Called by local BNI group.

[YeOldeStonecat]

BNI is a closed group. You get invited, they check you out, then they decide if they want to offer you a membership. It's great that you were invited as someone in the group has recommended you and as an invitation has been extended to you..

Not usually as "close" sounded as you make it.
You're perfectly welcome to just walk in and "visit" any meeting. You do not need to wait to be invited. Anyone can "apply" for membership at any time, you do not have to wait for someone to offer a membership. Naturally if the position you apply for is already filled...(obviously you would find this out the first time you visited the chapter)...your application would be returned to you.

 

[acscva]

Interesting that you bring up the high BNI fees. This week it was brought up in our meeting and a lot of us are in agreement the new fees of $410 are just ridiculous. We only have 9 members in our group right now but still is $3690 a year that we are paying.....and quite honestly that is a lot of money for what we get from BNI. We have a great group but I am seriously thinking of starting my own referral group along with several of the members. I previously ran one in upstate NY and we had 45 members at one time.

BNI is a great group but just too expensive for what they give you....at least with our local franchise owners are offering to us.

It is a real big problem when trying to get new members to join as they see the high fee and run.

 

[stro]

BNI is a great group but just too expensive for what they give you....at least with our local franchise owners are offering to us.

It is a real big problem when trying to get new members to join as they see the high fee and run.

True, the only concern here is anyone who has attended leadership training, probably signed a non-compete that doesn't expire until two years after leaving the group.

 

[stro]

Not usually as "close" sounded as you make it.
You're perfectly welcome to just walk in and "visit" any meeting. You do not need to wait to be invited. Anyone can "apply" for membership at any time, you do not have to wait for someone to offer a membership. Naturally if the position you apply for is already filled...(obviously you would find this out the first time you visited the chapter)...your application would be returned to you.

You can look up chapters and after going to the regional site, most of them you can check out the chapters to see how many people are in a chapter, the names of the people and which classifications are filled:

http://bni.com/FindaChapter/tabid/53/Default.aspx

 

[tom11011]

Interesting that you bring up the high BNI fees. This week it was brought up in our meeting and a lot of us are in agreement the new fees of $410 are just ridiculous. We only have 9 members in our group right now but still is $3690 a year that we are paying.....and quite honestly that is a lot of money for what we get from BNI. We have a great group but I am seriously thinking of starting my own referral group along with several of the members. I previously ran one in upstate NY and we had 45 members at one time.

BNI is a great group but just too expensive for what they give you....at least with our local franchise owners are offering to us.

It is a real big problem when trying to get new members to join as they see the high fee and run.

You can likely start your own chapter and set your own fees. There are several (maybe 6) chapters within 5 miles of me. The one I'm looking to join meets at a nice country club. The other one meets at a mexican restaurant before they open

 

[rsarceno]

This week it was brought up in our meeting and a lot of us are in agreement the new fees of $410 are just ridiculous.

Just look at it this way, you only need 2 - 3 close of business to get it back.

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

Interesting that you bring up the high BNI fees. This week it was brought up in our meeting and a lot of us are in agreement the new fees of $410 are just ridiculous. We only have 9 members in our group right now but still is $3690 a year that we are paying.....and quite honestly that is a lot of money for what we get from BNI. We have a great group but I am seriously thinking of starting my own referral group along with several of the members. I previously ran one in upstate NY and we had 45 members at one time.
.

What other form of advertisement allows you to get in front of 20-30 people each and every week and ask for direct referrals to potential biz clients? Does it cost around 410 bucks or less?

Now, granted, you say you're in a chapter of only 9 members. That is a very uniquely low number, you can't pass judgement of BNI overall because you're stuck in a mini chapter. Time for your chapters leadership team to saddle up and go on some membership drives.

If it's worth it to you or not.....it's easy to track to see if you got more than $410 bucks in business over the past year...have you tracked that? Off the top of my head I'm probably close to $10,000 this year so far..and my renewal is April...so only 1/2 way there.

Don't look at the chapters overall yearly dues summary...BTW $3,690 would not be accurate for a chapter of 9 members...the LT team gets a free ride. But if you're going to try to measure if your chapters $3,690 annually paid fees are worth it, you have to pull up your chapters PALMS reports and look at TYBCB totals for the year.

I'll go pull mine up....hold on.
Right now at 26 members
$10,660 total in dues..well, less...gotta subtract LT team...but lets say $9,000.
Our total closed business over the past 365 days, $507,000.00

I don't need Start ==> Run ==> Calc to see that the numbers work there.

 

[Eagle21]

Interesting that you bring up the high BNI fees. This week it was brought up in our meeting and a lot of us are in agreement the new fees of $410 are just ridiculous.
...
.

I had a look at BNI. Here, in Australia, my local chapter charges a registration / joining fee of almost $400, and an $800 annual fee. I said I thought it was expensive and that in America it costs half as much. I received a couple of blank looks, but no explanation.

