Want to know 18 reasons why you should join BNI?
Here they are. Plus the story of my membership in BNI.
Edit: I have not been a member of BNI since 2018, but I still believe that BNI has made a huge contribution to the development of our organisation. To this day, I receive recommendations and have contracts from that time. I am no longer a member of the organisation, but my reasons are not business-related. The organisation is not perfect, because on such a scale it is impossible, but it is very good. I still believe it is a very good investment, regardless of the current membership fee.
Why did I write this article?
When I joined BNI, I heard about one benefit of membership, and that was money… However, I believe that there are many more benefits. There is no time to talk about all this at the meeting, so I decided to write an article about BNI. I will describe my experiences and maybe inspire you to join us. I want to give those who are interested and undecided some food for thought. So, enjoy your coffee and happy reading.
Here is my story…
I first heard about BNI in February 2013. At that time, I met my current friend, Antoni Kotarba, President of the Management Board of the PromoPixel agency from Krakow (currently the owner of the Everywhere agency), who, despite my undisguised scepticism, invited me to learn more about the organisation.
I quickly decided that it was not for me, because the stories about how BNI works sounded rather strange to me. However, I am not proud of the fact that I formed my opinion without even attending a meeting to see BNI in action.
Months passed since my first contact with BNI. During that time, I watched Antoni grow dynamically as an entrepreneur, and PromoPixel slowly become a leading agency in Krakow. These were the main arguments for believing Antoni in the effectiveness of BNI and seeing the benefits of co-creating the organisation.
Antoni told me not to try to believe him, but to see the results of his company’s activities in BNI. I had been observing its dynamic growth for a long time, so his words only confirmed that PromoPixel was where it was thanks to the contacts and relationships developed in BNI.
Seeing the changes taking place in Antoni’s company with my own eyes, I decided to accept another invitation to a meeting. It was February 2014. I wrote to Antoni that I would be happy to see this mythical BNI from the inside to find out for myself how it works.
The meeting itself made a really big impression on me. Entrepreneurs were actually passing on recommendations to each other and thanking each other for previous successful projects. I decided to apply to BNI almost immediately, but due to the fact that there can only be one representative of a given industry in the group, it was not possible. However, I was lucky that a new group with the charming name BNI City was just being formed. Robert Stolarczyk from PromoTraffic answered my numerous questions with admirable patience – I am still grateful to him for that today. After meeting Robert, I joined BNI as an ambassador for our agency.
This is how my adventure with BNI began. An adventure that changed my approach to business and life. An adventure that changed me.
What did BNI give me?
1) Public speaking
Apparently, people are more afraid of public speaking than spiders and death. There is something to it😉 When I was about to give my first presentation, I resembled a man of iron (if you know what I mean). I was paralysed with fear, my voice was shaking, and I had my hands hidden behind my back so that no one could see how much they were shaking.
When, in October 2014, BNI Regional Director Paweł Jach asked me to give a presentation to 150 entrepreneurs, I almost had a heart attack. I was terrified. However, after it was over, the feedback on my speech was very good; apparently, I did really well. This was after 5 months of active participation in BNI.
Over time, my familiarity with public speaking allowed me to calmly deliver speeches to even larger audiences.
During the guest day in May 2015, I talked about my adventure with BNI. Every word I said was listened to attentively by 180 listeners, and I didn’t even feel nervous. I was excited, of course, but when Paweł Jach asked me the day before if I wanted to speak, my reaction was completely different from the previous time. I was very happy.
2) Structures, procedures, company
Running a company is certainly not the easiest thing to do. It is also not something you can learn at school or university. BNI helped me understand the processes taking place in my own company and start to standardise them. I realised that many (too many) of these processes rely on and function only thanks to me and my partner.
I realised that this was a dead end and that I could not run a company that was almost 100% dependent on me. Working 14 hours a day (including weekends) did not translate into our financial results – we did not earn more thanks to this additional commitment.
