Mavance, LLC

A blog detailing the start and growth of Mavance, LLC

Business Network International (BNI) - 5 W’s (Who, What, When, Where and Why)

May 29th, 2008 by Kelly Hair

This article will go through the 5 W’s on BNI from my perspective. I joined a local BNI chapter three months ago. I am, by no means, a grizzled veteran. I thought it would be a good idea to get this article out there for business owners, independent agents, attorneys, CPAs or anyone else looking to grow a quality network over time.

In order, I’ll answer the 5 W’s in the following context:

  • What is BNI?
  • Why join BNI?
  • Where are BNI chapters/where is an opening?
  • Who joins BNI?
  • When should I join BNI?

What is BNI?

Business Network International was found in 1985 by a guy named Ivan Misner. Misner wanted to create a system where professionals were accountable to each other for referrals. Misner’s story is told in a book provided upon joining called “Giver’s Gain”. The main point the book gets across is that the old adage it’s better to give than receive works for more than just gifts. By giving quality referrals and deserved testimonials to other members, you are actually building up your credibility.

One of the points Misner makes in his book is that only one member representing an area is allowed into the chapter. In other words, you will not have two Realtors or two web designers. Only one can join so it’s a first come first serve proposition. This works out well because it reduces internal competition.

While BNI is not the only game in town, it’s the best in my book. Sure, there’s others including LeTip and other local varieties including an email I received for a Professional Business Network in Warren, NJ. Of course, there’s always the local/county/regional Chambers of Commerce. Personally, BNI made sense the first time I visited. It’s very structured and goal orientated.

The structured BNI meeting I attend every Thursday between 7AM to 8:30AM goes something like this:

  • 15 minutes of open networking
  • 45 - 60 second commercials given by every member
  • A report by the chapter VP going over referrals, “dance cards” (meetings with members outside of the BNI chapter meeting) and closed business attributed to the chapter
  • 2 seven minute presentations by members on their businesses. With a chapter our size, we present roughly every six months.
  • “I have” time. We share referral (or acknowledge them if already shared with the individual) and to give testimonials.

Why Join BNI?

BNI has a couple of advantages out of the box:

  1. It increases the size of your sales force. Put simply - if one of the 40 members hears of an opportunity, there’s a very good chance you’ll hear of it as well.
  2. It helps build your network immediate. Sure you have to build credibility and trust but it helps that you’re like someone else because you’re both members of a group.

Case in point: A startup/potential client needed assistance with finding a distributor. I asked my BNI group for help in finding distributors. Within 24 hours, I had emails from three BNI members with contact details.

Where are chapters/Where is an Opening?

BNI’s page contains a listing of all the chapters that you can use to find a BNI chapter near you. Each subpage is a little different so I cannot give you a link to find a chapter with an opening for your business type. However, I will give you a search page for New York City/Metro New Jersey. If you’re in New Jersey but outside of this area then check out the clickable map of New Jersey/Pennsylvania. Believe it or not, the web page has been the biggest annoyance so far - everything else just runs. Perhaps it’s due to the old school word of mouth networking.. don’t know why it’s not more clean cut!

Who Joins BNI?

In short - a wide swath of business people. Some members own their businesses while others are professionals or even employees at large companies. If you are customer facing, have a relationship manager role or are responsible in some or in whole part for sales, then BNI could be for you. As an example, our chapter, the Select Business Source in Westfield, NJ contains the following members (as of May 2008) :

Needless to say, it’s a pretty diverse group.

When Should You Join BNI?

A bit of a rhetorical question in my book. Perhaps as soon as possible?!? If you are dependent upon sales, or are a sales organization, do yourself a favor and visit a chapter. It doesn’t cost much (if any) to visit, and generally, you’ll be breakfast out of it as well.

Category: BNI, Marketing, Networking, Processes, Westfield, new jersey | No Comments »

Small business Web Sites in Limbo - Get Off the Sideline!

May 29th, 2008 by Kelly Hair

Having worked at large companies in a previous life, I have come to expect a base level of service and usability for maintaining web sites. In the marketplace, I have been exposed to so far, I have found a different story. Some specific observations:

  • Sites are not being updated regularly & not refreshed on any regular basis. It’s not uncommon to see a “Copyright 2004″ on the sites.
  • Small companies are forced into “content contracts” that force them to use the developer to update content. If you did not want to pay then someone in your company must know Adobe Dreamweaver or Adobe Contribute.
  • Small companies have no idea how their sites are making them money. A website is something they “have” and is seen as cost of doing business.
  • Small companies have little or no analytics/metrics of site performance. If they do have some sort of analytics then it’s generally a “check it occasionally” or the opposite - an obsessive compulsive “how much bandwidth am I pulling?”
  • Small companies have joined referral networks. These are generally niche but can cost upwards of $500/mo for a handful of contacts. Some have had good results and others have seen this as throwing money down the drain.

