Want Referrals
for Life?

Our goal is to help you grow your business. BNI is a business-building system predicated on business leaders meeting each week in chapters that help members a) generate qualified client referrals; b) promote on-going professional development; and c) foster lifelong relationships.

1. Attend one BNI meeting each week  
2. Make one qualified referral each week  
3. Have one 1-to-1 meeting each week  
4. Bring one visitor to the chapter each month  
5. Complete one Chapter Education Unit (CEU) each week

1. You must work full-time in your position (i.e. no part-time employees allowed)
2. You must commit to showing up to the weekly meetings (there IS an attendance policy)
3. You must be willing to give referrals to other members in the chapter, and follow up on the referrals you receive
4. You can’t be a member of another competing organization
5. Only one person per industry may join a chapter

Visiting a chapter is the first step in finding your new referral partners. Once you have visited a chapter that you believe will be a good fit for you, you can apply for membership with the Membership Committee of the chapter. This process involves filling out an application and an interview with the Committee.

We only take one person per professional specialty. So if you are a residential real estate person and we already have one, we can refer you to another chapter, or allow you to open another chapter. Of course, if you are a commercial real estate person, you could be eligible to join this chapter.

The application asks for references and we have a membership committee that checks them. It's referral marketing, so before they even come to a meeting they have to have spoken to someone or been invited by someone in the group. Everyone has to have a sponsor, or one is assigned to them, and they interview them.

We have an ethics committee and it is imperative that anyone who gives a lead and finds out it was not satisfactorily handled must report that to the membership committee, who will investigate.

It is not the occupation, it is the individual. The occupation can be anything. If you're focused and you have a dream and you're willing to make a sacrifice, you are the person we want in the group.

You're encouraged to bring visitors for those occupations that are open, after the visitor has been prescreened, and if they're a viable candidate. It's pretty much a closed meeting except for potential members.

BNI understands the importance of the ethical concerns governing certain professions and acknowledges that rules can differ by location. As such, BNI therefore requires its members to uphold the rules of its profession so as not to violate the professional’s ethical obligations. In the event that BNI’s general rules could potentially violate a professional’s ethical code, BNI’s rules are superseded by the dictates of the professional’s ethics’ code. Significantly, a primary objective of BNI is to educate its membership in ways to market and grow business. It is BNI’s intent to ensure that this is permitted.

 

No. We see nothing in the BNI model that conflicts with any requirements of RESPA. Being a member of a chapter provides you with structured business networking opportunities, but does not require you to obtain or make referrals as a condition of continued membership. Moreover, as a member you’re free to make or receive referrals from other chapter members or anyone outside of BNI – and this is not contingent upon receiving a reciprocal referral or anything of value from the other member. BNI does not receive or pay any commission or anything of value for any business connections or referrals that a member obtains. Doing so would be against BNI’s set of Core Values. There is no quid pro quo in the BNI model.

BNI’s primary objective is to assist its members in ways to improve their business and to educate them concerning how they can effectively network. Business people get business when their expertise is known and others reach a comfort level with them. BNI provides a forum that allows members to meet other business peers who need to know effective and efficient business people.