This month's newsletter is about growing your business. Recently I attended a new forming Chapter meeting. After the meeting Mike Barbieri was talking with a potential member about the commitment for BNI and he shared a story that a BNI member had told at one of the recent Mix and Mingles.
Here is the story:
A member in the NE Region was speaking with a guest at one of our Mixers last week. The guest asked about the investment and how much money he made in BNI as a member. The member responded with... "In my first year in BNI, I made 4 times my membership dues investment. It wasn't until my second year where I saw the real difference. This year I have already made over 20X my investment and the year is only half way through. It took me a year to learn how to talk about my business effectively, learn how to give and get qualified referrals, and conduct enough 1-2-1's to understand the other members in the room. See BNI takes time. There are no quick fixes and fast results here. It takes time and work to do anything worth while and to build strong lasting relationships. The VCP model takes time to move from visibility to credibility and it took longer to move from credibility to profitability. I am now in profitability with my best referral partners."
Mike added - There is "WORK" in Networking. We have many 90 minute members in BNI. Where some of our members are present for the 90 minutes during our weekly meeting and forget about the team until next week's meeting. We are all busy. That is not an alibi nor excuse. I hear people say, "I do not have time to work on BNI." What I hear is... "I do not have time to work on my business." No matter what excuse you are telling yourself, you should not be working on BNI in the first place. You should be working ON YOUR business. Do you tell people that you are working on your CRM (Customer Relationship Management) system? No, because that is a business software tool. Why do you say I am working on BNI? Isn't BNI a framework, a platform or a tool to help you and your business be accountable and generate more money for you and your team? Maybe we should change how we think about BNI. So block some time each week in your busy schedule and work on your business. Go out and network, meet new people make new friends, develop new relationships, invite new visitors and generate more money. They say that your net worth and network is the new currency. It is not always what you know, but who you know and sometimes how well you know them. Food for thought.
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