 

[Eagle21]

.
...
I'll go pull mine up....hold on.
Right now at 26 members
$10,660 total in dues..well, less...gotta subtract LT team...but lets say $9,000.
Our total closed business over the past 365 days, $507,000.00

I don't need Start ==> Run ==> Calc to see that the numbers work there.

You need to put relevant numbers in to see if the numbers work. Comparing membership dues with revenue is a misleading comparison. A better comparison is BNI expenses against BNI profits.

Expenses:
annual fee
weekly breakfast fees
car expenses travelling to meetings
time used attending meetings (for example, 2 hours * your hourly, rate per week)

Profits:
revenue from BNI work - expenses incurred
(or revenue * net profit margin)

If you do this comparison the numbers will be much closer, and a much more realistic measure of the value of BNI.

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

You need to put relevant numbers in to see if the numbers work. Comparing membership dues with revenue is a misleading comparison. A better comparison is BNI expenses against BNI profits.

Expenses:
annual fee
weekly breakfast fees
car expenses travelling to meetings
time used attending meetings (for example, 2 hours * your hourly, rate per week)

Profits:
revenue from BNI work - expenses incurred
(or revenue * net profit margin)

If you do this comparison the numbers will be much closer, and a much more realistic measure of the value of BNI.

Gee...thanks for the business 101 lesson...I never knew that stuff! LOL.

OK. So the chapter I used to belong to, we did breakfast, 4 bucks per meeting. $208.00 per year. (but wait...weren't you going to eat breakfast anyways? I would. Office petty cash (biz expense) pay for my BNI breakfast, or I pay for my breakfast out of my pocket..hmmmm...no brainer there!!!!)

Car expense...57 cents per mile (going reimbursement rate right now in my state is 56.5 cents) My meetings were within 3 mile radius of my home, and on my way to the office. But lets give a worse case scenario...I'll stretch it out to 10 miles for those that live far away from where the meetings are. $296.40.

My time...for me to mingle with other prominent local business owners and engage in social activities, and get opportunities to swap referrals and business, and build my business name and status...I suppose if you were some employee of a business asked to go do this, you'd approach it this way...your hours as painful time. For me...I'm meeting friends...some of them now good friends. It's for the purpose of gaining business for me. It's outside of business hours. I'm will not look at it as something that should cost me 125.00/hour. I'm not afraid of "sweat equity".

So food feeds...~300 bucks
Auto expense, ~300 bucks.

Quarterly chapter dues...another 240 bucks for the year

I'm still ahead.... ~10 grand closed at the 6-7 month mark, and I'll have more closed biz within another 5 months....versus my <1400 bucks put in so far...

 

[aweston]

Hi guys, hope all of you are doing well and enjoying yourselves and the personal freedoms that the blessing of owning your own business brings. I've got a question that many of you will probably be able to answer. If you don't mind helping me out with any sort of experience or advice.

I was called recently by the local BNI group to attend one of their meetings. During my younger years I experienced many groups that operate the same way.. MLMs, pyramid structured types of operations. Is BNI worth becoming a part of or is it a total waste of my time?


Thanks again,

Dan

I don't know anyone that is successful or anyone who is anyone in BNI. However I know many successful people who WERE in BNI. I think BNI for a new business is a good idea. You will learn things about yourself and your business. In specific you will learn how to introduce and market yourself. How to network. How to have the most impact with the fewest words and how to speak so that others will listen. One of the biggest things I learned from it is to how to describe my business in less than 10 words to encourage questions rather than monologues. Ideally you reach a point where you can't afford to waste time in a BNI meeting.

There's value to it. Have you ever asked someone about their business, they talked for twenty minutes and you still had no idea what they do? They need BNI.

 

[tom11011]

I don't know anyone that is successful or anyone who is anyone in BNI. However I know many successful people who WERE in BNI. I think BNI for a new business is a good idea. You will learn things about yourself and your business. In specific you will learn how to introduce and market yourself. How to network. How to have the most impact with the fewest words and how to speak so that others will listen. One of the biggest things I learned from it is to how to describe my business in less than 10 words to encourage questions rather than monologues. Ideally you reach a point where you can't afford to waste time in a BNI meeting.

There's value to it. Have you ever asked someone about their business, they talked for twenty minutes and you still had no idea what they do? They need BNI.

Yes, I'm seeing the value in refining my marketing message. While I may do 100 things as a company, I see value in marketing 1 thing with laser focus.

 

[aweston]

Yes, I'm seeing the value in refining my marketing message. While I may do 100 things as a company, I see value in marketing 1 thing with laser focus.

Yes, most certainly. Now what you may find, and this was certainly my case, is that with all those 100 things you do there may be a common thread that sums it all up. This experience in BNI will likely help you identify that and hone it with precision.