Breakfast meetings

I have heard about them. Are they a bit like lead referral for networking groups?

Hmm im a bit mixed on these.

I have been to a fair few of these, initially you see some new faces but as you go to more & more the same faces start cropping up.

To be honest everyone is there to sell their product/service & pay little or no attention to you untill they have had their sales pitch listened to.

We came up with a new idea of simply presenting a business card with our promo offer on the back of it.

I think for a few visits & a bacon butty its ok but didnt see a long term gain for our type of business

Hope this helps

Clive - the business card idea sounds like a good one... might have to borrow that

I think I will go along and see what it is all about and whether it can benefit us in any way. I think convincing my sales guys will be another matter... the 7am attendance might be a bit of a stumbling block

Hey no worries - for stealing our idea im sure we can think of some sort of compensation package lol

Another idea im happy to share is a competetion as to who can get the most business cards at a meeting, that way you know they are talking to people, the very least you now have a point of contact for a potential customer

Wife has banned me from anymore brekkie meetings! Did more eating than networking

As Clive says, you tend to see the same old faces, and you end up getting pitched to death!

Tend to do most of my networking online now via business forums, UKBF, FBF, UKBL, here, obviously

When I attened the only people I found benefited directly were the trades.
They were making sales all over the place.

online boys like myself were seen as a bit too geeky.

You need to get used to being talked at, and that is coming from a egotistical gob ******

Found that everybody is trying to sell you their own business services and not always interested in your company. Depending on the business it maybe better doing Ecademy and LikenIn?

I can't quite figure out what's so special about breakfast. Is it because everyone wants to pretend that they're far too busy to get together at 9am instead? Is it another way of eliminating people who have to do the school run before work? Is it just cheaper to get a conference room booked at that time of day?

On the other hand, if anyone hears of an elevenses meeting, or better still, an afternoon tea with scones and jam meeting, then I totally want to know about it.

I've attended a few different breakfast networking groups namely BNI and 4Networking. I am attending a local one later this month too that is free!

BNI in my mind is too much of a cult. It's doesn't really fit in with my life either ( 7am start not good when you have kids). The thing I disliked the most though, was the fact that you have to refer people in the "chapter" and it was pretty frowned upon if a member didn't have any referrals. How can you refer someone you don't know or have knowledge of their work?? I wouldn't do it as it's also my reputation on the line! Very expensive to join too. However, people I know in the design industry say they get alot of business from it.

4Networking I'm enjoying. The start is a more reasonable 8am so the kids have gone off to school. There is no pressure to refer others. What I do like is that you can attend any networking group around the country if you wish so it gives you a better chance of gaining business. This moving around the country doesn't suit my life at the mo but for anyone not rules by kids going to school I think it's great. I haven't joined yet ( got one more free visit) but I will join on the cheaper one group membership. I have gained a few leads from the 2 visits so far and have found the people who attend are interested in what I do. Had a few meetings with the other attendees outside of the meeting and have 4 meetings booked in next week.

Basically I think everything is worth a try so don't dismiss until you have given it a go. I think it's also important to remember that the people who attend this type of network group, need to get to know you as a person as well as what you do business wise. Therefore don't expect to be inundated with work after 3 or 4 visits. I don't!