The concept of collaboration vs. competing. Collaboration is an age-old concept that has huge benefits, though is not always intuitive for some! A business trying to compete for sales will hunt down and keep as many clients for themselves as possible.  While this is successful to a small degree, it increases the amount of energy expended on a task that will usually give limited returns. Throwing too wide a net in a sea of competitors will snag almost nothing. Having too narrow a focus on your market using whatever knowledge you have in your education or experience will also hit a limited number of targets.

Collaboration on the other hand. allows us to share our goals with others who may or may not be in our industry, much like our BNI chapter. As each of us has different life and business experience, we can potentially open each other’s eyes to new opportunities and markets that might not otherwise be visible. The potential skills we can garner from each other can help increase our own efficiency, and gain fresh insight from eyes that aren’t tightly focused on just our needs. By using these shared resources between each other, we can start to see that 1+1 actually equals 11. 

To be a good referral partner, you need to learn something about the person that you’re referring. If you know some of the following points about a person’s business, you can make a much better referral. It often takes at least a year to build up the kind of relationship that leads to really high-quality referrals. A deep referral relationship requires a surprising level of personal knowledge and connection. It takes time and effort to build this kind of relationship.

• What is the person’s background and experience?

• What is their philosophy of customer service?

• Do you understand at least 3 major products or services from that person’s business?

• Do you know the names of their family members?

• Have you asked them how you can help them grow their business?

• Have you asked them for ideas about how to grow your business?

• Do you know at least a handful of their goals for the next year and beyond?

• Could you call them at 10:00 PM if you really needed something?

• Would you feel awkward asking them for help with either a personal or business challenge?

• Do you enjoy spending time with the person? See Dr. Misner’s article “Who’s in Your Room.”

• Do you have regular appointments with the person outside of BNI meetings?

• Is this person top of mind for you?

• Can you have open, honest talks about how you can help each other further?

Many of these topics are great discussion points in your 1:1, and don’t forget your GAINS profile worksheet can be a great guide as well in getting to know your chapter member better.

Power Partners are those businesses that are great two-way referral partners. We can share and refer mutual clients back and forth between us. Sometimes it’s a good idea to gather for coffee or a beer with your chapter’s power partners to talk about what’s new in your industries. What are the new clients you want more of. How do your power partners recognize and refer them to you? You might invite power partners from other chapters (in same or related industries) to that coffee-clutch as well. There’s no reason that other BNI members in the same industry shouldn’t get to know in you case they need to refer to an outside source!  Make plans with your power partner team to do this once a month!

What is your USP? The Unique Selling Proposition that helps separate you from the competition? When assembling your weekly 30-second presentation (or featured spotlight or 1-1s), give some details that help the chapter find better hooks to introduce you to potential referrals if we can share why YOU are the best individual or company to help that referral!

The Power of One is a tool created by BNI to help every member gauge their level of involvement in the chapter. The colors are not meant to be warnings in any way, but to differentiate between levels of success for each member. The idea behind this meter, is that if you do what BNI considers to be the MINIMUM of effort in engaging with your chapter, then you’re most likely to receive the volume or quality of the referrals that will benefit you most!  

To do well (be in the green) with the Power of One, the member should:

-Pass at least ONE referral each week (and be sure it’s recorded in the BNI app or Connect)

-Have at least ONE 1-1 meeting with another member (in our chapter or another, and record it in the app)

-Completle ONE hour of ongoing education via Business Builder, listening to BNI podcasts (bnipodcast.com), reading a book on marketing, whatever (and enter it in the app – see a pattern?)

-Invite at least ONE visitor to our chapter each month.

These metrics are only as good as the data we enter into the app, and several of us in the chapter are happy to have a 1-1 with you to help you learn how to login, and enter your details.  If you’re not currently getting enough referrals, then look at engaging at a higher level with these suggestions. You’ll only get out of it what you put into it!

