BNI SuccessNet - March/April 2003

The Gate City chapter in Greensboro, NC, has much to brag about. Having only chartered in September 2001, the Gate City chapter now has 34 members. These guys are working the BNI system. In January 2003 they passed 158 referrals and tracked 149 one-on-ones (notice the correlation between the one-on-ones and referrals!). They are now averaging more than one one-on-one per member per week. The Gate City chapter is also committed to their continuing professional development. They have averaged greater than 25 percent participation in our monthly referral workshops. All of this activity led to their receiving the 2002 Chapter of the Year Award for the Triad, NC, region. Look for big news from this bunch in 2003.

Submitted by Jeff Weir, managing area director for Western North Carolina.

BNI Boosts Business

I recently received a third generation referral. Eric Schweiderowski from Carpets Etc. referred a client to me in the summer of 2000. I listed and sold her house that summer. In the fall of 2000, the woman's daughter contacted me about listing and selling her home, which I did. The daughter works in the legal department of ALCOA, and she referred me to a co-worker who needed to sell his home, and I listed it. This has been a great BNI year like many in the past. Last year I received over $14,000 in commissions from BNI referrals, and this year I have received over $22,000.

Submitted by John Geisler Coldwell Banker Real Estate, Upper St. Clair chapter, Western Pennsylvania.

I have many reasons for my sales figure tripling from 2001 to 2002. One of the things that attributed to such an increase was my involvement with BNI. To date, about 38 percent of my business this year has come from BNI referrals. While this statistic is good, the next statistic is even better. Of that 38 percent, only about half of that is from my own BNI chapter. Eighteen percent of my BNI business comes through other chapters of BNI. I would like to thank everyone in the Western Pennsylvania BNI chapters who has helped me to grow my business. It is greatly appreciated.

Submitted by Aimee Keenan, ATM Laser Products and Services, Inc., Airport chapter, Western Pennsylvania.

What has BNI done for my business, and what benefits have I derived from my involvement here? My business, THREEH.COM is like so many others, a small one (three employees in house, two roving part-time/commission sales). THREEH.COM has a small marketing budget. As I am certain many people will agree, it is almost more expensive to advertise locally than it is to advertise nationwide. BNI, through its membership, has allowed for us to get our name to a previously untapped market for us: our own neighbors.

Another respondent on the BNI-Yahoo! Groups site pointed out that their web-related business has managed to survive the storm even as many of their related field competitors came and went. BNI helped their business weather the difficulty, and I'm fairly certain it continues to do so.

What have we gained business-wise out of BNI? While we are still catching up all our accounting paperwork at this time, our early numbers for November/December 2002 are indicating nearly 500 percent increase over the same two-month period in 2001. Almost 60 percent of that increase has originated from referrals and contacts through our BNI relationships.

Submitted by J. Keith Henry on the BNI-Yahoo! Group Site.

Out of the Mouths of Babes

I attended the Issaquah Business Builders chapter last Thursday and was talking to Lisa Sacksteder, the secretary/treasurer of the chapter. She was telling me that she had taken her nine-year-old daughter out to sell Girl Scout cookies. Lisa's daughter, Amelia, has attended BNI meetings off and on with her mother since Lisa joined about seven years ago.

Amelia is very self-confident and well-spoken for a nine-year-old and wanted to visit the businesses to sell her cookies by herself while her mother waited outside.

One of their stops was a chiropractic office, and Amelia went inside for a few moments and then the chiropractor came out and asked Lisa to come in. Evidently, in the process of selling her cookies, the chiropractor complimented Amelia on how well she spoke and asked her how this came to be. Amelia proceeded to tell the doctor that she went to BNI with her mother where there were lots of great people and that you gave a 60-second commercial about your business and the other members helped you find more business and suggested that he might want to visit.

This opened the door for the chiropractor to ask Lisa more about BNI, and Lisa was able to invite him to her BNI meeting Visitor's Day.

Submitted by Connie J. Hinton, BNI-NW.

