About BNI

Business Networking International was founded by Dr Ivan R.Misner 18 years ago, today it is the most successful business referral organisation in the world.

There are over 2900 chapters and 54000 members across 15 countries. Last year BNI members passed 2.5 million referrals generating 1 billion euros of trade.

BNI was founded for a simple purpose, to generate business for fellow members through networking. This "word of mouth" marketing is the best advertising you can get, your fellow BNI members act like your sales reps, expounding your virtues to whomever might be interested. However they are not sales reps, so when they refer your company its like a friend giving advice. This is key to the success of BNI and its basis is trust.

BNI provides a structured, supportive, friendly environment where local business people can network. Each chapter has an education co-ordinator to help hone your marketing and networking skills.

"Word-of-Mouth may be one of the oldest forms of advertising but a new variation on the theme is producing remarkable results for businesses... What we are doing is putting in place a structure and training people to network".

Entrepreneur

Through the building of strong, trusting personal relationships with fellow chapter members, significant business can be generated for each other.

A key point of BNI is that only one company from each trade or profession is allowed to join a particular chapter. This stops the problem of, "I have a referal for company X, but I dont want to upset company Y."