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East Grinstead, West Sussex, UK, 8th December 2009 – Business networking over breakfast is increasingly becoming a popular marketing exercise for many small to medium enterprises (SME’s). East Grinstead based Meridian BNI networking group is among the best when it comes to generating business for its members.
For companies looking for a low cost, high impact way to market their business in 2010 networking over breakfast could certainly be considered as a serious business generating opportunity. Meridian BNI a dynamic chapter of local business owners, managers and entrepreneurs meet every Friday morning between 6:45 and 8:30am at the Felbridge Hotel in East Grinstead.
Since the chapter’s creation in April 2004, Meridian BNI has won the award for ‘Best Chapter in Sussex’ no less than 6 times! This is a huge accolade and certainly bears witness that this chapter of just 27 members really has proved to pass on quality business referrals. In the last 6 months they have accounted for £250,594 worth of business passed and that is just what has been recorded!
To add to this success the chapter has just passed the 10,000 referral threshold, each of these comprise qualified, quality opportunities for business. The group has a real emphasis on quality, not only of its members but also of the business passed. Chapter Director Nadine Lindsay states ‘We are delighted to have passed the 10,000 referral mark, it is a real achievement for the group, it just goes to show that it certainly pays to get up early to do business.’
One of these 10,000 business referrals turned into a real success story for one of the chapter members Mike Connick, local tree surgeon and owner of Connick Tree Care, who had for some time been keen to obtain a referral into Chessington World of Adventures. On mentioning this to the chapter one morning, another member went away and came back a few weeks later with a hot lead into the facilities manager at the Chessington theme park. Since then Mike has continued to deliver tree surgery services at Chessington to a value of over £30,000 worth of business.
Networking through Meridian BNI came into its own for one of the longest standing members of the Chapter, Jenny Carter-Vaughan of Affinity Select Insurance Services, who on joining the chapter 4 years ago was operating a micro business from a spare bedroom at home with a turnover of £500K. She has since grown the business to an annual turnover of £3.5 million. She now has 3 offices in Sussex and employs 8 people. Jenny has expanded her networking opportunities, has taken up membership of two other BNI chapters in Sussex and can directly attribute £161,000 worth of business from BNI referrals in just the first 6 months trading in 2009. Commenting, ‘Referrals from BNI have certainly been a great income stream for my business and networking has been one of the best ways to promote the company’.
New members and visitors to this lively and successful group are always welcome. However places within this popular chapter do fill up fast as only one business per category is permitted. More information about Meridian BNI can be accessed on: www.meridianbni.co.uk or by calling Chapter Director Nadine Lindsay on: 01342 580026 | 
