Tim (0:25)

Foreign. Welcome back to BNI in the Power of One podcast. Thank you for joining me again today. We are back with your questions topics submitted at bnipower of1.com episode 799. That sounds insane. Partly because it is very, very humbled that everybody continues to engage and those who continue to listen, download, you know, leave reviews, submit questions, submit weekly presentations, all of that. This week will be our 800th episode. I've got a very special guest lined up for that one 700 we had, Dr. Ivan Meisner. It won't be him although he's obviously always a special guest, but a different one new surprise. So be listening probably this Wednesday afternoon, maybe Thursday morning when it comes out. Could be Wednesday afternoon. And I appreciate again everybody as we continue to celebrate these milestones on our march towards a thousand. So with that we are back with your topic. So if you ever have a question, anything of the sort, go to BNI Power of one all spelled out dot com. You can leave a question that's BNI related, you can leave a question that's business related. For business matters you can leave your weekly presentation for review. On the weekly presentation presentation coaching episodes which I did skip last week only because I wanted our special guest to be the 800th episode which will be this Wednesday. So we'll be back with those on Friday. Okay, this one comes from Ricardo out in Brazil and the fact that these get listened to is still mind boggling to me and I am humbled by that. So anyways, from Brazil he says, hi Tim. I listen to the podcast episodes every day while walking. I joined BNI in July last year and I've been learning a lot I listening to the podcast. So thank you for your effort and lessons Ricardo. Thank you for listening. I'd like to learn more about the BNI structure, mainly the franchise adopted by bni. Thank you and all the best. Okay, that's a really good question, not one that people have ever asked before. So let's talk about bni, the global organization a bit. I think a lot of members are often surprised to hear that B and I it is a franchise business and the the scale of the the organization, which I will start by saying is a huge advantage of being a part of the organization right down to the member level because when they're you're part of this size of an organization with this level of infrastructure, with this level of focus, it provides value, it provides historical value like experience and everything else. Right. BNI has been around for over 40 years now. So as a When we join the organization as a member, we're tapping into something that is proven, that has history, that has trainings based off experience. Not trainings or programs based off mocking or imitating, but actual true experience. It's part of an organization that's focused, that's investing and always trying to stay ahead of the curve in a very competitive market. So the scale, you know, I don't think anybody likes to hear like corporate this and corporate that. It can have a negative connotation to it. But the scale and the infrastructure is to our advantage. Now BNI again is a franchise company just like any other franchise company you might know. I'm a big fan of franchising. If you're ever looking to become to get into something or you know, start an entrepreneurial journey, I, I highly encourage people to look into franchising. There's pluses and minuses to it, just like everything else in life. But I do think oftentimes the pluses outweigh any potential negatives. I, I'm a multi unit franchise owner for bni. I would love to be able to operate more. My wife is a multi unit franchise owner of another franchise company. So we are heavily invested in franchising. I'm super excited. I know a couple of my members in our regions have taking their companies and franchise them, making them franchises, which is awesome to hear. I do think there's a ton of opportunity. The way it all kind of works, probably not unlike a lot of franchise companies is you have your master global franchisor that would be BNI Global. They own the brand, they own, you know, all that is B and I. They then sub franchise out by country first. So there's a lot of what a title you'll hear is national Director. Those are the master franchisees of countries. So think of like Germany and South Africa and Brazil and all these different countries, Australia. I think BNI is now in close to 80 different countries. The master franchisor's role is to build the brand nationally by selling franchises to franchisees inside that country. And then those franchisees own a territory which is how they divide up territories is very different per country. Everything else so, and it is changing is being updated, which I'll talk about in a little bit in the United States anyway. So I can't speak to how franchisees are are designed or franchise territories are designed in any other country. I'm not really intimately knowledgeable about. I have some insight on certain ones because I worked with national directors when I was the national director for the United States, but not enough. And that probably has changed. I haven't been national director for five years, so a lot has changed over that time. Now BNI Global is also the master franchisor for a lot of countries. So they own, they've kept or bought back or, and currently own certain countries at that next level down as well. The United States is one of them, it always has been. You know, India is one of them, I believe the UK now Canada and some, and a lot of France and others. So when BNI got their new CEO in 2015, Graham Weimiller and his group, they had a certain strategy and they purchased back some countries. So they were running as a master franchisor like they have historically in the United States. The United States has always been owned by BNI Global as the master franchisor and they sell franchises to franchisees like myself at that next level. The franchisees