I watched with great interest how these processes work at BNI. An organisation with 160,000 members worldwide (in 60 countries) operates extremely efficiently and effectively, and I can’t get the wheels of a company with less than 10 employees turning properly? I wanted to learn about the best practices used in BNI management so that I could transfer certain patterns to my agency.
One of the first changes we decided to implement was to significantly limit the range of services offered by our agency. In the early stages of our business, we tried to have as wide a range of services as possible in order to cast a “fishing net” and catch anything we could. However, I realised that we had to focus on specialisation and procedures. We started to focus only on those orders that were actually beneficial to us. Previously, we took every job to cover our costs (our turnover was too low to smoothly cover our current expenses), and our services were too cheap because we focused only on getting the job. We were very disappointed. We worked a lot and earned little. Thanks to BNI, I learned why this was the case. It had to be this way because we did not understand our own company. Thanks to BNI, I looked at our agency from a completely different perspective and began to pay attention to things I did not even know existed before. Not all entrepreneurs are able to understand their own company the way I began to understand mine.
We began to remedy the situation by creating procedures. We divided the processes into stages and rebuilt the company’s structure, also by analysing and planning what kind of people should work at ADream and what their career paths should look like. This process is still ongoing. We still have a lot of things to improve, bearing in mind that development never ends. However, thanks to BNI, we are aware of our own company and know where we are going.
3) Managing a BNI group is like a free MBA
I was really surprised when Paweł Jach, Regional Director of BNI (then director of the BNi City group), offered me the position of Group President. It wasn’t exactly what I had in mind. I am ashamed to admit it, but initially I had no intention of being a particularly active member. At least until I was sure that it all made sense and would bring real benefits to my company. I suffered from a chronic lack of time, I had a lot of responsibilities both in the company and as a member of BNI, and taking on the position of President of the group meant that I would have to become even more involved in its operations. To put it bluntly, it was very inconvenient for me. However, I felt that I could not get involved in something only partially, because by nature, when I take on something, I commit myself not 100%, but 300%. After hearing the proposal, I asked Paweł to give me two days to think it over. During that time, I asked Antoni (PromoPixel), whom I mentioned earlier, for his opinion on the matter, and he assured me that I should not hesitate for a moment. Maciej Kafel from the Uberweb agency, with whom we are friends, also told me that it was a very good move. That was enough. In order to operate at 300%, we had to hire another person, but accepting Paweł’s proposal turned out to be the best of the most difficult and the most difficult of the best business decisions I made at the time.
Thanks to taking on this position, I was able to learn even more about the processes involved in managing such a large organisation – also on the micro scale of our group (membership committee, education coordinator, events coordinator, group recruitment process, mentoring, Power Team).
I was given many new responsibilities, which I initially tried to handle on my own, but I quickly realised that this was impossible. I learned to cooperate, influence the commitment of others and delegate tasks so that we could work towards a common goal.
Today, I write new procedures myself, and I have implemented everything I have learned in my own company. I have transferred the group recruitment process to sales processes, as well as the method of positive communication and demonstrating value during delegated tasks.
I was hungry for BNI know-how and wanted to make the most of my membership. Jarek Juśkiewicz from QWay Group once said that managing a BNI group is like managing a herd of cats. If you learn how to manage a BNI group, you will be able to manage companies. Everyone is an individual, has their own (usually high) EGO and will not take orders just because someone has been appointed president of something. Managing a BNI group is like an MBA course conducted on a living organism.
4) A free mentor for a year
I was not alone in all this. Every year I had a guardian angel, the Director and now my fantastic friend Paweł Jach. Paweł devoted so much of his time to me that if he were to invoice me now for mentoring, I would definitely have to sell my car to pay it 🙂
Paweł was my mentor and coach, who taught and trained me on some days and asked difficult questions on others. I felt his support every step of the way. Few members know how much work Paweł put into my education and how much of an impact it had on our group. This group would not look the way it does today if it weren’t for him. Paweł, thank you once again!
