined. There is an incredible number of businesses, media outlets, brands and peers out there sharing much more than what they just ate for lunch and the coolest part it is in real-time. Let me share a great example:

While out at a very important meeting the other day I had an unfortunate accident. There I am sitting in the boardroom of a large financial institution as my favorite Sharpie Pen leaks all over my hand… I frantically try to start wiping it off on my Moleskine trying not to make a scene and interrupt the presentation. My hand turns black and my pants catch a bit of permanent ink but I manage to stay unnoticed. Shortly after the meeting I tweeted @sharpiesusan, the head of Social Media at Sanford, about my situation including a picture of the damage. WIthin 24 hours I had a response from her and a person from customer relations will be contacting me. WOW. All of this in the matter of a few hours. What a great way to control brand perception and create word of mouth advocates for your product, all through Twitter.

I have multiple other stories from a personal thank you from Tony Hsieh for ordering shoes through Zappos.com to interacting with the Chicago Blackhawks (@NHLBlackhawks).

If you have not started to tweet you should. Below are some tips for things you can tweet if you are new to Twitter.

@ / # - Twitter is a great way to participate in realtime conversations about current events, industry news, and everyday banter. You can reply to users with the (@) like - @DesignSobriety or follow conversations by using a hashtag (#) like #followfriday. Keeping your eye out for tweets to respond to and hashtags you can participate in will help grow your network. Most importantly you can start your own hashtag for conversations your would like to track. Check out the most popular hashtags here.

Pic - Showing off pictures from live events, interesting parts of your day, where you are will be interesting to your followers but also act as a chronicle of your events. It is fun to look back at past tweets & pictures.

Tip - Twitter is a great way to share some quick tips about something your doing, whether it is work related, or about a hobby people will find value all in 140 characters.

Links - Where do you find information? ideas? news stories? Share the links that you are reading.

Review - This might be a quick review of an article, a book or a news story. You could include a picture.

Thought - This can be anything - Like that pizza your eating for dinner.

Reading/Watching - Suggestions for your followers on what to read and watch - magazine articles, blogs, books, TV shows, movies, and TED Talks are a couple options.

Suggestion - This might be a great restaurant, vacation spot, or other consumer related decision.

More Links For Twitter Help:

Mashable Guides to Twitter

Twitter For Business

Work (and life, for that matter) would be so much better if we could just get things done. But how do we escape all the little things that are vying for our attention and precious time? That’s the basis of David Allen’s Getting Things Done® series.

We’ve found this series helpful, as this is definitely a struggle for designers who are trying to balance the business world with finding ample time for creativity. However, there are tricks to getting things done and staying sober while doing it! The solution is finding a “get things done” system that works for you. This could be anything: a well-organized moleskine, field notes or the BeHance dot grid book. But, no matter what you choose, understanding the basics to the GTD process will help you achieve more creative time while crossing even more off that to-do list. Below is a quick guide to the GTD system.

The Goal of GTD is to get everything out of your head and into ACTIONABLE items with appropriate categories. Whether that category is sketches, meetings, designs or the ones below, having it written down is the first step.

Collect - This is the most crucial part of GTD. Every morning, clear you mind and organize your game plan for the day. Everything should be written down, including meetings, project due dates, design ideas, and calls to make.

Process - Now it is time to go through that master list and do everything that will take less than a couple minutes right away. The others should be added to your appropriate collection buckets - see below.

Organize (These are default categories, but you can make your own based on what works for you) -

• - Next Action - The very next step in getting something done. (ie., sketch 20 business cards, write draft copy for website, etc.)
• - Projects - These are items with more than one Next Action (client presentation, client proposals)
• - Waiting - This is an action item on hold because it is dependent on someone else, but be sure to write it down!
• - Someday/Maybe - This is for those great ideas, and long term goals that you do not have time to start just yet
• - Context Lists - Phone calls, emails, errands
• - Calendar - Only for appointments and things that MUST happen

Review - Everyday be sure to review your list multiple times and move items as needed. It will be important to keep up with this and always work to get your to-do list prioritized into actionable items.