role is to support, coach, train and start BNI chapters in that region. So as you've heard on this podcast, I own and operate BNI New Hampshire B&I Florida Central, BNI Florida Northeast. Those are my three franchises. Those territories are mapped out by bni. I paid, I sign a franchise agreement with bni, pay our, you know, franchise dues, royalties, R D contributions, all kinds of those things to bni, to my master franchise, to my franchisor, the master franchisee, which is in this case BNI Global as well. If I was in another country it would go to them and then that would go to BNI through them. Now BNI Global also is the franchisee for certain regions, meaning they own the, the global company, they own the country and now they own subsequent franchises within those countries as well. United States, France, all these other countries they own. That is the case. So those are what you'll hear some people say they're part of a core region. That means company owned region US there's 80 something of those that they currently own right now. And so BNI Global plays all those roles. Most franchising again is franchisee to probably the global company. My wife's case, with her, her brand there is no franchise master franchisee in between. It's just. But even without it, the idea is of franchising is to be able to come part of a brand, a proven brand, a proven structure and resources and coaching along with, with accountability that you would otherwise not have if you were to go create your own company with your own brand. So the positives of franchising is again brand awareness hopefully or established branding. You don't have to Pay to go get the brand designed and do all that kind of stuff. It already exists. Proven existing structure, proven existing support and proven existing results. That doesn't guarantee results for anybody. But you can see that the product has worked, the service has worked in other markets. And so you're tapping into that experience, you're tapping into that initial investment in the brand, all of that kind of thing. I would tell you the hardest thing to do is to find a brand though, that if you look into franchising is to find a brand that already has some kind of brand awareness in your market, but isn't in your market yet. That takes a lot of time and research and everything else. So a lot of times when you get into franchising, what you're buying is the branding and the structure, but you as the franchisee are bringing the brand to the market. And so it's still very much a new business and goes through a lot of the same things new businesses go through, except for that front end getting started. So my wife's brand that she owns includes, you know, you have to build a storefront, you have to do all these kind of things. Well, the beauty for her is that's already done for her. She doesn't have to find the architect, she doesn't have to do the plans, she doesn't have to figure out the signage, she doesn't have to figure out the branding, she doesn't have to figure out the products. She. It's all done for her, it's all laid out. So that makes that a lot easier. And then her brand was already known in the market, but wasn't in the market yet, which was really unique, which is why she, she dove in on it. Bni, same thing. If you were to buy into a BNI franchise of virgin territory, if you will, meaning not develop no chapters, you already have the brand, you already have the collateral, you already have the infrastructure. In terms of B and I Connect, B and I Business Builder, you have all these things at your disposal and ready to go, but you have to go find the first members, you got to start the first chapters. The beauty is you're bringing all that stuff to those members right out of the gate. You don't have to recreate it, make the investments to create it. All that. You also get access to and required training on how to do those things, how to start a chapter and how to run a chapter and do all of that. The downside, I guess, if you would, to any franchising, is you don't have as much freedom to do whatever you want to do is if you started your own company, okay, so there you're agreeing, you're signing franchise agreements, legal long documents, if you've ever read one with that. You're agreeing to certain terms, you're agreeing to terms around results, you're agreeing to terms around policies, you're agreeing to terms around, you know, payment of royalties. You're agreeing to terms about what systems you're allowed to use and what you can't do when you get into, like a bni. Just to give you a case in point, I don't update BNI Connect. I can't update BNI Connect. I can give suggestions, I can give feedback. I can try to, you know, tell them what we'd like to see. At the end of the day, that's owned and operated and controlled by BNI Global. That's great in the sense that they own. I don't have, I have to pay, you know, cost towards that, but not the overall cost to it. And, you know, coming into the franchise that, that already exists. But there's a little less freedom in that. A little less freedom in some of the decisions you're allowed to make. Right. There are certain times when members will ask for whatever. Certain decisions, certain exceptions and stuff that we just can't do per our franchise agreement. And if we were to do that, we would be putting our franchise at risk. So you have a little bit, you, you still have some freedom, but you don't have the same freedom, obviously, as if you go out and do your own thing. You also have accountability. You're held accountable to results. Not usually scary results or anything like that. But that exists where if you start your own thing that doesn't exist. Right. I get reviews done. I get, you know, our franchisees get reviews done. Franchisees get, you know, checked in on they. All these things that. That's not going to happen to you if you start your own. But I could also argue that might not be the best thing, that