BNI

I started my business properly in 2004. As is the way with a certain type of start up, I had one large client, and after we'd been up and running for a couple of months I realised that I needed to find a few more. (My early business history is basically a collection of stories that boil down to me taking an inordinate amount of time to stumble into the bleeding obvious.)

It was around this time that I was invited to a presentation by the BNI ('Business Network International'). I have to say I was pretty dubious but when I was in the loo I bumped into one of the members - a dentist called Neil Cooper - and asked him if it was really worth it and I remember him saying "Well, you'll definitely get enough business to pay back the membership fee". Hm.

That just left the business of getting to the meetings at Kendal Golf Club for 06:45 on Wednesday mornings, where there was (terrible) coffee, bacon sandwiches, and some chat before the meeting proper. If nothing else, it meant that everyone was serious about it.

Briefly, BNI's pitch is that they only take one person or company from each trade for each chapter. Each week, each person stands up and gives a sixty second pitch, and you find one another business on the basis of 'know, like and trust', i.e. that you'll happily recommend these people because you like them. And to back this up, they produce figures showing the amount of 'referrals' and business generated (in pounds).

They are the homeopaths of the business world. In the same way that the water-selling fraud relies on the placebo effect - something it can't admit to - so the reasons that BNI works have very little to with its stated methods. For example, what happens if you don't like or trust someone once you get to know them? And where do these mysterious figures around referrals and business transactions come from? And why do they get so cranky when you ask them about it?

But where it does work is that you get to meet a bunch of people who are in a similar position to you (very few well established and successful businesses attend the meetings) and this forges a nice little community. Away from the sixty second speeches and referral slips, you learn who you do like and trust, and find yourself part of a genuine network that is as much about support as business.

It's been over ten years now since I left BNI - after, I think, eighteen months membership and a stint on the top table - but I'm still close to three of the people I met at BNI and see them on a fairly regular basis, one is a still client, and there's a couple of others whom I'm delighted to bump into around Kendal from time to time. 

And this morning I met up with one of them, my good and lovely friend, Tony (just caught in the top right of my photo). I think he might have been the first proper friend I made at BNI and over the years we've both been through a lot and I'd like to think that we've always been there for each other. (By which I mean I hope I've been there for him because he always has for me.)

Like pretty much every time I've ever spent with him, this morning was fun: catching up on news, talking about music, and lots of laughs. And it made me think that I need to make the effort to do this more often, so that's my belated new year's resolution; make more of an effort to spend time with my friends. And that does sound lame (and easy) but I don't do it enough.