Do! - The best part about this system is that you can really customize it to be your own. Ultimately it is up to you what the biggest priority is and how much you can complete in a day. However, by organizing yourself you will be able to help define exactly what your action items are day to day. There are also many software apps available as well!

As art directors and designers we are constantly giving feedback on the design, the overall idea, and just how successful new business ventures might be. However, when is the last time you critiqued your business and its structure? Lets face it, every day you encounter several frustrating processes or to-do list items that you dread completing. Streamlining these necessary evils can help take your business to the next level. Now is the time to pay attention to those details and how you can innovate. Below are a couple ideas to get started.

Paper Audit - How much paper passes through your office each day? Have you taken a look at how much you throw away versus how much you recycle? What creates the most paper in your company? Maybe it’s time to convert those fax invoices to a .pdf email solution.

Software Audit - Take time once a month to check out newly released software. Is there a new online meeting system you can be using? Or a great FTP software that works much better and saves passwords? Even though it’s hard to keep up with software innovation, make time to assess your process and how software can help. Don’t forget your design/creative software either!

MOJO Meetings™ - As often as possible, get your team together and meet about how to innovate your processes. One of the easiest ways to innovate is encouraging ideas. A group talk about new ways to do those annoying tasks and ways to be more efficient will lead to a leaner and meaner business.

Failure - The best way to learn is by failing, right? If you are consistently trying new ideas, some are bound to fail. Learning and innovating from these failures propels your business into greater efficiency over time.

If you spend time auditing, assessing, challenging, and asking questions about your business, ideas will emerge. Whether business is booming or is rather slow, this always seems to take the back seat. You have to schedule time to meet about innovating and generating ideas for your and your clients. Empowering yourself and your team to generate ideas is crucial. And remember, it is okay to fail.

Innovation Inspiration Links:

Business Innovation Factory

The Genius Machine

Disruptive By Design

TED

Many think that working with non-profits on their design and marketing initiatives turns out to be unprofitable because of smaller budgets, tighter deadlines, and stricter rules. On the flip side, designers & marketers are always looking for the next opportunity to be creative and really challenge themselves with new thinking for clients and their brands. Now put these two together for a surprising result: oftentimes non-profits are the types of clients that are open to challenge and innovation, allowing you to take their brands to the next level all while doing some good for the community.

As a designer, you can stay sober by finding a non-profit to work with on a regular basis. Whether it is a paid gig, a reduced rate or simply donating your time and skill, you will learn, grow and be challenged along the way. You might just discover that your new client is far more appreciative of your work and can easily see a strong return on your creative investment.

As a business, volunteering creates a great story to share with clients both current and future. Sharing your passion for a non-profit client whether it is the local dog shelter or a big national organization creates a conversation. At the same time you might just find it easier to connect with new clients who share the same passion or interest in what you’re doing. Not to mention the connections that will come through working with the non-profit and meeting other donors.

Finding a non-profit will help strike a balance with the other clients that may be restricting your creativity or out-of-the-box thinking. Choose a non-profit you are passionate about today and offer them your creative services.

A little design can go a long way, and you might find that it will be the most rewarding work in your portfolio!

Reading is an essential part of staying sober as a designer. However, it is extremely important to read books that are outside of the design genre. We often gravitate toward our favorite magazine or fiction book to escape, but it is equally important to read about business. Hitting up the business section for books on leadership, management, and the marketing section to learn about consumer insights and selling tips can really help you manage your team, sell in the boardroom and your thought process right at your own desk.

Don’t forget to read to remember: take notes, use a highlighter, and most importantly take your time. After each chapter think about how the information in the book can help your business and how can things be tweaked for the better.