BNI Member Awarded Franchise Owner of 2002

Darlene Tatton, of Toronto, Canada, WEBB chapter, owns a Decorating Den franchise. Decorating Den is an interior decorating business, which has 800 franchise locations worldwide and more than 30 in Ontario, Canada. Darlene was awarded the Franchise Owner of the Year for 2002 in Ontario, by Decorating Den. Darlene started her business four-and-a-half years ago, which is also when she first joined BNI. Since then she has grown her business very successfully through skillful working with people and from her BNI referrals. She loves her work and working with people. "Every day is a new and exciting day for me!" she says.

Submitted by Don Morgan.

Founder's Award Winners

The following chapters recently received the Founder's Awards:

Borders chapter, New York
Somers chapter, New York
White Plains I chapter, New York
Yorktown Heights chapter, New York
Plainview Long Island chapter, New York
Englewood chapter, New Jersey

Submitted by Deanna Tucci Schmitt, executive director.

Good Ideas at Work

My name is Chris Pennock, and I'm a three-time president of the Fountaingrove chapter in Santa Rosa, CA. Our chapter had a problem that I don't think is unique to us. We had a large amount of sole proprietors and a couple of small businesses owners, i.e., $3,000,000 in gross sales per year. The problem was that the referrals from the sole proprietors were not sizable enough to make the commitment for the small businesses worthwhile.

Our solution was to concentrate on recruiting more small businesses. We thought that the referrals from the small businesses could make each one's commitment worthwhile, while their referrals to the sole proprietors would support their commitment and take pressure off of the sole proprietors.

The result has been remarkable. Our chapter has averaged $1,000,000 in referrals per six-month period for the last three periods. There have been many other benefits as a result of this change, and I would suggest to any other chapter that this endeavor would be well worth their time and effort.

Submitted by Christopher Pennock.

Givers Gain

Pat Nagler, an outstanding member from Lake Highlands chapter, Dallas, Texas, recently passed $114,000 worth of referral business. Her average referral is $4,000, and she gave 35 referrals in 39 weeks. She should be proud of her fantastic work.

Submitted by Shelli Howlett, executive director, BNI DFW/Austin/San Antonio.

New Chapter Starts Off with a Bang

We kicked off our new chapter (Chagrin Valley, Ohio) at our meeting on December 11, 2002. Along with our core 13 members and Bob Willis and Margie Hominy, our director and assistant director respectively, we were joined by about 80 guests and visitors. In the month following our kick-off, we grew to 30 members and have many more interested in joining. We already have to change meeting sites as we have outgrown our original digs. Our new meeting site will be a private, exclusive club called the Pine Lake Trout Club in Bainbridge, Ohio; their marketing director is one of our new members.

Our referral numbers have been astonishing—over 100 since our inception. We have terrific enthusiasm, energy and commitment from our members and all feel that this BNI chapter will enhance our lives, will challenge us and will grow our businesses.

Submitted by William Cody, president.

Thank You, BNI!

Wendy Majors, of the Lewisville Business Builders, reports that Bank One took over $1.2 million in applications and approved and closed a little over $600K, generating $14,460 in revenue. In addition, Wendy says she has another $538,000 sitting in the pipeline, thanks to BNI.

Submitted by Shelli Howlett, executive director, BNI DFW/Austin/San Antonio.

BNI has helped me stay in the top five in an office of 100 residential real estate agents when the market was down (2002). The average sales price increased in a year of fewer homes sold! Thank you, Addison Lunch 1 BNI chapter!

Submitted by Susan Petty, Coldwell Banker Real Estate.

Dear Dr. Misner,

I had a great time and learned quite a bit at the international conference. Between the training and the conference, I came away very impressed with the organization you have created. It is unusual, in my experience, for a large company to continue to be flexible enough to change as weaknesses or areas of improvement arise; yet that is exactly what you have done with BNI. I am excited and honored to be part of this organization and am really looking forward to the work I can do in the region.

Submitted by Kari Dickerson, Seattle area.

Celebrating Eight Great Years

The Walden Chapter in Chattanooga just celebrated their eight—year anniversary. During their eight—years together, they have maintained a net membership of 30 members.

Submitted by Dan Rawls, BNI East Tennessee regional director.