The hidden value of visitors in our BNI chapter.

Visitors do more than just keep our meetings fresh and dynamic—they bring real value to our group, even if they don’t become members. Every visitor is a potential connection or referral for someone in our network, opening doors to new opportunities and strengthening our chapter’s impact. In fact, on average, a single visitor generates $1,000 in Thank You for Closed Business, reinforcing the importance of consistently inviting new professionals to our meetings.

For next week, take a few minutes to review your list of referral partners and clients. Who in your network could benefit from meeting someone in our chapter? Bringing in the right visitors doesn’t just help our group grow—it helps our businesses thrive.

To dive deeper into the hidden value of visitors, check out this article: BNI Blog: The Hidden Value of Visitors

If you’re lucky, there will come a time when you’re having your fifth—or even tenth—1-2-1 with a fellow BNI member. As these professional connections evolve into friendships over the years, it’s important to keep the referrals flowing along with the good times.

One way to keep your 1-2-1s fresh and productive is to bring a list of your last 10 clients. Go through each one briefly, explaining how you helped them and whether they might be a good referral for your fellow BNI member.

This simple strategy accomplishes two key things:

1. It helps your 1-2-1 partner better understand the types of referrals that are ideal for you.

2. It creates an opportunity to connect them with one of your trusted clients, strengthening relationships all around.

Try it at your next 1-2-1 and see how it enhances your networking!

01/22/2025

As we look into the coming 2025 business year, we will often focus on where we want to grow our revenue, which is to say, what will we gain. I would encourage us also, to look at where we can “give.”  Maybe this means giving to organizations and non-profits, as there are tax benefits to be found there. Talk with Jeff Y Wong and Frank Giovannoni to learn more. 

Perhaps we are giving our time to help other small businesses in their endeavors. This encourages mutual trust and collaboration that could benefit you with more interested parties for your business. 

It could also just be more of your time in 1-1 meetings with our, and other, chapter members – or preparing more specific and effective 30-second presentations for our meeting, or examples of clients in your Featured Spotlight speaking moment. 

Giving = Gaining in the BNI world, and in just about every other aspect of your life.

01/15/2025

As business owners, we (should) be examining our ROI, or Return On Investment, when we spend time or money on a venture. Big or small, these all have costs associated with them, and after the hopeful revenue that’s generated by that venture, what’s left for profit, is our Return. 

Method 1: 

ROI = (Cost of Investment / Net Return on Investment) × 100%

Method 2: 

ROI = (FVI−IVI / Cost of Investment) x 100%

where:

FVI = Final Value of Investment

IVI = Initial Value of Investment

When looking at your BNI time and investment as a Member, consider whether you’re earning the revenue that you want. If you haven’t seen good Return yet, it may be worth looking into what time has been invested so far. Are you doing the 1-1s with our chapter members, or members of other chapters? Are you attending EVERY meeting (or as many as possible)? If you’re not present to win, sending a representative may not be enough. After all, YOU are the one our referrals are doing business with – not your company, not your representative. It’s difficult to build a relationship (to know, like and trust) with someone if they’re not present.

So what’s your current BNI ROI?

01/08/2025

The WSJ and AMEX did studies to find out how much time small businesses commit to their marketing, weekly. The general consensus is that for the efforts to be effective, it came to about 7 hours a week! 

We don’t all have 7 hours a week to market our businesses, but here are some possible solutions: 

• • Attend our BNI on Wednesdays, and having one 1-1 a week. (2 hours)

  • Attending another chapter meeting. (1.5 hours)

  • Having a 1-1 with a BNI person outside our chapter. (1 hour)

  • Taking courses on BNI Business Builder. (1 hour)

  • Listening to BNI podcasts via your favorite podcast app or on bnipodcast.com. (1 hour)

Ultimately, Giving your time and energy into your business (working ON instead of IN) will give you better Gains.  Just attending the meeting every week isn’t enough.