New leader to push business networking

Bill Raynel.

Bill Raynel has been appointed the new Business Network International New Zealand director consultant for the Northland region.

He takes responsibility for six business groups or chapters in the Northland region from Hannah Blake, who is moving to Waikato. Five groups are in Whangarei and the other is in the Bay of Islands, with a total of 122 businesses involved.

He says his role is to help businesses in Northland grow, mainly through working with the leadership teams in each of the chapters. He also wants to see each chapter have between 25 and 35 members.

BNI rules stipulate only one business sector eg lawyer, plumber etc be represented in each chapter.

Chapters hold weekly breakfast meetings and members get to talk about their business for one minute - one business owner a meeting gets to talk for 10 minutes.

"It's serious networking but it can also be fun - BNI is like the business equivalent of Rotary," he said.

"Networking is quite new in New Zealand but, once you've experienced it, you realise it can be quite exciting."

And he says it's not just about networking at the breakfast meetings, with a lot of networking happening during normal business hours.

"There's a lot of work referred to other members within the group."

His new role will allow him to mentor and support other businesspeople - many of whom are in the same position he was many years ago when he started his business, Investment Solutions Northland Ltd.

"I was in business for 14 years before my business joined BNI as a member," Mr Raynel said. "My experience in BNI over the last six years has been fantastic; I'm passionate about the benefits it brings to business and am sure my first-hand experience can now assist other businesses."

He sees referral marketing as the best way to market a business and grow trust in the community.

Mr Raynel said he was not looking to add more chapters to the Northland region "but to strengthen what we already have".

BNI New Zealand sees itself as the country's largest structured business networking organisation for small to medium businesses. The organisation has more than 2600 members and 120 groups around the country.

- Go to www.bni.co.nz for more information.