The recently held Kāpiti-Horowhenua Business Awards highlighted the healthy state of many businesses in the district.
Adding to that is the growing demand for businesses joining local BNI (groups, of which there are three in Kāpiti. (Links to these below).
Andy Hunter from Beach FM has recently been appointed President of the Kāpiti Gold Coast BNI which meets Tuesday mornings at the Waterfront in Raumati.
“For me, joining BNI has been a great experience,” says Andy. “I joined a year ago and the relationships built are deep and authentic from the perspective of business owners and operators. Members make a genuine effort to understand the needs of your business and how they can help.”
Sonya Jackson from the recently announced Business of the Year, Peter Jackson Plumbing, is the chapter vice-president.
“BNI has been very helpful to our business,” says Sonya, who has seen the business flourish since she and Peter (Kāpiti Chapter) first joined 16 years ago.
“For us, there is a team of 10 to keep busy and BNI brings regular referrals and regular business and has been consistent for many years.”
BNI is in essence a business referral model where each chapter has only one member per industry type eg. one accountant, one lawyer, one real estate company, one electrician etc.
Andy says it is important for members to be looking to make referrals of business for other members.
“We are effectively each others’ sales team. We currently have 25 member businesses who look out for each other and the responses are very positive.”
Andy says for lots of small to medium businesses networking can be intimidating and the BNI format works well because it is far more relaxed.
“The meetings are well structured but within that there are lots of opportunities for members to get to know each other and each others’ businesses at a personal level.
“We encourage one-to-one meetings were members can provide each other with more details about their business needs and plans. After all by joining you now have a large sales team to help with your business so it’s important to let other members know what you need,” says Andy.
Sonya says Visitors are very welcome and there are visitor hosts to assist.
“Don’t be shy, we are very friendly and it is important to remember we were all visitors at the start. The fact that we have several members who have been with BNI for 15 plus years tells you the value to be gained for you and your business. Visitors receive a complimentary breakfast.”
Andy says businesses can check out the website and if there is a vacancy for your business then please make contact (Details in links below).
The format: Each of the BNI chapters operates the same way. The meeting is over breakfast and starts at 7am with a welcome to visitors and those subbing for members away. There is a 3-5minute education spot, followed by a round table of 60 seconds for each person to speak about their business. Next is a brief VP report, a 10 minute networking break followed by the day’s 10 minute speaker (each member in rotation has a 10 minute opportunity to talk about their business in depth.) Following this is another round of wraps and referrals from the week. Timing is important and meetings finish at 8.30am.
About BNI (Business Networking International)
BNI stands for Business Networking International. It is the world’s leading business referral organisation with over 314,000 members in 11,092 chapters worldwide.
Kāpiti BNI Chapters
https://kapiti.bni.co.nz/gold/en-NZ/index
https://kapiti.bni.co.nz/coast/en-NZ/index
https://kapiti.bni.co.nz/better/en-NZ/index
