8 replies to this topic

[patronltd]

Morning all,

We have recently been invited by a BNI group to attend one of their meetings, does anybody here attend BNI? and how have you found it? As we have only just started up money is still an issue but if its something worth doing then i guess it can go on the ever growing 'wish list'...

[MrHappy]

behind every scheme there is a schemer...

[patronltd]

Its the same with everything in life though you dont know until you try i guess. Have you had a bad experience with this before or just abit weiry of the whole idea? Ive heard quite a few companies have done well from it thats all.

[Vince8282]

patronltd, on 15 March 2011 - 09:47 AM, said:

Its the same with everything in life though you dont know until you try i guess. Have you had a bad experience with this before or just abit weiry of the whole idea? Ive heard quite a few companies have done well from it thats all.

Hi
I have attended some and found that they can be quite good to get some work. The basic idea is you have these groups with only one person representing each trade or area and you recommend your contacts to others in return for recommendations from you. The main draw back is committing the time to attend and of course recommending people that you don't always know the quality of their services. I for one will not recommend anything that I have not tried myself. I tried it and found that it was good initially for making new acquaintances and renewing a few old ones but decided after a few weeks it was more trouble (because I'm lazy and like to lie in instead of getting up too early in the morning to attend) than it was worth to me. I think you're better off these days using facebook fan pages, or google local business finders pages at no cost or at least have your own marketing campaigns in place. I am a big fan of word of mouth recommendation and encourage current clients to share their joys they have with my systems with their friends etc.
best wishes
Vince

[reidy]

we get quite a lot of work from BNI referals

[patronltd]

It seems to worth a shot i guess, im quite a shy bloke so god help me when my 60 seconds arrives. I can see your point about recommending someone who you dont really know...risky.

thank for your comments

[Cubit]

it's one for the evangelists.

[alterEGO]

I have attended a couple, but IMO they were to small to be worth my time, however i have been invited to a larger 35-40 member group.
The 60 second thing is OK, tbh its just a bit of a bore to listen to all others 60 seconds.

It does work, but you have to be committed and provide leads for others every week, and its at the crack of dawn as Vince said.

All in all i think every week is a bit much, once a month would do for me.

[hpotter]

as an alternative to funny handshakes, with no requisite other than nobody else in the group does what you do, makes born again types seem genuine.

as pointed out above, who would recommend an unknown quantity over another outside the group with impeccable credentials? but then you dont have to recommend if you dont wish to be recommended...