# Meeting Agenda Template

**Businessman Talk · businessmantalk.com/strategy/meeting-agenda-template/ · v1.0 (September 2026)**

Paste into Google Docs, Word, or Notion. Fill it in before you send the invitation, and send it with the invitation. Every row is a decision the meeting has to make, not a topic it might discuss. If a row has no decision in it, it is a message, and it goes in writing instead. The example rows are filled in for a made-up eight-person landscaping firm; replace them with your own.

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**Meeting:** Spring pricing and crew plan   **Date:** 09 / 09 / 2026   **Start:** 09:00   **End:** 09:25   **Called by:** Owner   **Note taker:** Office manager

**Required:** Owner, two crew leads, office manager   **Optional (may skip):** Bookkeeper, for item 2 only

**Purpose (one sentence):** Decide the spring price list and whether to hire a third crew before 1 March.

**Pre-read (sent with the invitation, read before the meeting):** Last year's job margins by service (one page, from the bookkeeper) · Current quote backlog (the list, from the office manager)

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| # | Decision to make (a question with a yes or no, or a choice) | Owner | Minutes | Pre-read needed | Outcome wanted |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Do we raise mowing and bed-maintenance prices by 6% from 1 March, or hold them? | Owner | 7 | Job margins by service | Decision |
| 2 | Do we hire a third crew for spring, or add Saturday hours to the two we have? | Crew lead A | 8 | Quote backlog | Decision |
| 3 | Which of the 14 backlog quotes do we decline because they are outside our service area? | Office manager | 5 | Quote backlog | Decision |
| — | Actions and owners read back. Anything that needs a second meeting named. | Note taker | 5 | — | Confirmation |

**Total:** 25 minutes

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### Ground rules for this meeting

- The agenda goes out with the invitation, and the pre-read goes with it. Nobody presents a document in the room that could have been read beforehand.
- Each item starts with the owner stating the decision in one sentence, then the options. Discussion follows, not the other way round.
- When the minutes for an item run out, the owner either takes the decision or names who decides by when. The item does not roll over unnamed.
- The last five minutes belong to the note taker. Every action is read back with a name and a date.
- Someone listed as optional can skip without explanation. Someone listed as required cannot send a substitute without telling the person who called the meeting.

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### Filling notes (delete after use)

- Write every row as a question that can be answered in the room. "Pricing" is a topic. "Do we raise prices 6% from 1 March?" is a decision.
- If you cannot name an owner for a row, the row is not ready, and the meeting is not the place to find out who owns it.
- Time per row is the longest you will allow, not an estimate. Five rows of five minutes plus the read-back is a 30-minute meeting, so cut a row.
- A row whose pre-read does not exist yet moves to the next meeting. A meeting is where decisions are taken, not where the evidence is gathered.
- Keep the last row. The read-back is the only part of the meeting that reliably turns talk into work.

*How to run the agenda, the matching minutes template, and the 25-minute default: businessmantalk.com/strategy/meeting-agenda-template/ · Free to copy and adapt for your own business; please keep the source line if you share it.*