You may have heard about it, or perhaps not, but the organization known as Business Networking International (BNI), does most of its work behind the scenes while still making a huge difference in the community.

BNI is a professional marketing organization specializing in word-of-mouth referrals. François Garon is the managing director at BNI Quebec and he says that the organization’s mission is to help members increase sales or income through structured positive and professional word-of-mouth program. “The whole point is to build long-term, lasting relationships with trustworthy professionals, and when you have trust it opens up possibilities in regards to opening doors and getting referrals.”

Essentially, the way BNI operates is quite simple. BNI is franchised and it has multiple sections, called chapters, located throughout the entire world. In Quebec, most of the chapters are in the Greater Montreal Area, but there are locations across the entire province.

In each individual BNI chapter, there is a founder and a minimum of 20 members. Each chapter can hold no more than one member per business category; for instance, only one notary and only one accountant. ‘Business category’ also refers to professions in which there are several branches, such as lawyers who specialize in different areas, for example, one family lawyer and one business lawyer would be permitted in the same chapter. Garon says this ‘exclusivity clause’ provides members of the chapter with an exclusive seat, and so they would not have any competition with other members.

Each chapter holds weekly breakfast meetings where they discuss multiple business-related issues in order to help the members improve their business. Members of a chapter have an opportunity to get to know one another over time and have the option of referring their contacts, clients, friends and family to members of their BNI chapter.

Belonging to a BNI chapter is not free, although Garon says it is an investment that does pay off over time. There’s a $175-registration fee to become a BNI member and a $525-annual membership. Garon says differences in revenue don’t show immediately, but BNI members do experience significant growth over several years; therefore, joining BNI is worth it in the end.

BNI was founded in 1985 in the United States by Dr. Ivan R. Misner and was quick to expand to Canada and around the world. Garon says BNI breached the Canadian market 20 years ago and was first introduced in Quebec 15 years ago.

In the Greater Montreal Area, BNI has several English and French chapters. Although there is only one English chapter in Quebec, it is not located on the island of Montreal but in Laval and it was founded by Mr. Paolo Coirazza.

Coirazza is a chartered professional accountant who used to attend a French BNI chapter until he decided engaging in business networking in English instead. In the spring of 2014, Coirazza decided he would start his own chapter in Laval; he finally launched this chapter in April 2015, and it already counts 26 members.

Coirazza added that oftentimes professionals will start their own sections because they can’t find a pre-existing chapter that has a vacancy for their job, though he has proven that even startup chapters can experience success.

Coirazza’s chapter is located at Club Multisports on 3950 Autoroute Laval. He holds meetings every Wednesday mornings from 7;00 to 8;30 and very satisfied with his chapter’s immediate success, he says, “Everybody’s making money and everybody’s happy.”