I'm thinking about joining a business referral group in order to give me a good self-employed start. I attended a breakfast meeting this morning and have been invited to join, but weighing up the annual fee versus the amount of work I'd get from it.

My head's swimming from all the info. Does anyone have success/nightmare stories?

Make sure you're on LinkedIn with a good profile.
Got a website?
Both will help

Yeah I'm networking on LinkedIn and Facebook, have a website and portfolio, and have advertised on Gumtree and distributed business cards to local businesses.

Just feel I need to widen my network though to stimulate work. Needless to say I'm looking for maximum exposure with minimum cost…

i was in it for over three years and it was really good.

pros; loadsa local contacts some i still use..
id paid for the fees in a month or two
its effectiveness depends on your business…i have a freind who turns over £80k a year thru his carpet biz

cons; early start…i couldnt hack it after a while
its hard to network out of your area(ie online)
and my biz(bike shop) soon became saturated

really useful for the info/contacts when just starting up tho!

That's what I've gleaned from today's visit. The members are very keen and there's a nice supportive feel to the whole thing. That, and the slighty sickly American feel to the meeting structure! 🙄

Just trying to decide whether it's worth the initial (quite big) outlay to join. That's my problem though!

I was with BNI for 2 years, I learned alot about networking and marketing myself, however it wasn't for my sort of business and I never recieved any work from it although I gave a lot of people valuable leads. Over the 2 year period it cost me about £1500 which could have been spent more wisely in retrospect.
BNI is a franchised business which makes money from its members, the franchises are owned locally (usually by the chair of the group)and there is a national hierachy who all take a cut.
So I recommend you spend your money more wisely and don't line their pockets but spend it on something more worthwhile than will generate you more business.
I'd be more than willing to discuss if you'd like to contact me via my email in my profile.

cheers

My (limited) experience of these sorts of things is that they are full of folk wanting to sell you stuff, rather than being interested in talking to you about buying stuff from you.

I got the feeling that the folk making the most money were the ones running the events themselves 😯

It does depend on what your business is though, as some are more suited than others.

Don't know if your local chamber of commerce runs any networking sessions? They'll probably be a bit more informal and cost less than BNI and give you a feel for how successful you're likely to be?

Thanks greenboy, I'll bear that in mind. I'm under no illusion that people don't profit from these groups, and while there has to be a price to become a member I was a bit surprised at the annual membership fee (considering there is also a weekly fee to cover the room hire and food/drink), and wonder what exactly that money goes on as there is no extra mentoring or advice outside what each member gives eachother!

I am normally quite perceptive regarding these 'schemes' but came away today with a slightly uneasy feeling, but also seeing the benefits. I'm not sure whether it was the two cups of coffee and no solids for breakfast, whether I was out of my comfort zone or if it really wasn't for me (I'm not an entrepreneurial business-type) and found some of it a bit cheesy. This is why I wanted to discuss it neutrally with others with some experience of it. Unfortunately there's no way of trialling it, it's all or nothing.

I'm only in the early stages anyway, so might see if I can get started without BNI help, and if I need it revisit it at a later date.

@ norbert, thanks I'll also add CoC to the list of things to research 😯

I was in BNI for 3 years and it was great for meeting people, sharing problems with like minded people and speaking in public. I didn't get a lot of business out of it at the time, but as I am an ubnusual trade for BNI, I still get calls 5 years on from people who have hung onto my card (I do network cabling, so not necesarilly something you would need that regularly).

Things that will get you down;
Very early start.
Having to give a referal or testimonial each week. You find people will give a very weak referal rather than have nothing to offer.
Having to find a sub if you cant attend (a real PITA if you have a meeting come up at short notice)
After a while most people get hacked of as yopu are treated a bit like school kids, but you are a compeny Director / owner!
Having to comit for a year.
I could go on.

There are now a lot of breakaway groups that run on a similar idea but are a lot more relaxed. Some you will only need to commit a month ahead, and some you dont pay a joining fee, just stump up for the breakfast when you go.

If you are based in Hampshire, drop me a mail and I can give you a few names.

You can trial it by contacting other members that you met today and offering to fill their boots if they can't attend. That way you get to see it as a normal meeting and not a visitors day (I'm guessing that's what it was). The person you are subing for pays for your brekie too.

They also allow you two visits before you have to comit to joining (or not)