Wednesday, September 17, 2008

Business Networking International Scam Review, Scam or Legit

By George L. Kenney


BNI or Business Networking International prides itself on being the world's largest referral organization. Chapters consist of one member per profession. As a co-founder and past president of a BNI South Florida chapter, I would like to share some of my experiences with you in order to assist you in making any business decisions regarding the organization.

BNI started in the mid 1980's in California. The founder Dr. Ivan Misner, is still the Chairman. The organization has grown throughout the last 20 plus years and now boasts chapters all over the world.

What is BNI all about?

Whether you join an existing chapter or would like to start one of your own, the main focus is twofold. First, you'll want to be aware of, and pass referrals to, other members of your chapter. And you'll also want to actively recruit new members on a continuous basis.

Members generally pass a minimum of one referral per week. If for some reason you don't have a referral, bringing a visitor is acceptable. If you have neither a referral or a visitor, you are expected to give a testimonial about a member of the chapter you've had business dealings with.

How can you benefit from membership?

Over a period of time, the more referrals you hand out, the more you can expect to get back. This is "givers gain" in action. When someone gives you something you want to reciprocate, don't you? It works vice versa as well.

The reasons that you want to continue to recruit new members is so that the chapter will continue. Statistics have shown that when a chapter has 20 members there are about 20 referrals passed per week. Once a chapter grows to 30 members the referrals move up to about 40 per week. You can see the benefit of having a larger chapter. Another advantage of a larger chapter is that over time you will always lose members through attrition, and with a larger chapter you will still remain strong.

Summation

BNI is a very well structured and worthwhile organization. Some chapters have difficulty because of an attitude of strict adherence to the bylaws, others benefit from them. The one member per profession can certainly be considered a strength of the organization.

Although there are few drawbacks, these are some. As a member of a BNI chapter you are not allowed to belong to any other networking groups which have a one person per profession structure. And, although BNI has a basic MLM structure itself, you are not allowed to promote a business opportunity like an MLM, you are restricted to promoting products.

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