Six Ways Cell Phones Can Hurt Your Business

If you haven't been in a business setting where one of these things has happened, then you're probably still in college.

The Cell Freak's six rules for making sure cell phones don't ruin your business (by way of Steve Marr's book Business Proverbs) are essential reading.

Here are a few of my experiences with a few of the rules on this list.

• Controlling when you receive calls - This is actually the core of a few of Marr's major points. And it all comes down to common sense. If you're in a business meeting, face to face with a human who bothered to drive all the way to your office, don't answer the phone. The call can be returned. The face time cannot be replaced. I don't know how many meetings I've had that were interrupted by a cell phone conversation, but I do know that every time it affected my opinion of the person I was meeting with and/or the product he was presenting.
  
• "Unlimited minutes" doesn't mean you should talk forever - The last thing I do when I'm on the phone is want to chit-chat with you just because you have extra time on your plan this month. We both have work to do, right?
  
• Driving and dialing = disaster - This is more of an safety issue than a business one, but unless you're hopelessly lost, you should focus on the driving and leave the calling to those at the office. I should add that I don't even like it when passengers use their phones and I'm trying to drive: In another life I had to occasionally go to meetings with my boss, by car. Rather than talk to me about our game plan when we got there, he'd make social calls on his cell phone the whole time. Annoying.
  
• Keep it private - If you have to take the call (and I recognize there are always exceptions to the above rules), step outside. Especially if we're in the car, on the freeway.

See also: 10 Commandments of Cell Phone Etiquette