Business over Breakfast

This month OVL has been asking how David Gallagher likes his eggs in the morning. David is the Chapter Director of Enterprise Bedford BNI, Bedfordshire’s most successful, professional networking group.

Enterprise Bedford BNI is a group of local business professionals who meet every Thursday at The Bedfordshire Golf Club in Stagsden, to provide a structured and supportive platform to maximise the referral potential of every member’s business.

Word-of-mouth marketing may be old but it is still highly effective. Successful businesses both large and small, ensure that a networking strategy forms part of their overall marketing campaign and runs in conjunction with their advertising, PR and promotional campaigns.

David was attracted to BNI for one reason: professionalism. He says, “there are lots of networking opportunities in Bedfordshire and beyond from morning to night, but BNI was the only one I found where the members were less interested in selling to me, or to each other in the room for that matter, and more interested in developing long-term, relationships that would ultimately benefit both parties. It was this professional approach, combined with the lively, fun atmosphere you only get in rooms of 40+ like-minded individuals that meant it was a real no-brainer for me to sign up last year.”

Keith Lilley from Greycourt Florists, was one of the original founder members of the Chapter in May 2002 and he is still going today. That’s a lot of breakfasts for Keith (in fact, as David found out from the members’ database which tracks the group’s and individual member’s performance on a weekly basis, he has enjoyed 246 breakfasts at Enterprise Bedford BNI) but more importantly, a lot of business. Over the last, almost 7 years, Keith has received 1,300 business referrals from members.

And Keith isn’t the only long-standing member of the 38-strong networking group today. Robert Umpleby from The Quantum Organization, Jonathan Ward from Metrosigns, Tony Wiles from Pola Print and Mike Cryer from eMC Design are all double centurions in terms of the number of weekly breakfasts attended at Enterprise Bedford. You don’t get that sort of commitment unless business networking really works.

So what is it that makes Enterprise Bedford BNI so effective? “Networking is about building personal relationships”, says David. “Because we meet every week, because we make a financial and personal commitment, because we agree to meet the highest ethical and professional standards and because, like any good business, we set goals and monitor our progress towards achieving those goals, the personal relationships are by definition stronger and the referral business therefore naturally flows more easily.”

Enterprise Bedford BNI consists of all types of professionals, from large businesses to sole traders, and welcomes new members from established businesses, as well as those just starting up. “For new start-ups, networking is a very cost-effective way to build a business”, says David. “But the fact that we have members from large local businesses, such as Jensa Distribution, successful and expanding medium-sized businesses such as CN Packaging and eMC Design, as well as professionals from national business organisations such as The Utilities Warehouse and Edward Jones, shows that networking, when done professionally, works for anyone and any size of business.

To find out more about Enterprise Bedford BNI and how it could benefit your business, or to book a space at their next weekly meeting, contact David on 01234 345 161 or email david@chapterandverse.co.uk

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