BNI - Ever hear of it?

[Richardk]

www.bni.com/

"BNI is the largest business networking organization in the world.   We offer members the opportunity to share ideas, contacts and most importantly, business referrals. "

Got an invite to join but as with most things, I'm rolling my eyes with yet another organization to suck out my money. Any comments?

[The Gorn]

It's supposed to be really effective in generating business leads.

They usually meet REALLY early, like 7 AM.

Each chapter admits one company or owner for each line of business, to eliminate competition within each chapter. That would mean (for instance) each group would have one printer, one interior designer, of course one web developer, etc.

An expensive membership for this type of thing - I have heard about $400/yr.

[Richardk]

And in my market where $25 / hr is high, I'll be in the black in no time. More seriously the mind set is if you live here, you cant be any good so who cares if you're the "only one", they won't go with you anyway.

[codger]

Quote:More seriously the mind set is if you live here, you cant be any good so who cares if you're the "only one", they won't go with you anyway.

Just out of curiosity, where is "here"?

[The Gorn]

The point of BNI is that it's B2C and B2B, NOT contractor-to-borquery. You are not going to go to BNI and say that you will do web sites for $25/hr. No, you would go to BNI and say that you develop web presence for XYZ and that each job is priced fairly for the effort and the value of the presence.

Where do you get that $25/hr is the going rate?

Sure, a lot of bottom feeders around me would love to get help at that rate. What I have found is that if one looks for "contract positions" and any situation vaguely smelling like employment or temping, the absolute ceiling is $25 to 35/hr "offered" here.

I'm sure Jason would have loved to have gotten me for $25/hr last year, because that is a bit higher than what he probably pays his internal people. Not! I still think he had some sticker shock dealing with a US citizen with some actual experience.

It's likely that you could attend a BNI meeting or two to scope out whether it will really help you. And perhaps they would reduce the entry costs for a new member for a trial period.

[datagirl]

Hi, Richard.

I recently re-joined BNI, but I don't really expect to get many referrals from it.  When I was in before (2001-2004), I got maybe 5 legit referrals that put $ in my pocket.  What I got that was more important as a start-up, was an opportunity to talk up my biz once a week, fine tune my elevator speech, and develop a circle of local business folks where I would be likely to see at least a few friendly faces when I would choose to go to Chamber activities.  For awhile I was pretty good a helping other folks build relationships.  My dentist still gives me the royal treatment because I sent several chapter members to him.

That said, the primary reason I shelled out $370 this time around is that, working from home, I had gotten into some bad habits.  So now, one morning a week, I have to get up and make myself presentable and speak coherently in front of folks I barely know.  I'm trying to get out more, increase my visibility and level of trust in the community.  This is one way to help me do that.

YMMV.  A lot does depend on the local chapter and regional director (franchise owner).  You can visit each chapter up to two times before deciding if (which) to join.  After you join, if there is no conflict, you can still occassionally visit other sister chapters.  You would be expected at some point to do a turn at various leadership roles, the terms of which are six months.  You get a break on dues if you are Pres, VP or Sec/Treas of your chapter.  Other, non-compensated positions are Visitor Host, Education Coordinator, and Membership Committee.  They will put considerable pressure on you to bring referrals, testimonials and visitors to each meeting... but that's the whole point.  Chapters with at least 20 members are self-sustaining.  Less than that seem to struggle.  If attending every week is a hardship, they allow you to send a substitute to do your 60-second speech for you.

I hope this helps.

Regards,
-DG

[The Gorn]

DG, you almost make it sound like a health club for the self-employed.  

It sounds worthwhile. I'm just not a morning person.

[datagirl]

GB!  LOL!  

When I read your post, I thought about the Curves exercise places, where a group of women rotates through a 30-minute circuit... yeah, the BNI agenda is somewhat like that.

Mornings...  some weeks it's rough.  Driving in the fog in traffic is not fun.  Fortunately, my chapter meets in a bakery/cafe, and taking some back country roads is only 15 minutes from the house.  I bring home fresh-baked goodies to hubby as a bribe for leaving the house that early.

FWIW, some BNI chapters meet at lunch, but that's hard to sustain when folks are busy and can't break away to be on time.

Regards,
-DG

[pm4hire]

[David Randolph]

I went to an "open house" for the BNI chapters. After listening to the room give their spiels (150 people), I heard one or two people that I thought I could do business with. The majority of the people there were in the general services business and could use that way to get customers. The referrals they offer are: "I talked to someone who needs help with their 5 PC network. Here is their name and number."

My impression was that if you want to be in the PC servicing business or in the low cost web business, then that would be a great way to get customers. If you want to build $500,000 web portals, your customers won't be there.

Location: I'm in the former Telcom Corridor NE of Dallas TX that used to have lots of high tech companies.