A Mid-Year Check-In for BNI Members: Is Your Network Supporting Your Business Goals?
Halfway through June means we’re nearly halfway through the year. And just like the chapter membership committee has 7-month check-ins with members before their joining anniversary date, we think it’s useful to do a self-review for BNI member success as we approach the halfway point of 2026.
So how are you doing? Are you enjoying BNI networking benefits and meeting your business networking goals? Let’s break it down by defining success and then figuring out how to measure it!
First things first, you can never know if you’re experiencing BNI Member Success if you don’t know what it looks like. So let’s begin by talking about good business networking goals.
Luckily, BNI has been in the professional networking groups business for over four decades and has an excellent handle on the best key performance indicators to measure. It’s what the Power of One is based on.
And since our first core value is Givers Gain®, let’s start our conversation around measuring how successful you are as a member with your giving.
The BNI Connect app gives members many valuable metrics to measure their business networking goals. While the most obvious metric is the dollars you’ve been able to send to other members through referrals (Thank You for Closed Business, abbreviated as TYFCB), the Power of One score, which comes out once a month, gives a more balanced view.
As we’ve discussed, every BNI member knows the Power of One. Measure your commitment to your chapter through meeting the minimum of 1 referral per week, 1 meeting per week, 1 education unit per week, 1 one-to-one meeting per week, and 1 visitor per month.
All these metrics are available in the BNIConnect app, and you can see them not only for the current week but for the last six and twelve months.
So why don’t we measure success in only TYFCB?
Simply put, there are many ways to be valuable to your chapter. Passing one big referral can shoot up your TYFCB, and the member you pass it to will surely appreciate it, but what about inviting a visitor who joins and regularly meets the Power of One requirements themself?
Adhering to the Power of One requirements leads to regularly helping your chapter as a whole.
While BNI asks you as a member to put your focus on giving rather than “What’s in it for me?”, we understand that the reason most members join a small business networking group like BNI is to get more business.
So are you getting more business?
Like the other key performance indicators, you can track your TYFCB received in the BNI Connect App. But to do so, you must keep up with your referrals and record when they close and how much revenue they generate.
Not only that, but sometimes a referral will refer you to other businesses. In BNI, we call that a Tier 3 referral! When you really get that going, it’s easy to lose track of the fact that all of those referrals’ original source is your BNI chapter!
Of course, there are other BNI networking benefits that contribute to your BNI Member Success, even if they’re not as directly measurable.
Many BNI members list
Having a Network of professionals to refer family, friends, and clients to
Developing friendships
Developing leadership skills
Improving public speaking
And more!
If you are in the process of assessing your level of BNI member success and you’re not quite reaching it yet, there are some easy ways to increase it, and as it turns out, we’ve already touched on it.
That’s right, it’s by hitting your Power of One goals!
By communicating more with other members, you are setting yourself up to help them understand how to help you. If you’re finding that you’re not effective, more education units can help.
BNI has set up a system that gives you everything you need for small business networking success. All you need to do is lean in and utilize it.