Hey, y'all. I was just invited to join a local chapter of BNI, and I'm wondering if anyone here has any experiences—positive or negative—to report before I decide if I want to join.

I'm a member of a BNI chapter just a little outside my area (SoCal, so its not far, but its not technically right where I live). I'll offer all my thoughts, good and bad!

Good:
I have started connecting with business owners (resulting in a new pool of clients) in a nearby area.
I've learned quite a bit about referral networking, which I've extended to a more relational approach to marketing my business.
Membership has paid for itself (and then some) from business within the group.
Having a weekly meeting to be at helps me to keep marketing in the forefront of my mind, so I don't end up having huge surges of marketing, followed by huge breaks, leading to slowed business.

Bad:
Every single BNI chapter has a different vibe. Mine is pretty positive, but there are always those individuals who are more interested in putting you under their thumb than helping you promote your business. If you want to talk more about my personal experience, I'd be glad to share privately.
BNI seems to work really well for people in certain fields: real estate, finance, service providers such as dry cleaners, carpet cleaners, chiropractors, etc, but only works minimally well for creative fields like photography.
Most BNI chapters are ridiculous about their attendance requirements...granted, they want to have a thriving/growing group, but it is an organization you PAY to be a part of, and if you can't make it to a meeting, IMO you shouldn't have to answer to someone, especially when you are still an active and contributing member of the group.

In short, it has been a good learning experience for me. I've been a member for 6 months, have learned what I feel like I've needed from there, made some good contacts, but already know I will not be renewing my membership when it is up for renewal. I feel that someone who wants to grow in their relational networking could benefit from a short stint with BNI, but would really be much more effective building their own referral network, on their own terms, without paying a bunch of money to BNI. Obviously, I'm finishing out my year, but I treat BNI now as if its just one of 10 other marketing efforts to gain exposure and valuable contacts. Hope that helps.

I was invited to join a chapter local to me but decided against it. My husband is a cop so my availability schedule is always changing. I don't like paying a fee to be a part of a group and having attendence be manditory. Like Emily, if I can't make a meeting I don't want to have to explain myself to anyone.

I can totally see where the networking experience can come in handy, but I've decided to go into at least 1 new business place a week and talk with the manager or owner.

T

Thanks!

The group I went to this morning was very lively, and also seemed pretty much like it is up my alley. There are some providers there that I wouldn't use, but there are others I totally would. From the sounds of it, they're desperate for another photographer and the last one was so busy she had to turn business away. So, it sounds like it has potential...but so do most things if you try to listen to the people who are trying to get you to join them.

I don't regret joining BNI, I just feel that I outgrew it far quicker than I expected, and find my networking efforts becoming much more advantageous elsewhere. If you've found a great group, it can be a great experience and the kickstart you need to really grow in effective networking...I guess I feel a bit disappointed that in just half my total membership time, I feel like its time to move on.

In short, I think it can be a great thing, but I think its better to think of it as a place to learn to network effectively (which you can do in or out of BNI) than a place to get regular clients from. Tapping into other member's spheres of influence is IMO the best part of BNI.

i had been a part of a BNI for about 10 months...went faithfully, found hot leads for others in the group and really tried hard to get to know everyone in our 42 person group. what i concluded....most people were holding out. if you didn't want to buy a house, health or life insurance or use them for your business website then they left you in the cold. HUGE waste of money. it was such a fruitless experience that Dave, the president of our group, worked it out that we were given a refund. i found better ways to spend my 2 hours on friday mornings. since i left the group my business has benefited because i haven't been wasting my time trying to network with people who could care less about what i do. i recommend you save your money and find a few local wedding planners that really like to work with you. i took that approach and went from booking 26 weddings the year before i did that to booking 39 weddings and all it cost me was coffee at starbucks every now and then.

save the money and find ways to work with local planners. it's a much better experience and completely worth your time.

-bones

From everything I read from Emily's post it sounds like my experience was much like hers. I was a BNI member for almost a year and it was very much worth it. I think I calculated my sales from referalls was around 45x the amount I paid to be in the group. The results seemed to be good 3-7 months into it but then started falling.
I learned that networking/marketing groups can be very beneficial and I just joined a GKIC group recently.

anyways, good luck