5) Knowledge on steroids, or 50 experts from various industries
The market is won by those who grow faster. Thanks to BNI, I have 50 experienced specialists running their businesses in various industries at my disposal at any time. Is it possible to grow faster than when we have the knowledge and experience of so many entrepreneurs at our fingertips?
Accounting, law, management, sales, EU subsidies and 45 other specialisations… I kept asking people about their businesses. I asked them how they deal with certain things in their companies and learned from them. This gave me a wealth of knowledge about companies, taxes, effective sales planning, hiring salespeople and many other things that every successful entrepreneur needs to know. That’s how it works. BNI is not only about recommendations, but also about sharing experiences, thanks to which we don’t have to break down doors that someone more experienced has already broken down before. All you have to do is ask. We help each other in business, which is why I helped others with time management, project management and e-marketing. Did anyone issue an invoice for a consultation? Of course not. 🙂
6) Contacts turned into contracts
Thanks to continuous monitoring of financial results, we know that BNI membership is currently worth over PLN 70,000 statistically. This is the amount of additional turnover generated for the company annually from recommendations. Our agency has received over PLN 80,000 in orders, but we must add something much more valuable to this amount – the company’s turnover, which I have increased thanks to the skills I have acquired at BNI.
The first year of BNI is the weakest because we are still learning how to recommend and building trust in ourselves and our companies. My commitment translated into trust and contracts. My current goal is to generate PLN 500,000 in additional turnover for the company per year thanks to recommendations from BNI. I know this is possible, which is why I also want to contribute to the BNI City group.
7) Positive and proactive people
Every day, we meet many people with a negative, pessimistic attitude towards the world around them. At BNI, I have met cheerful, positive, friendly and helpful people who want to share their contacts and help others grow their businesses. Proactive people who take responsibility for what happens in their lives and forge their own success in the fire of experience. I didn’t believe that I could wake up at 5:30 on a Wednesday and feel happy because I was going to meet my business partners to give them the recommendations I had prepared for them. I must point out that I am a night owl and often got up around 4 p.m. on Saturdays. Now I get up at 6 a.m. practically every day and I still enjoy it.
8) Internal training
Self-presentations, networking, expanding your network of contacts, recommendations. All this is provided by BNI’s know-how, and my knowledge of these issues will stay with me forever. This is particularly important to me (as a trainer). At the training sessions, you can meet people from other groups in other cities. I couldn’t believe that in one day I met people who could help me reach people in Norway (the company introduces companies to this market and provides them with accounting services) and a company that has contacts in Taiwan. I would like to quote Ryszard Chmura, President of PromoHolding: “You can’t get closer to business than at BNI.” BNI is a fantastic tool, also for training my salespeople, so as soon as another group opens, we will send our representative there.
9) Access to BNI worldwide
By joining a BNI group, we have access to all groups in a given city, country and worldwide. BNI also offers a system through which we can contact any member from the group and country we are interested in. If tomorrow I am looking for a proven PR company from the USA, I can find it in 5 minutes. In addition, I can write on a global forum and exchange knowledge with BNI members around the world. Cool? Cool!
10) Time savings
When I joined BNI, I was afraid that I wouldn’t have enough time. Ultimately, BNI taught me to manage my time and priorities even better. It turned out that 50% of the things I do myself should be delegated, and lack of time was really just a poor excuse. This does not mean that I now have a lot of free time. I got rid of the things that did not bring me joy and simply filled my free time with much more ambitious plans. 🙂
11) A people person
When I joined BNI, I had about 400 numbers in my phone book, and after a year at BNI, I have over 1,000. I didn’t notice when it happened, but what I did notice and what I started to like was that my friends and acquaintances began to treat me as someone who could solve their problems by providing valuable and proven contacts.