That’s what we did, and this is how it helped:

The 4 Hour Work Week - This book by @tferriss has been a bestseller for nearly two years now. Sure, it may seem like another get rich quick scheme, but it isn’t. It challenged us with new ideas around process, email, and design management, leading us to implement Highrise by @37signals. Highrise streamlined our selling process and keeps us all on the same page whether we’re in or out of the office. This new addition has saved us hours of management time which helps us be far more productive.

GroundSwell - Having been out for just over a year now, this book has become a daily reference for how we talk about social technologies and new ways to market them. Since reading this book, we have gained an understanding and subsequently landed new business in creating social communities & blogs around our clients’ products. Now we have an additional product offering and understanding that all started with simply reading one book.

As you can see, just these two books alone helped us grow our business and we are consistently looking for new titles to learn and grow more. Explore these sections of Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble and give it a shot!

Other titles we suggest -

World Wide Rave

Outliers / The Tipping Point / Blink

Stumbling Upon Happiness

Never Eat Alone

A growing design firm goes through many transitional phases: from freelance to a second warm body in the office, and then on up to a team of designers. Soon you’re waking up to not just design anymore but to running a business. On that journey many will take on the somewhat daunting task of selling, pitching, and fighting for new work. Often times this is a tough transition as sales was not part of your training as a designer. One thing we have learned while going on sales calls is to make sure your vehicle is ready and equipped to hit the road. No more “Oh $h!t we forgot the projector” or having terrible coffee breath minutes before you meet with a potential new client. Below are 5 things we suggest for your sales emergency kit. Having these items as a backup will ensure you never bomb a new business adventure.

1 - Extra Business Cards, Brochures, Marketing Material

This seems like a no brainer… But believe it or not we all forget to snag our business card holder as we leave in a rush. And somehow your glove box stash happens to be missing that day too. We’ve been there…don’t let this happen again! Hide some cards in the trunk or seat pocket and try to forget about them.

2 - Computer Adapters

MINI DVI to DVI - DVI to VGA to who knows what! Be sure to have back ups and extras of each. It never fails that the most crucial piece is left on your desk back at the office. Be prepared and have a variety – because you never know whose computer or projector you will end up on.

3 - Printed Presentation

Just in case of a dead projector, or even a crashing computer, have a couple copies of your base presentation printed out. You can even go as far as having printed samples or even boards. This will be a life saver when your projector dies or you drop your laptop in the parking lot!

4 - Mints, gum or everyone’s favorite: Binaca

Let’s face it: designers live on coffee, Mountain Dew, and other highly caffeinated drinks (and beer). This, however, can create awful breath. We all know fresh breath sells great creative – so be sure to stock up on breath fresheners: lots of them!

5 - Tie

I know what you’re thinking, “No ties! We are creatives!” However, there is the occasional meeting with the conservative type who expects you to have on a tie. Toss a basic one into your emergency kit, and if you forget your tie that day just use that one! (Another good item to have is a neutral suit jacket or for the ladies, your basic black heel. You just never know when you’ll have to dress up that outfit!)

*Only use in case of emergency

Keeping up with design can be hard because its continuing evolution can quickly pass right by us. Ten years ago, Rule29 was not designing web sites regularly, nor did we know what social media was. In fact, we were just getting the hang of Adobe Photoshop 4.0 and Mac OS 9. Today, we are well versed in web design and constantly experimenting with social media even though we never saw that coming. Our industry evolves rapidly, and if you blink too long it’s easy to miss interesting innovations, trends and changes. As a sober designer in our or any other industry, it is important to keep up on the latest and greatest so your business can innovate and grow along with it. Here are a couple of ideas that may help you stay on top of things:

1 - Put Employees In Charge

Most designers, and I am sure this is true in other professions, really love certain aspects of their job. For example, if someone on your team really enjoys learning the latest software features in Adobe CS4 and cannot wait to upgrade… then charge him or her with sharing their new tips and tricks with the team. By giving ownership in playing around and uncovering the new bells & whistles - and presenting them to the team - you empower your employees and help educate everyone. Do this for every software upgrade! By giving each employee time to research, learn, and share the things they are passionate about, your team and business will grow.

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