We registered as freelance designers in September 1999. So, it’s fair to say that in our two plus decades of working within the industry we’ve attended enough networking events to know what works and what doesn’t work for us!

Until Autumn 2020, we’d never experience BNI networking. The thought of having to be weekly accountable to our “numbers” and the pressure to find guests and other such rumours on the grapevine had kept us away.

We had never factored that the people doing the “complaining” most likely didn’t put the effort in to reap the rewards the BNI approach provides.

Since joining, we earned back our membership investment within six weeks of signing up. Since then, we’ve filled enough interest in a group marketing collaboration project/experiment that, in three months, has tripled the income into the business. And it’s been a result of the trusted members of our BNI Merlin group recommending, connecting, and singing our praises without bribery or coercion.

The genuine people at BNI are a real help and service to their connections so that their contacts are comfortable to reach out and speak with us about how we may help them. This results in an upward spiral of success and tremendous benefit for all concerned.

There’s an old saying that goes something like, “you have to fill a bucket with water before attempting to take a glass of water out”. THIS is the concept of BNI. All chapter members are filling the bucket together, so that we may take a glass of water out at any time.