Wait ten minutes, then reschedule. Give people grace for the first few minutes, send a text or an email around the five minute mark, and at ten minutes you’re out. Somebody who is thirty or forty-five minutes late isn’t running a little behind, and there’s no meeting left to have.
This question came straight out of the Small Business Owners Community. How annoyed are you when people run thirty to forty-five minutes late for an appointment, and how do you handle it? I’m doing four or five meetings a day, and I bet you are too, so it’s worth having a standing policy instead of deciding on the fly every time.
How much grace should I give someone who is running late?
Some, and more than you think at first. You’re not a monster. I’m not a monster. Life happens, and plenty of things are more important than a meeting with me. People can’t find the link, Google Meet won’t let them in, the call before ran over. I never want to be an ogre about it.
That being said, you don’t want to get walked all over either. You can’t sit on a Zoom for twenty minutes waiting to find out if somebody’s going to show.
What does a ten minute rule look like in practice?
Say the meeting starts at one. At 1:02 they’re not there. Fine, no problem. At 1:03, still fine. At 1:05, I might send a text or an email. At 1:10, I’m out, and it’s an instant reschedule.
Part of that is best practice and part of it is math. I’ve got another meeting in thirty minutes. I can’t start this one half an hour late and then run a full hour. There’s stuff to do. One of the folks in the chat put it perfectly: college rules. Ten minutes and class is canceled.
What does being late say about me?
Somebody told me this once and I never forgot it. Your punctuality for a meeting is directly proportional to how important you think the meeting is.
Think about it. If the president of Netflix wanted to meet about giving you a show, there’s no chance you’d be late. They’re a big deal and it’s a big opportunity. So when you show up late to somebody, you’re sending them a message, on purpose or not, that their time isn’t that important to you.
I learned this the hard way. Early on in Wisconsin, I had a meeting in Madison with someone I really respect, and I didn’t know how long the drive took. I showed up late. He was completely gracious about it and I was furious with myself, because I felt like I’d disrespected him. That line changed the way I try to show up.
Here is the homework
Decide your number and write it down. Mine is ten minutes. Then put a one line note in your booking confirmation or your calendar invite so people know it going in. And look at your own calendar this week and ask which meetings you’ve been drifting into late, because that tells you something too.
Questions owners ask
Should I charge a fee when a client is late?
That’s your call, and it depends on your business. What matters more is having a policy at all and telling people about it before the meeting, so rescheduling at ten minutes doesn’t feel personal.
What should I say when I reschedule?
Keep it short and friendly. Something like “Looks like today got away from you, no worries. Here’s my link to grab another time.” Grace up front, a clear boundary, and an easy way back in.
What if the person who is late is my best client?
Give them the same grace period and the same easy reschedule. The rule protects the rest of your day, and your best clients have other meetings too. They’ll respect that you respect the time.
How do I stop being the one who is late?
Treat every meeting like it matters, because to the other person it does. Build in travel time, click the link a couple minutes early, and don’t stack meetings back to back with zero room between them.
Related
This one came from the Idea Slam Mailbag on the Businessing episode for Wednesday, September 9, 2026. You can watch the full episode here.
Full episode with transcript: How to Get AI to Recommend Your Business: Businessing, September 9, 2026
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