BNI Breakfast Chapters
Discussion
Much depends on the dynamic of the Chapter and how seriously the members commit to it.
I have just joined after years of trying to find a vacancy, and whilst I am still building bridges, I have found a sports marketing agent a chunk of work worth £5k and the printer a job worth £7.5k.
My chapter has passed £1.2m in referrals in the past 12 months, which works out @ £42k per seat - whilst the tradesman had the majority of this it's not bad for an annual outlay of £1250 approx.Very few leave because it doesn't pay, its the commitment and early mornings that are normally the issue.
I am going as an observer tomorrow to the largest in the UK - 59 members and over £3.5m in referrals in the past year. I doubt that anyone there will say its not worthwhile!!
I have just joined after years of trying to find a vacancy, and whilst I am still building bridges, I have found a sports marketing agent a chunk of work worth £5k and the printer a job worth £7.5k.
My chapter has passed £1.2m in referrals in the past 12 months, which works out @ £42k per seat - whilst the tradesman had the majority of this it's not bad for an annual outlay of £1250 approx.Very few leave because it doesn't pay, its the commitment and early mornings that are normally the issue.
I am going as an observer tomorrow to the largest in the UK - 59 members and over £3.5m in referrals in the past year. I doubt that anyone there will say its not worthwhile!!
bristolracer said:
It seems better for white collar professions
In my experience it was quite the opposite, the joiner, plumber etc did much better than any white collar members. The printer and web guy are always going to do OK but anything slightly out the ordinary could struggle.For anyone thinking about it remember a couple of things (they will obviously omit from the hard sell presentation).
1. It's NOT only £1200, it's £1200 + possibly 7 hrs a week if you're doing all the 121s, training etc. In a year that's 10 weeks out of your business. How much would you earn in 10 weeks if you were in your business selling?
2. Don't believe the big numbers, there are a LOT of 'iffy' referrals counted. I've put them in myself.
3. In any group there will be roughly a third who will like you, another third will tolerate you and the last third won't give you the time of day, never mind a referral. So the 35 members they'll boast of will be closer to 12 actually trying to find you something.
4. They'll talk of having 35 sales people working for you, over and above point 3, these are 'salespeople' who don't have a clue about what you do, and are so good at selling themselves they have to waste (see point 1) nearly a third of their year begging for scraps from other people.
5. Finding leads for others isn't as easy as they make out. The rest of the week you want to be doing your own thing, not spending time essentially working for someone else.
There are hundreds of ways of generating referral business without joining BNI. I would read up on some and see how you can implement them into your business and make it happen yourself, rather than committing to a years worth of tedious breakfasts and hoping it will happen through others.
I left after 6 months or so, money back inside a month and some decent business. I'd only ever go back if there were guys in there I knew I could sell to, go in and clean up as quickly as possible and gtf back out again. Which really ISN'T the BNI philosophy.
I also found it attracted Walter Mitty's, those who claimed to be doing great but lived in crap houses, drove crap cars and wore crap suits. These were always the biggest BNIers out the lot.
The figures quoted are inflated by the trades teams. A single referral can be passed round like a jazz mag in the jail. Someone getting an extension for example, the builder gets the work for £15k, passes it to the spark, who passes it to the plasterer, the tiler etc etc. Effectively the same job being counted multiple times. Lots of clapping. I also found our builder wanting a cut for himself, if he gave a referral to the gardener he was to add £50 to the price to pass back to the builder.
As you can tell I wasn't its biggest fan. And that's before all the rules, regulations and politics of it.
The figures quoted are inflated by the trades teams. A single referral can be passed round like a jazz mag in the jail. Someone getting an extension for example, the builder gets the work for £15k, passes it to the spark, who passes it to the plasterer, the tiler etc etc. Effectively the same job being counted multiple times. Lots of clapping. I also found our builder wanting a cut for himself, if he gave a referral to the gardener he was to add £50 to the price to pass back to the builder.
As you can tell I wasn't its biggest fan. And that's before all the rules, regulations and politics of it.
And lastly from me, remember each chapter or group of chapters is an individual franchise. So the chapter director or area director, usually the guy trying hard to get you to sign is being paid to be there. Either because he's taking the annual fees or he's being paid by the guy who's taking the annual fees.
We had a guy come once who did something so out there he was the only guy in the UK who did it and he said so in his 60s talk (and you'd believe it). Didn't stop the main guy reading out the 'lock out your competition' b
ks like a robot at the end.
In short as others have said it depends on the group to an extent, but equally you have to commit, not just to the breakfasts but to 121s, training and social events or you'll be an outsider looking in.
I despise the way they suck you in. As a member you're meant to invite people along to 'a business meeting' and not mention BNI at all. Then once there they hit you with the sign today bullst. I didn't invite anyone.
Oh and very lastly watch for pricing- in an effort to be accepted it's easy to buy some business cards or leaflets from the printer, or a website from the web guy. In my experience those cards can be bought elsewhere at less than half the price.
We had a guy come once who did something so out there he was the only guy in the UK who did it and he said so in his 60s talk (and you'd believe it). Didn't stop the main guy reading out the 'lock out your competition' b
ks like a robot at the end.In short as others have said it depends on the group to an extent, but equally you have to commit, not just to the breakfasts but to 121s, training and social events or you'll be an outsider looking in.
I despise the way they suck you in. As a member you're meant to invite people along to 'a business meeting' and not mention BNI at all. Then once there they hit you with the sign today bulls
t. I didn't invite anyone. Oh and very lastly watch for pricing- in an effort to be accepted it's easy to buy some business cards or leaflets from the printer, or a website from the web guy. In my experience those cards can be bought elsewhere at less than half the price.
I was a member for a couple of years (and chapter director for 6 months)
Not everyones cup of tea and depends on the chapter.
I had a small amount of work for the first 12 months, but then the second 12 had one 'referral' contact that led to repeat business of probably £10-15k a year, which is a lot for a one man band. They still use me now.
Not everyones cup of tea and depends on the chapter.
I had a small amount of work for the first 12 months, but then the second 12 had one 'referral' contact that led to repeat business of probably £10-15k a year, which is a lot for a one man band. They still use me now.
MW-M5 said:
Vincecj said:
I've been a member for over ten years. I works for me, grossed over £175,000 through BNI one year.
All very good but what was your net return? This is ultimately all that matters.When I joined BNI, I was spending over £7,500 on Yellow Pages. Now I don't spend any money on Yellow Pages or anything else. Also, free advice, when needed.
I've visited a number of BNI groups over years. Some are very productive and enjoyable, some are, shall we say, less than stunning. It's not for everyone but it works for me.
I actually set up a chapter a long time ago.
Basically I could not find a slot in a chapter so I said to the regional BNI bod, "if I get X members to agree, will you create a new one?" He agreed, I found the people and we set it up.
For 2 years I built up the chapter largely on my own until it was the largest in the city. I was Director for most of that time as I recall.
Then the regional BNI chap allowed someone else to join the chapter who owned a business that was in competition with mine. So I resigned.
I do remember working quite hard and getting up very early for little positive outcome.
Basically I could not find a slot in a chapter so I said to the regional BNI bod, "if I get X members to agree, will you create a new one?" He agreed, I found the people and we set it up.
For 2 years I built up the chapter largely on my own until it was the largest in the city. I was Director for most of that time as I recall.
Then the regional BNI chap allowed someone else to join the chapter who owned a business that was in competition with mine. So I resigned.
I do remember working quite hard and getting up very early for little positive outcome.
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