Testimonials
BNI Harrison, Greenwich has a proven record of working well for it's members. The returns are seen in multiple areas, including direct financial gainand building longstanding business contacts across a number of industries. Below are a select few testimonials from our members and visitors:
As Managing Director, I am responsible for business development and subsequently invest in a number of marketing channels both on and offline to promote the GCS brand together with it's award winning sister company Greenwich Communication Centre which specialises in computer maintenance and repairs.
The value I have gained from my membership with the Harrison Chapter is not always easy to calculate but there are three areas that I am aware have created significant value for me over the past 2 years:
1. To meet weekly with a number of trusted suppliers to whom I can instruct work at short notice and have fulfilled at equally short notice.
2. To meet with a professional group of experts whom I trust and who are able to advise and support me in both my business and personal interests, which in turn has resulted in huge savings.
3. To pass me referrals that can often lead to work for which I can invoice.
To summarise, I would seriously worry for the competiveness of my business if I did not have membership of a business group such as the Harrison BNI Chapter.
Lorraine Turton MBCS FInstSMM - Greenwich Communication Services (UK) Ltd
As a ceramic artist, I am not the obvious candidate to join BNI and I was very hesitant to do so. I wanted to try and extend my market beyond the limits of the craft world and BNI seemed like a good way of doing so. A year on, I can say that the benefits I reaped were many and varied. On the most basic level, joining the group gave me an opportunity to get out of the isolation of my daily life in the studio, get out of my overalls into smart, clean clothes and meet a warm, friendly, professional group of business people whom I would not have had the opportunity to meet in any other way.
Additionally, I have gradually acquired greater skill and confidence in talking about my work in lay terms, presenting it and ‘selling' it. I found the free training sessions educational and helpful. I learnt how to network better - something I had always felt very awkward about. Various members of the group who have experience in marketing came up with exciting ideas for me on how to market my work and helped me think more imaginatively about marketing possibilities.
Furthermore, I suddenly had direct access to other people's skills - a photographer, a graphic designer, a web designer etc., people I got to know and trust, on whose skills I could draw on when I needed to. And, of course, get some free, friendly advice on little questions about my accounts, the law, etc.
Finally, I got to show and sell my work to people who would not usually be exposed to it, and by the end of the first year, to sell enough work to cover my costs! It has been a very good and productive year, and I am looking forward to doing even better I the coming year.
Kochevet Bendavid - Ceramics
As a small business I have found it an invaluable resource to be able to talk to other business people and resolve day to day business problems quickly.
Andrew Slade - Hipitas Ltd
