100 Million Reasons Small Businesses are attracted to BNIWCF

TAMPA, Fla. - Aug. 8, 2013 - PRLog -- TAMPA, FL –  During Small Business Week June 2013, CardHub.com, named Tampa as a top ten “best place” for small businesses (1).  

Today another milestone is reached for Tampa small businesses as BNI in West Central Florida (BNIWCF) (http://www.bniwcf.com/) achieves $100 million in referral business passed amongst its 1900 members over the last 12 months.   BNIWCF (http://www.bniwcf.com/) also celebrates its 10 year anniversary in the area.  Simply put, within the last 12 months BNIWCF (http://www.bniwcf.com/) members, mainly comprised of small business owners, have generated referrals to each other resulting in closed revenue in the amount of $100 million.

In a competitive landscape of 197,790 Tampa business establishments (2) and scary statistics such as 15% of small businesses fail after the first year, according to the US Small Business Profile (3), BNI West Central Florida  (http://www.bniwcf.com/)provides a word of mouth marketing platform focused on helping business owners grow their footprint and increase their referrals and sales.

The end of summer is a perfect opportunity for businesses to evaluate their annual progress in achieving business resolutions. A small business survey from Inc.com, charted readers 2013 New Year’s business resolutions; growing their client base and finding a successful marketing strategy topped the list (4). To help stay on track, Tom Fleming, BNIWCF’s Executive Director, offers the following tips for business owners to accomplish their marketing goals:

1) Write down your goals. Keep them in front of you and review daily.

2) Identify a system to track your results and keep score as if businessis a game. Have fun with it!

3) Expand your network. Join local organizations and networking groups to gain exposure by associating yourself with other like-minded business professionals that are also looking to grow their business.

For more information about BNIWCF (http://www.bniwcf.com/), visit them online at http://www.bniwcf.com/.

About BNI and Tom Fleming:
BNI is the largest business networking organization in the world.  BNI is a positive, supportive, and structured environment to exchange quality business referrals.

Tom Fleming is the Executive Director for BNI in West Central Florida and the Referral Institute. When Tom acquired the region, BNIWCF had one chapter comprised of 13 members. The region now has over 47 chapters with 1,900 members passing over $100 million in business to each other in the past year alone. Tom is sought out as a local, national and international speaker on the subjects of marketing businesses by referral and organizational development. He is a contributing author in two best-selling books on referral based marketing, and has been recorded on many educational CDs produced from his speaking engagements. Prior to beginning his career as an entrepreneur, Tom worked for various Fortune 500 firms, and earned an MBA from Babson College, as well as a Bachelor’s Degree in business from Boston University. Visit BNI West Central Florida at www.bniwcf.com.

(1)  http://www.bizjournals.com/tampabay/news/2013/06/03/cardhubcom-cites-tampa-as-a-best.html  

(2)  http://www.tampabay.us/demographics.aspx 

(3)  http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/2012/01/small-business-successfailure-rates/)

(4) Inc. January 17, 2013. “Small Business Survey: Best Ideas, Biggest 
     Challenges, and New Year resolutions.” http://www.inc.com


Media Inquires:
Tanya Cielo
Sky Strategic Marketing
954-682-75213
www.skystrategicmarketing.com