Tuesday, May 17, 2011

Business Networking International Review - Review on BNI

Business Networking International otherwise known as BNI was founded by business consultant Ivan Misner in 1985. The company forms referral networking groups all over the world. These groups meet on a weekly basis and the objective to attend and become a member in a BNI group is to increase your referral business.
Benefits
There are many benefits to joining a BNI networking chapter or any other networking group. The number one reason anyone joins a networking group is to gain referrals and increase business. The larger your network is the more business you are going to create. Another great benefit of networking is the knowledge and information you will receive from other professionals in various different fields. Your public speaking skills will also improve with practice.
Drawbacks
There are several strict rules and guidelines that members in BNI have to abide by. Some of these rules include: Only one member from each profession or industry are aloud into a BNI Chapter. You are only aloud to miss two meetings per year. Members of a designated chapter are not aloud to visit other chapters. This is called cross chapter networking.
Costs and Start-up
BNI recruits business owners to start chapter networking groups in their community. The presidents receive training to start and run a networking group. The president of the new chapter receives a free membership for the first year of the group starting up. The president position is rotated every year through an election process. The president does not receive any compensation for running the group. The membership cost for BNI members is $330 with an additional first year registration fee of $100.
Conclusion
BNI has been a very successful business model for many years and seems to be very effective for small business owners to generate referrals. The only real problem that I see with BNI is their inability to pay the presidents that run and manage the group. The presidents do a lot of work soliciting and recruiting potential members to the group. They are benefiting for their business, however this takes a great deal of time away from them actually running their business.
There are many competitive business networking groups out their and BNI is definitely the largest networking organization out there. I would make sure to research diligently and choose the right networking group for yourself.
There is a new business networking organization that is looking to revolutionize the networking arena. The Biz Society is based on a social networking platform and pays their presidents 20% of all membership. This organization allows any business professional to start a group in their area. They give them the tools and instruction on how to start and run a successful group.

1 comment:

  1. Today, networking has become an integral element of conducting business as it helps to reach wider audiences and perhaps maximize client base in the process.

    Network Marketing

    ReplyDelete