Business Network International (BNI) is an American franchised networking organization with around 200,000 members in 7,500 local chapters worldwide. Members meet regularly to discuss business and support each other's businesses by sharing referrals. It claims to be the world's leading 'referral organization'. In 2015, the organization says its members generated referrals resulting in over $9.3 billion in closed business worldwide. BNI was founded in 1985 by Dr. Ivan Misner.
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Operational
Local BNI chapters arrange regular meetings for people from various industries and encourage the passing of referrals. It appears most effective for locally based, mainstream businesses, operating mostly off the Internet.
- Each chapter allows one person per occupational classification, and prospective members must be approved.
- Members are expected to focus on giving referrals to other members to build relationships and receive referrals in return.
- BNI draws a distinction between a "referral" and a "lead." A lead is contact information for a prospect for a member's business, while a referral occurs only when the prospect has already expressed interest in the business in question, and is ready to be contacted by the referred BNI member.
- Chapters enforce rules such as requiring attendance at (most) meetings.
- Chapters track the monetary amount of passed business in order to prove the value of the financial and time commitment.
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Financial structure
Members pay a regionally standardized application fee and a standardized recurring annual membership fee. These fees are used to cover the costs of initial registration, continual training seminars, printed and recorded instructional materials, miscellaneous branded items used by members (such as: name tag card-holders, card folders, etc.), and other overhead items managed outside of the local chapter. Some chapters also have their own periodic (weekly/monthly/quarterly/annual) meeting fee(s) to cover chapter expenses, such as the use of a room/facility and/or refreshments. Some chapters may also opt to contribute to an activity fee pool, which is used to pay for additional casual activities (such as a holiday party, a bowling night, or other events outside of the formal weekly meetings). Room fee structure, refreshment policies, and other financial contributions (outside of the flat-rate membership dues to BNI) are decided by the members and leadership within the chapter, and will vary from chapter to chapter.
To illustrate some possible examples, a chapter may opt to:
- Require members to each contribute $100 annually to rent a conference room at a local church, and have breakfast provided for an additional fee through a designated caterer.
- Use the conference room at a member's business office, and have refreshments provided at the discretion and expense of the designated speaker for that week.
- Reserve a dining room at a local restaurant, so that members will pay a flat rate for their own meals to be provided each week.
Statistics
- Number of chapters: 7,540 (as of May 2016)
- Number of members: 200,000
- Total annual value of referrals: 7.7 million referrals, resulting in US$9.3 billion worth of business
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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