it doesn't happen to you, because the accountability matters and it helps. So that's how the infrastructure generally works. Again, global owner master franchisor in a, in a country franchisee, then down to leadership, teams and members, et cetera. It's been around forever and I do think that there's going to be a lot of opportunity coming up. I know there'll be a lot of opportunity coming up in the United States. I don't, I can't speak to other countries, so Brazil, I have no idea. But I would always keep the Lookout for opportunities. I do think if you have a passion for this product, if you have a passion for not networking just per se, but really helping people achieve the results they really want by giving them access to the greatest system in the world to help them do that and coaching them and giving them access to trainings to learn how to do it. If you really have a passion for what it is our why behind what we do, it's a great business opportunity. I will tell you though, if you look, BNI is not the one for somebody who's like, oh, how do I make money? Because not that you can't make money, but and I would argue this probably the same for a lot of businesses, there's a lot of frustrating parts to it as well. So it's. It is not the ones who really succeed at franchising of any type B and I definitely included are ones who have a passion for the product they're selling or representing first you need to have that. So there have been people who've like, you know, hey, how do I invest in bni? Because I want to make. That's never going to work out well for you because not unlike any other business, if you don't have a passion for what you're doing, the hard days are really hard. If you don't have a passion for what you're doing, the, the annoyances are super annoying and will burn you out. You know, BNI is fantastic, but it's a people business, which means we deal with people and people can be a problem sometimes. Right? We've all seen it. So if you don't have a passion and purpose for what you're doing, if you don't really enjoy the product, the service, whatever, you might make money, but you're probably not going to be super successful because you're not going to be super happy because all those annoying things just amplify. And there can be a ton of annoying things in this franchise. If you don't have the passion for it. If you have the passion for it, those don't tend to bother you as much or you get over it quicker or whatever. I am a proud B and I franchisee for 20 years now. January was my 20th year anniversary of being a franchise owner and I don't see that ending anytime soon. So, you know, if somebody asked me, hey, you know, I've got this opportunity, should I look into it in buying a BNI franchise, I would say absolutely you should. But make sure that you really have a passion for what BNI does. If you're just like, hey, can I invest in it and be an absentee and not doing. No, that's not, that's not going to work well for you. But if you get a passion, it could be an amazing opportunity. It's provided me and my family and my kids, you know, amazing opportunities in life, and I am forever grateful for. It's one of the main reasons I do the podcast is how to give back at this point. Right. It's not something we're paid to do. It's not something that's expected of us per my franchise agreements. I don't need to do this or anything. It's not a. Anything else. It's just a value add. Can I give back? Can I help my members, other members, now that it's, it's expanded? Because I have such a passion for what it is we do. And so, yeah, that I hope, answers your question, Ricardo. It is a very, very large, structured organization, and while that can be cumbersome in some ways, that can present some challenges in some ways, such as getting things changed doesn't happen fast. It provides far more value that way than the opposite. And I think it's something to be proud of. Even if I was just a member today, like I was one once before, I'd want to be a part of an organization that has that kind of focus, that I know has that kind of accountability that I know has that kind of mindset and everything else in history and, and all that goes with it and in the United States. Like I said, I do think there's going to be tremendous opportunity in the coming years for more people to get involved at the franchisee level. I, I know that for certain. I know that they're, they're talking about that, so they're going to be even maybe redeveloping or redesigning territories and different things that will present opportunities. So if you're in the United States and you got a passion for it, I would just tell you to keep your eyes open, your ears open for those opportunities. Ask your directors, executive directors or whatever, if they know anything or, or tell them of your interest so that when, when and if they do hear of anything, they keep you in mind. I know I've had that conversation with a couple of my members and team members, and I, again, would love to see more people have this opportunity. So if you got that kind of desire, be looking, be listening. Okay. I don't, I don't think anything big has come out yet, but it will be soon and more and more to come. So that's super exciting. And maybe that's the case in other countries as well. I have no idea. But Ricardo, thank you for submitting. I hope that helped. I hope it answered. Maybe it added some value to everybody else. I cannot believe. Here we are, 800 episodes this week, special guests coming up. Be on the lookout for that. We're back after that with weekly presentation coaching. Your questions, your comments, please keep them coming in. Our goal is still the race to a thousand. We're still this. I told Dr. Miser this himself. He said, I'll win, but which made it less fun. But we're racing him to a TH000. The only way we're going to really get there effectively is with your continued involvement. So I appreciate you all have a great day.