Was that profits or prophets? No, not the ones who can see the future -- but wait, yes, the ones that can see the future. The future that is full of profits.
Business networking is primarily about relationships and secondarily about transactions. Relationships are ongoing, growing, vital and easily damaged. Transactions occur and then cease to be anything more. In today's economic climate, it becomes more important than it has for years that we business people understand the difference between transactions and relationships. The quick and easy spending that has marked the last two decades of business lent itself to transactions. Now, we are in a more conservative economic climate. There is still plenty of money being spent, but it is being spent more carefully and with more thought. That means we businesspeople need to cultivate long-lasting, ongoing and mutually beneficial relationships that support the spending that is going to happen.
How do we find and create these relationships? Networking. BNI, Business Network International, is an organization that exists to connect business people with other business people for mutually beneficial relationships. In the Lodi Founders Chapter of BNI in the Central Valley of California, we have forty members. Our core group was fourteen people who started this chapter four years ago. We still have the majority of those members and they are still active members. Why? Because for four years we have spent the time and energy to get to know one another and to learn how we can help each other in business. Sometimes that means we are engaging in business directly with one another; always it means being on the lookout for potential business for one another; for the luckiest it also includes business mentoring to foster our relationships and enhance our reputations. All of our activities can be summed up in the motto of BNI, "Givers Gain!"
Being in business alone can be frightening and financially deadly. Look to other people. Help to creat profits for them and this prophet can honestly, and from personal experience, reassure you that those people will help to create profits for you as well. People Profits from a people phrophet.
5 comments:
Very well said. Relationships are so important in todays business climate because people do business with people not with companies. Even major corporations face this fact when a sales person go to a new corporation, what happens? They take their clients with them....
BNI has taught me so much about developing relationships with my customers and sales force its hard to imagine going back to the mentality of "sign here so I can move on to the next"....
Debbie Ruiz
Area Director
BNI Central Valley
and
Owner
Consider It Done Event Planning
Thanks for all you do, Lori!
You're an inspiration to us all. You were a major force in the creation of the Lodi Founders' chapter of BNI, and you never slowed down!
Thanks for your tireless efforts to encourage and educate BNI members. You are appreciated!
All the best,
Larry Underhill
Bravo Lori!!!
I have been given so much support through out the 5 or so months of my membership. It is refreshing that not only is the point of building relationship exspressed but also acted apon. Thank you to all of you for helping to educate and strengthen myself and my business through the BNI tradition of Givers Gain and all that comes with BNI.
Kim Brooks
Certified Massage Therapist
I only wish I had learned about networking and BNI years ago - I would be retired by now! Kidding aside, building relationships is the ONLY way to do business these days. I am so grateful for the networking skills I am learning through BNI and for the support of a wonderful group of people. Thank you Lori, for all you do for us!
I have been a member of BNI for four years, I also started my local business several months before joining BNI. BNI has been instrumental not only in providing referrals which in turn lead to business but in the sharing of the business experience of this diverse group, they all want to help each other being succesful.
Jeff
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