I’m not a member of the Chamber of Commerce nor a local BNI (Business Networking and Referrals)
I have some buddies that are involved and really point out many positive things about them. I really took some time to think about these groups over the weekend.
BNI is a Networking and referral community. You basically go sell other peoples services in your current accounts to help them out and get them $$$, and in return other people in the BNI are supposed to return the actions.
Chamber of Commerce…I don’t really understand them that much. Been to a few gatherings and it seems like a waste of time. yeah you pass out cards and mingle and network. They have some nights were Big mangers get together and small business get to present their services to them, I heard that was good.
So how do you feel about these communities?
Do you think they will help you grow rapidly or waste time?
I personally get the impression that leads groups are for people that can’t or haven’t figured out how to sell properly (no offense to members of these)
We are in two. The BNI is one of the best in our area but they do vary from chapter to chapter. If you get a good one you will at least make back your investment.
once a week for an hour, an hour and a half…right?
lets say an hour, and lets multiply that by 52 weeks in a year, that’s 52 hours spent in BNI. If you make $60 an hour that’s $3,120 of money you wasted. I don’t see how you make your money back. The initial investment might only be $400-$500 but you lost a lot more
It covers what we put into it. Me personally, I don’t go cause I hate speaking in front of groups and I’m not much for shooting the breeze with joe accounting. One of my staff goes, has breakfast, and talks to people. It’s what he does best. So I don’t put any time into it other than the membership. The person that goes is happy to do it for the food. I lucked out I guess. It’s not to bad though IF you get a good group. Ours has changed over the years. I have one guy that hooked me up. I now do all of the houses he sells before and after the sale. same goes for about half his office. The nice thing is that he has me out when for the second cleaning once the new homeowners move in. Makes it easy to pick up a new job. The other thing sometimes gets passed by is the repeat work. Sure a $200 job may only be $200 now but over a ten year span it works out big.
I went to 3 of the BNI meetings and was considering joining as well. Problem is that at least the one in my city is full of people that think of themselves as better than a lowly window cleaner. Not only that, but I was told if I miss more than one meeting in a given period of time, they will kick me out. I dont have someone who can put out fires when they come up, and on big jobs it seems as tho everyone gets really stupid and dont know what to do at times. I just cannot commit to it. Also, I just dont see how it would be worth my time when I could be making money…
The times I sat in on the meetings, I only seen a total of 4 referrals passed on to other members. All 3 times some blow-hard got up there preaching his stupid tag line or her tag line that the other members sang along with them…it sounded like an alcoholics anonymous meeting!
I think it is good for branding your company, and in the long haul, over the course of a couple years, you may be able to make some really good business connections that will give you ideas on how to do things that nobody else would think of in our industry.
They just meet too many times.
Dont know about the Chamber thing, a friend of mine with another window cleaning company is on with them and he gets alot of jobs from it, but he still has to bid against some low ballers…he has bid some new hospitals and county buildings but only got a couple of them.
Ive been a member of a BNI group for a little over a year now. It has helped me tremendously. We meet at 7 in the morning every week so it doesnt really cut into working time at all. Now in my experience it really matters what group you get into. I’ve visited quite a few and most of them hardly pass any referrals. The group Im in fluctuates between about 35-45 members. We have a carpet cleaner and a plumber and the rest are the usual real estate , lawyer, insurance types. Every meeting theres tons of referrals and its just been amazing for our business. These things are also a long term investment and once 40 people(plus all those who come and go) really know you they’ll have no problem referring you and they’re the people who really get the referral philosophy. So I’d say visit a few and if none of them seem worth it then don’t sign up. I didnt want to join a group until I visited the one Im in.