That’s what I’ve seen so far. What does it mean? It could mean that companies are not interested in maintaining their own content. Perhaps they want to focus on selling and servicing the customers. I think this is a fair point but it misses a major trend that has built since 2003/2004.

So, what’s happened since 2004? Well, namely, Web 2.0 has come into its own. The democratization of the Internet continues and Web 2.0 has entered the mainstream. It’s a user generated content world now. Content is king and if you don’t publish, or allow the ability for your users/customers to publish, then you’ll risk being left behind.

What does “left behind” mean? Namely, you’ll have to pay for you content to be served and opposed to customers discovering your content. It’s no secret that search engines love blogs. Blogs, or weblogs, are not new - they’ve been around since the late 90s. It’s only been in the last few years that they have entered the mainstream.

Some popular mainstream Web 2.0 sites:

There are countless other sites and the list above is only a taste. You can spend hours reading articles (and news feeds) from sites like Slashdot (/.) or TechCrunch to keep up, or, better yet, focus on your business. The problem with this approach is that lots of sites and tech just don’t pan out.

You may be thinking - that’s nice. I really don’t care about those sites. I think you may want to perk up before it’s really too late. Technology, like business, goes through cycles. A good illustration of technology cycles was documented in Everett Rogers’ Diffusion of Innovation (Amazon.com link) and modified by Geoffrey A. Moore in “Crossing the Chasm” (Amazon.com link). For the sake of this blog, I’ll keep it simple and use Rogers’ bell curve where the technology adoption cycle follows stages including:

  1. Innovators (2.5% of population)
  2. Early Adopters (13.5% of population)
  3. Early Majority (34% of population)
  4. Late Majority (34% of population)
  5. Laggards (16% of population)

A graphic representation of this can be found on Wikipedia. Not sure about you, but I’m a bit more visual. Text is nice but pictures are better!

Technology cycles do not follow a prescribed 7 - 10 year cycle. It really depends on the technology, the usability of the technology and the benefits participants gain from consuming the technology. Case in point - computer took multiple decades before they ended up in your house. I’d say it was very uncommon to have a UNIVAC in the garage in the 60’s. Oh, and the Internet - well - it was created in the 70s and 80s by the US government only to be opened to college students in the 90’s for “Research Purposes.” That’s obviously changed a bit…

So for Web 2.0 - I’d guess we are somewhere between the Early Majority and the Late Majority. Blogs are probably a bit further and are in the Late Majority. Blogging has been around since the late 90’s so it’s pretty mature now.

Perhaps some additional proof will help. A respected publication, BusinessWeek, who in my opinion, catering to the Early Majority & the Late Majority has an article about Social Media in the June 2, 2008 edition called Beyond Blogs. This article is an update to a 2005 article on the importance of Blogs. It

So, what’s a small company to do? Wait it out? When have you gone from waiting to being passed by? Wel, according to bell weather, BusinessWeek, it’s

Everyone’s needs are different but I think small businesses should have:

  • An easy way to update content
  • An easy way to update different types of content (i.e. - blogs, simple articles, forums, etc)
  • Receive appropriate contacts

Taking these issues into consideration, I think the best solution is to open up the content creation for small businesses. Considering I’m a big fan of Open Source and like some of the open source Content Management Systems out there, I’m interesting in promoting this directly to businesses in New Jersey.

  • Deploy an Open Source Content Management System (CMS.) Jargon aside, a CMS simply is a car that you can drive yourself. You don’t always need to have your expensive chauffeur drive you around.
  • The CMS should include some form of blogging or adding articles easily
  • The CMS should provide tools to classify (tag) articles as well as categorize them to provide both readers and search engines relevant content.
  • The CMS should pro

I am working with my partner to develop solutions based on an Open Source CMS called Joomla! Personally, I’m more of a Drupal snob when it comes to the Joomla! space but I can do more through partnerships than on my own so… Joomla! it is.

Joomla! may be too feature rich for the micro businesses/professionals. Wordpress is probably a better solution in this space and I am considering supporting this personally. I think there is a market that’s been forgotten about in this space. While the main focus is larger companies, I believe some professionals are being left behind. Sure, they can setup their own blog. It’s not that difficult but there’s something to be said about having a human there to help.

If you are a small business located in Central New Jersey and have been sitting on the sideline then reevaluate your position. Wait a second… if you are reading this then it’s likely you are not in this boat. Better yet, if you know someone whose business is sitting on the sideline then have them contact us.

If you work for a large company or want to manage the technology yourself then I’d recommend looking at these solutions:

I’m very interested in views - both supporting and outright flames. What do you think?

Category: Web Design, Web Development, eBusiness | No Comments »