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Business+Network+International = New+Business+Initiative.
BNI is not just about networking and referring business it seems – it is also a forum for creating new business partnerships!
Two members of the BNI Cape Town Mother City Chapter, Tim Cruise of 3C Marketing and Gary Biederman of AIB Insurance Brokers, have set up a brand-new business which came about purely because of the relationship they had established through their regular breakfast meetings!
One of Gary's clients holds the licence for a unique range of game/competition products that feature prize insurance, i.e. insurance against the probability that they will be paid out. In other words, it is a form of ‘contingent prize cover', for example ‘hole-in-one' cover for a golf tournament, where a big prize (say a new car) can be won by the first person to score a ‘hole-in-one' at the 17 th hole during the tournament. The sponsor or promoting company simply pays a special ‘insurance' premium (a fraction of the value of the prize), and if someone wins, the insurance pays out!
Gary's client was only using around 10% of the prize insurance products that were available, and saw an opportunity for Gary, as an insurance broker, to market the other 90% to potential customers.Gary, in turn, perceived that a professional marketing approach was needed, and (with the licence-holder's permission) approached Tim to investigate the possibility of some kind of co-operative venture.
It did not take long for them both to realize that a major business opportunity existed, and soon thereafter they agreed to set up a joint venture which was duly named 3C Promotions, enabling both Gary and Tim to capitalize on the brand equity of 3C Marketing and the natural synergies that existed between them.
3C Promotions has now been in existence for just over a year, and has generated profits far in excess of the total costs of BNI annual memberships and weekly breakfasts that led to its creation!
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