BNI Canada – Business Network International

BNI is like a networking club that focuses on word of mouth referrals. It is very structured and requires specific, weekly commitments from its membership. It’s an international professional marketing organization with 11 chapters in Calgary alone. I attended the BNI Sequoia chapter meeting as a guest a few months ago and that experience has initiated several new networking relationships. If you are an introverted entrepreneur, a BNI membership is going to push you to grow in many ways and offer you opportunities for success and recognition that you may not have had before. I attended their 2013 Networking Week gala a few days ago and again, made more contacts. You can attend each Calgary chapter meeting twice before having to decide if you can afford the time and money to commit to this organization. It may not take you that long to make your choice, but they give you a good chance to get a feel for it and whether or not it may be a good fit in your life. Each chapter has its own culture and doesn’t duplicate professions, so a life coach like myself will not be competing with another life coach in the chapter for referrals. It’s clever. I’m going to keep exploring BNI but honestly, it’s been worth my time and money so far just getting to know more about it.