BNI – Business Referral Network

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BNI Founder Dr. Ivan Mishner
BNI Founder Dr. Ivan Mishner

Business Network International BNI is the world’s largest and most successful business networking organization in the world. BNI is represented in 52 countries Worldwide now including Cyprus. BNI was founded in 1985 by Dr. Ivan Misner for the primary purpose of building powerful referral networks by creating Groups of Business Professionals (chapters) focused on generating referrals for each other and therefore increasing business. We follow the Philosophy of “Giver’s Gain”. “If I give business to the members of the chapter, in return they will want to give business to me” .Building the long term, meaningful relationships with quality business professionals. Our main goal is Members Make More Money in a professional ethical manner using structured proven successful BNI system.

By 2012  there are 6,271 BNI chapters worldwide.

In 2012, BNI members passed 7.1 million referrals. These referrals generated over $ 3,3 billion (US Dollars) worth of business for the members. Cumulatively, since 1985, BNI has generated over $27,7 billion (US Dollars) in business for BNI members!

The BNI organisation works by creating a ‘Chapter’ from a group of people from various industries and encouraging regular passing of referralls. Each chapter allows only one person per profession prospective members to join the group and have an exclusive access to new business referrals for his profession. Membership is by application and it is has to be approved by the Membership Committee of the Chapter.
BNI’s philosophy is “Givers Gain” – members  focus on giving referrals to other members to build relationships and receive referrals in return.

BNI in Cyprus

BNI in Cyprus is made up of 3 chapters  and 1 new core-group built from the Pythagoras Chapter in Paphos started operation in August 2011.  From then the word has spread with Chapters being established in Nicosia and Limassol involving business people from all over Cyprus.

BNI Cyprus is proud of its members and their achievements.

The current statistics for BNI Cyprus today is the following: From August 1st 2011
1882 referrals have been generated resulted to EUR 657830,97 business worth for the members.
We had 650 visitors and 334 testimonials for the great quality of services provided.
Our BNI Ambassador for Nicosia Mr Andreas Hadjimitsis (Certified Public accountant, ANH Auditors-Consultants) has made a HUGE contribution to BNI Cyprus and BNI International. He has built the First and at the moment ONLY  Greek Speaking BNI Chapter in the World and this is a phenomenal achievement as BNI is a new system for Cyprus.
How BNI Works:

Each Chapter meets weekly either for a morning or afternoon business networking meeting at which each business get the chance to promote their business to members and visitors and receives new business introductions from colleagues in the Chapter.

Visitors are welcome to all meetings to promote their business to the Chapter members. This ensure each weeks meeting is unique in the connections made and new business received. True to the BNI philosophy word of mouth attracts regular visitors and new members.
In January this year 140 business people from across the island attended an open business meeting we hold to celebrate the launch of BNI Aristotelis chapter in Limassol showing the demand for businesses looking for a new way to build their business in 2013. Membership in a Chapter is limited  one profession per Chapter.
BNI is based on a positive contribution and mutual support.

As a result of this process membership in Cyprus is growing strongly with at least one strong and vibrant Chapter operating in each region of Cyprus in 2013.

Being active in BNI is like having up to 40 sales people working for you, because your fellow members will be carrying your cards and referring your business to people they meet, without you having to pay them any salaries.

Successful businesses depend on ‘word-of-mouth’ marketing as the best form of promotion there is.
BNI is based on the philosophy of Givers Gain® – if I give you business, you may want to give business to me.
We build strong professional long term relationships. We understand it takes time and efforts. and in the end its Win-Win situation.
Benefits for members / why to joining
BNI provides a structured, supportive, business environment in which local business people can get together to network, learn valuable new marketing skills and develop the strong personal relationships that lead to trust and the consequent generation of significant business for each other.

We provide ongoing support, education and training for the members where they can significantly improve their skills:
Member Success Program (learn how to get most from the BNI membership)
Presentations Skills Workshop
Referrals Generating Workshop (Increase the profitability of your BNI referral network)
Leadership Training
BNIConnect System (BNI Social Media platform connecting all our members World Wide)
60 Seconds Presentations (Introduce yourself. Double the impact of your weekly presentation)
One-to-Ones (position you to take control of your referral relationships)

Each Chapter is developed and grown to produce Euro 2 million and more of new business among members each year. Week by week the development of the group leads to stronger income streams for members.

BNI Cyprus is for business looking to find more business at lower costs through professional referral marketing.It works for business owners as well as for sales people within larger organisations. BNI works for small and big businesses and multinational corporations.

The Upcoming Events:
Weekly Chapter meetings
Training programs 2 times a month
Visitors days :
Paphos  27th February
Nicosia   17th May
Limassol 18th April
Paphos    22nd May
BNI European Conference April, Reading, UK

Quotes
Oxana Laouri National Director of BNI Cyprus says:
“I have always worked on referrals for business and passionately believe that business can only profitably build growth through personal referrals and recommendation. BNI provides a structured environment for business to build and grow consistent flows of new business – whatever the economic conditions.”

Andreas Hadjimitsis certified public accountant, Founder of the BNI Socrates Nicosia Chapter Says:
“Founding a Greek Chapter was a great experience but is only the start. BNI opens every business to a network of 145,000 members around the world. By local business is now connected across the globe.”

Konstantinos Michael Advocate/Legal Consultant (Dr. K. Chrysostomides & Co LLC) co-founder member of the BNI Aristotelis Limassol Chapter says:” BNI is a very professional way to increase your business network in Cyprus and abroad. I strongly believe that BNI will help me establish myself and support the company I am associated with in Limassol.”

BNI is unique , it attracts positive people who like to help each other, thats why its so successful. If I help you, you help me and together we go forward.
The amazing thing is that we have support from all BNI International, the BNIHeadquarters, European Affairs office and most successful and experienced BNI regions. We are now closely in touch with BNI Michigan Team USA, BNI Europe (Ireland, UK, Spain, Portugal, Germany, Israel etc), BNI India, BNI Hong Kong, BNI Japan and Australia. It is very exciting time of dynamic development BNI Cyprus for our members.
We are planning to double the amount of business generated by members in the year 2013 implementing the Best BNI International practices. If you want more business attend one of our chapters meeting and see how does BNI works.[/fusion_builder_column][/fusion_builder_row][/fusion_builder_container]