Interesting business notes from the Shoreline East BNI meeting at the Madison Beach Hotel on May 21, 2013:

Guests
    •    John Stax, The Coastal Agency
    •    Eric Dillner, Shoreline Arts Alliance
    •    David Eaton, Amatech Solutions

Education
Regular attendance at BNI meetings is essential.  It not only maintains top-of-mind awareness throughout the membership, but also promotes an image of professionalism and accountability.  Beyond this most basic requirement, it is recommended that all members engage in BNI Connect, and take advantage of other resources provided by BNI to leverage membership.  Please talk to any members with imperfect attendance.

30 Second Commercials
The following is a sample of BNI “30 Second Commercials”, in which members have 30 seconds to talk about their business and what kind of sales lead they are looking for.
    •    Law Offices of Balzano & Tropiano – Alphonse has been in business for 21 years and would like referrals to chiropractors in the area.  http://balzanoandtropiano.com
    •    Commercial Property Consulting – Mike Callahan would like referrals to car dealerships, such as Premier Auto Group in Branford.  He can generally find $500,000 to $1,000,000 in tax savings in the first five years.  
    •    Leon Collins Public Adjuster Services – Leon Collins represents homeowners with property insurance claims.  One area in particular where he can be of service is pool damage or collapses. http://claimadjusterfire.com/


10 Minute Presentation
Today’s speaker was Alphonse Balzano, managing partner of the Law Offices of Balzano & Tropiano.   Alphonse came from a blue-collar background in coal mining country.  His firm focuses on personal injury cases.

Alphonse noted that product liability lawsuits have resulted in many safety innovations, such as seat belts, as well as better designed tires, high chairs, cribs, etc.  This is a contribution that his field has made to society in general.
He prides himself on his ethics, while some other lawyers can be less than ethical.  He believes in doing right by others.

Balzano & Tropiano has a total of nice full-time staff, including five attorneys.  90% of the cases they handle are car accidents.

Public safety suggestion from Alphonse: make sure you are insured against uninsured motorists.  There is an option on most policies called “double conversion”, which allows you to increase the limits you select for your UI/UIM bodily injury coverage by combining the coverage you have for more than one vehicle.

Performance
S.E.B.N. has closed $700,000 in business year-to-date, including $59,562 in the last week alone.  Twenty-one of our members have turned in business worth over $10,000 so far.  Last month, we have four visitors and 21 one-to-one’s.

Coming Up
    •    Mary Stager, owner of Re-Thinc LLC will be speaking on June 4.

About BNI
BNI is the world’s largest referral network.  In 2010, Business Network Int'l passed over 6.5 million referrals in 5500+ chapters with over 135,000 members in 45 countries resulting in more than $2.8 billion in business! BNI membership in CT now stands at 2,027 and growing.

Visitors are welcome!  If you’d like to visit the Shoreline East BNI, just fill out the contact form under “Join Shoreline East” on our website (shorelineeastbni.com) and a representative from our membership team will contact you.