Which Breakfast Meetings? (West Midlands)

[H18 ENF]

Evenin' All,

As per the title really... I've often thought of going to a breakfast meeting or two but have never gotten around to it as I don't 'do' early mornings but feel that I should give myself a slap and get out there.

The question is which ones are worth going to?

[jonamv8]

Ive been to two and both weren't good. Seemed a bit desperate, the only people making money being the ones collecting the event fee.

Perhaps ive been to poor breakfast meetings, perhaps they are all like that.

PS i dont do early mornings either

[buggalugs]

I went to a few Business for Breakfasts, made some interesting contacts. Found the groups varied massively - one was full of interesting decent sized business, one was all crafts and reiki. All lovely people but couldn't see myself getting any actual business out of that one. Though taking a steady stream of lovely ladies to lunch after each one wasn't that much of a chore..

I didn't pursue it long term because I hate all that slip filling, back slapping, American style shenanigans that they use for structure. I heard that BNI was worse in that regard. I guess if sales if your job you'd be more resilient to it but it wasn't for me.

[Pot Bellied Fool]

anonymous said:

[redacted]

Here's a better link that has the full discussion on http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?t=117...

I put a bit more info on the original thread but it really does highlight that even within a formulaic setup like BNI (and it IS very American in style, you need a good Northern group to put their own slant on it ) that individual groups vary widely. Evo4a had a really bad experience and I've seen it similarly up here. A local branding guru (she really IS that good) joined one group & got absolutely nothing. Yet other branding/designers etc get loads. Very much down to the composition & leadership oomph of each Chapter.

Works for me. About 75% of t/o due to direct & indirect referrals originally through the group. The trick is NOT toactually sell to the other members but to use them as your eyes & ears to get other work.

Edited by Pot Bellied Fool on Wednesday 25th June 15:23

[LooneyTunes]

H18 ENF said:

The question is which ones are worth going to?

It all depends on what you do.

I went along to a couple and they were an utter waste of time as none of the people were remotely relevant (nor likely to have connections to) my client base. They were also, by and large, not people I'd have been comfortable referring to.

The guys who seemed to be finding it useful were printers, insurance, pensions types with the objective of tapping into SMEs irrespective of sector.

The guy running one got really quite animated when I told him I wouldn't be paying to join.

[Zoon]

LooneyTunes said:

It all depends on what you do.

I went along to a couple and they were an utter waste of time as none of the people were remotely relevant (nor likely to have connections to) my client base. They were also, by and large, not people I'd have been comfortable referring to.

The guys who seemed to be finding it useful were printers, insurance, pensions types with the objective of tapping into SMEs irrespective of sector.

The guy running one got really quite animated when I told him I wouldn't be paying to join.

Same experience here, got roped into one meeting and it was a complete waste of time.