12) Marketing support
At BNI, during the so-called “1-on-1 meetings”, we tell each other about our businesses using the “Gains” sheet. As our agency deals with marketing, filling it out was not a challenge for us, but there are questions that require some thought. What are our greatest achievements? What are our goals as a company? Why us and not the competition? How can we recommend you effectively? Who is your ideal customer? What would be the best recommendation? When we joined BNI, I was able to write down one thing in answer to the question of why us and not the competition. After a year at BNI, I have 10 points written down on why it is worth choosing us and not the competition. Even for a company like ours, which deals with e-marketing, the know-how of referral marketing was very valuable to us.
13) Self-image
How we look is a measure of the respect we have for our client. I didn’t understand this before. In simple terms, what I’m getting at is that you can’t make a second first impression, so let’s make sure the first one is as it should be. Our professionalism should be consistent in terms of our offer, body language, what we say and how we look. I understood this thanks to BNI, which is why I always wear a well-fitting suit. This is how I show respect to my clients and business partners. When someone recommends me, I also want to maintain their business standards. To put it mildly, a year ago I was not the king of business attire. I started to learn about it and enjoy it. I began to understand these principles and use them in business, which translates into the effectiveness of my actions.
14) Proven partners or sales department
Ula Bartkowska, a sales trainer, once told me that creating a sales department requires money, consistency and patience. I know companies that tried to create such departments and failed, so they opted for partners with whom they share commissions. At BNI, we do not share commissions, we recommend each other only because we want to help each other and we know that someone does their job well. We also use BNI to acquire partners, thanks to whom we gain new customers without investing time and effort.
15) Givers Gain
BNI has given me a wealth of know-how that I now use to help my friend run her beauty and make-up salon. I help her by applying the knowledge I have gained from BNI to organise her business and prepare it for the creation of a franchise model scaled to the whole of Poland.
16) Power Team!
How to get the most referrals thanks to BNI? Create a group of companies that serve the same type of customer. In our case, these were companies such as an SEO agency, a visualisation company, an outdoor advertising agency, a PR company, and a mobile application company. These groups generate 63 per cent of orders in BNI.
17) Development plans
I also act as a mentor at BNI. New members who want to join the group must undergo 90 minutes of mentoring, during which I explain the rules, answer questions, serve them as best I can, and take care of them by showing my support in their first steps at BNI. It’s a fantastic role that allows me to meet new members. One such person was Aneta Januszko Szakiel from the company “Biuro Informacji Analiz Naukowych” (Scientific Analysis Information Office). It turned out that she was the person I had been waiting for for several years. I could write a lot here, but I will just mention that we are currently preparing to launch a technology cluster that will operate on the model of the Power Team.
18) Partners do not grow on trees and you will not find them on Gumtree
Deciding to tie a significant part of your life to someone else in business is a serious matter. Where can you find a reliable partner? Six months earlier, Agata Kuźniarowska, owner of Studio Leon, joined BNI. The company specialises in preparing visual identities for companies, labels and packaging for printing, with a focus on the alcohol and cosmetics industries. We worked well together, exchanging recommendations and experiences. After a few months, Agata made me an offer I couldn’t refuse: to transform the company into a limited liability company, buy out some of the shares and become the company’s CEO. This was in line with our vision for the company and what we wanted to do. Two years earlier, my partner and I had already been considering such a move. We were both in BNI, we shared the same values and outlook on life. If it had been an offer from the market, from someone I didn’t know so well, I wouldn’t even have considered it. I was able to learn a lot from Agata, who has been running the company for 12 years, and Agata was able to start realising her dreams, including acquiring foreign clients.
At BNI, I also met Patrycja Idzińska, currently my partner at the internet marketing agency When. After a year of working together at BNI, my partner Wojciech Kmiecik and I joined When as shareholders. The agency is managed by Patrycja, and the quality of the campaigns is ensured by Przemysław Kołsut, the agency’s co-founder.
That’s how my adventure with BNI looks like today. The best thing I could have done for my business was to invest in BNI. Antoni Kotarba, thank you.
To be continued.
“A rising tide lifts all boats.” J. F. Kennedy
