Start the day right - are you an early bird?
You'll need to be an early bird for BNI weekly breakfast meetings. BNI Epsom meet every Friday at 6:30am at Horton Park Golf Club and end by 8:30am. Even that early in the morning the topic is business - the meetings are structured and professional - but always friendly even at that time!
If you're not ready to join there and then, you'll always be welcome to return again. Cost wise, visitors to the chapter are simply asked to pay for their cooked breakfast (as are all the members), unless of course no breakfast is desired. In addition, once the members have all delivered their own '60 second slot' visitors are also given the opportunity to briefly introduce themselves and their business.
Visitors are also encouraged to participate in the referral section of the meeting, even if it's simply to let the chapter know how useful and informative they have (or haven't!) found the meeting. If you don't already know an Epsom BNI member who can bring you along to a meeting as their guest, please contact us to arrange your visit.
Want to do business with people you know and trust?
Business networking is a modern day phenomenon. It gets the right people in the right place and allows that face-to-face contact which generates confidence and trust in a person and their business.
The BNI works on the concept of 'Givers Gain'- If I give you business, you will want to give me business. The Givers Gain® philosophy, helps BNI members to make the most of their membership. Members are encouraged to focus on the needs of their fellow members rather than themselves, and in return the others will want to help them. Thus the Givers are also Gaining from the BNI experience.
Belonging to BNI is like having dozens of sales people working for you. As other members of your BNI chapter go about their daily routine and interact with customers, colleagues, friends and family they take with them their knowledge of your business. When they meet someone new that could use your products or services they hand out your card and personally recommend your services
In this current economic climate, BNI gives you and your business their support and encouragement.
Does it Work?
In the UK and Ireland alone, there are 666 BNI Chapters that in 2010 gave 696,258 referrals, leading to business worth £245 million
How do you get your message across?
At the heart of the BNI meeting is the "60 Second Speech" slot. This is each member's opportunity to tell everyone at the meeting all about their business, the kind of leads they are looking for and anything at all that will help the other members generate business for them.
60 seconds may seem to be the briefest of speeches, but BNI have developed a system to harness the power of this format, and regularly organise free training workshops to allow the members to develop their presentations, introducing techniques such as the memory hook, and effective ways to ensure that the message is remembered.
This system has immense practical benefits outside BNI, where in in real-life networking situations, the BNI member is trained to be able to give an instant and concise account of what they do.
More information about the BNI is available by visiting the BNI UK website.
