Business Networking

I agree that if you have the time to commit, BNI is an excellent way to network.

You have to get clients for these people, though! And you cannot miss meetings.

Best to join an established group rather than a baby one if you can. Once there are about 18 or 20 people, there's a critical mass and it really takes off.

The great thing about BNI, for those who are unfamiliar with it, is that only ONE of your type of business is allowed into the group. So if you're the IT guy, there's no competition.

And you can visit all the other chapters and get your name out there.

I'm glad you found this useful. It works on the principle that if everyone brings one thing to the meeting each week everyone will generate business. I'm getting 70%+ of my new clients from BNI. I go to the European and the International conference which is in Long Beach, CA every year.

I went to one a few years ago but felt a lot of pressure as they wanted people to refer to other members frequently and I felt (because I worked from home at the time) that I couldn't contribute (ie refer to pest control contractors and other service providers).

However, I am testing out a chamber meeting soon to see if that will have a different feel to it.

Debbie

I was at a local business networking events this last week. I'll let you know if anything comes out of it. It is a pretty big event several hundred people were there.

What I like about business networking event is you will able to meet great opportunities I'm lovi'n it

Hi Sir

Please give me detail how can i register in BIN netwoking site

Thanks

Well idea isn't bad. I second your points. This discussion should be continued with great ideas from visitors

I used to be a BNI member years ago with a different business and I also felt like I could never get enough referrals and didn't like the pressure. I have been a member of my chamber of commerce for the last 2 years and it's been a great experience.

I actually posted an answer on another thread about doing seminars for the chamber. Hope it's ok to quote some of it here.

Can you guys explain a bit clear about BNI or provide me an URL here?

i need more information about this sector it seems to me a new way..

BNI is based on the premise that word-of-mouth advertising is the best there is.

So they leverage their members in a way that each member actively promotes the other members in the group.

The few meetings I went to in the past basically had each person in the group introduce themselves to the group and at one meeting I found particularly interesting, they asked each member to while telling about their business to also tell what kind of customer they did NOT want!

It was interesting because a Realtor stood up and said "I don't want anybody who is in foreclosure to be referred to me because in most cases I cannot help them." And then the very next member (who was a board member of the local real estate investor group!) stood up and said "Thanks! That's the exact kind of customer I DO want, the one that is not helped by you and most Realtors! Because I specialize in helping people avoid foreclosure while solving their ugly or pretty home sales issues in an ethical and compassionate way so that they can move on with their lives, whether the required sale is due to divorce, death in the family, or a corporate relocation."

At the meeting they passed around a box full of business cards. Each member was to put in a stack of their cards. And then the box circulated the room a second time, and each member was expected to pull out a card or two of each of the other members' cards, to have at the ready for that word-of-mouth opportunity to pass on to their circle of friends and family.