£1.5 Million for Richmond Small Businesses (From Richmond and Twickenham Times)

£1.5 Million for Richmond Small Businesses

10:47pm Sunday 6th June 2010 in YOUR Richmond News By David Wimblett

By Community Correspondent David Wimblett

At 7.00am every Thursday morning, a group of local business people meet for breakfast at Carluccio’s in Richmond. There is no lying in bed for them when there is business to be done. Amongst them are: a landscape gardener, an accountant, web designer, a heating engineer, IT specialist and a training company.

The group is called Parkside and they meet each week with the sole purpose of generating business for themselves and each other; their philosophy is based on Givers Gain. All members act as a free sales force for the others in the group.

Parkside is a new group in Richmond and their aim is to grow to forty members as soon as possible, because this is when they know that the real business is done by any BNI chapter. BNI (Business Network International) is the world’s largest referral organisation and has tens of thousands of members in 43 countries. Last year in the UK and Ireland BNI members passed over 500,000 referrals worth £230m of business. BNI statistics show that a chapter of 40 members pass between themselves £1.5m to £2m worth of business each year.

The members of Parkside want to bring this new business to Richmond and help local business owners to grow their businesses in what could be a hard year for us all. Membership is not for everyone, as you need to have time to commit to the group, but the rewards can be outstanding once you treat the group as if they are your largest client.

The meetings are great fun but very structured; members often say that their meeting motivates them for the week. Each week the members get 60 Seconds to educate their ‘sales force’ as to the type of business that they are looking for, and then later in the meeting they get the opportunity to report back on their successes of the previous week. This is where BNI groups succeed over other networking groups, since you must have a one of three positive contributions each week: a referral, a visitor, or a testimonial. Some people think this is tough - but not those that are sharing in £1.5m worth of business.

However, the real benefit of any BNI group is that there can only be one representative from any profession or trade in a group, so there is no competition within the group for business. This is a real competitive advantage for any business when looking to generate new sales.

Parkside are looking for new members to join them on a Thursday at Carluccio’s, so why not come along and find out for yourself why they think meeting for breakfast and sharing a cappuccino is so much better than staying in bed?!

For more details contact Gary Morgan – Milestone Training on 07961 910694 or David Wimblett – BNI Area Director on 07836 378170.