West Europe’s most successful business networking group - 43 Leeds entrepreneurs

A group of 43 Leeds entrepreneurs who meet and pass each other business referrals weekly have been named West Europe’s most successful business networking group.

This has been calculated on the high monetary value of the business referrals generated among its members.

According to BNI (Business Network International), the UK and the world’s largest business referral organisation, the group called Network Central was awarded the accolade for its members having passed the highest value business referrals in Western Europe for any one group, totaling more than £4 million, over the past 12 months.

Rick Armstrong, area director for BNI West Yorkshire, commented:  

“While all successful business referrals vary in their value, each member’s referral potential, on average over the past 12 months, totalled £93,023.  The success of the group’s ability to generate high value business referrals for one another is down to the care they took to truly understand and take a vested interest in their fellow colleagues’ businesses.  Many of the members have developed close personal friendships outside the formal networking environment and this, in my opinion, has helped the group reached its success.

According to BNI’s national office, Network Central Leeds is on track to reach £5million worth of business referrals by mid 2011.

The group’s members include a dentist, Marcos White whose practice has been voted best in England by the BDA, a personal trainer, Jason Dean, who is also a 32nd Lay Shaolin monk, and a private investigator, Ray Castlehow, a specialist in detecting vehicle accident insurance fraud.

All business referrals exchanged between BNI members are tracked to ensure they have resulted in a qualified invoiced piece of business.