So what makes a referral-based networking group any different? Is it worth shelling out yet another membership fee and making another time commitment?

“I’ve had good experiences with it,” said Ryan Christian, Branch Sales Manager for Countrywide Home Loans’ Bremerton office. Christian is a member of Success by Referrals, the Bremerton chapter of Business Networking International (BNI), a membership-based business and professional networking organization.

One of the pluses of being in a referral-based group, said Christian, is that the organization’s sole focus is on networking.

“The great thing about BNI is that they teach you how to network and ask for business,” said Christian. “Referral groups are designed just for that.”

Referral-based groups can vary widely in structure and organization. Some local groups are affiliated with larger organizations, such as BNI, and others are independent. The common thread in all of these groups, however, is the focus on bringing referrals to other members of the group. And those referrals can add up. Success by Referrals, for example, passed 74 referrals within the group in the month of December, said Christian, and business conducted from group referrals earned members an extra $4,000 in profit, group wide. BNI tracks group referrals, said Christian, partially as a way to provide its members with concrete evidence that its membership dues and attendance requirements are worth it.

Typically referral-based groups limit membership to one individual per occupation. So a group could only have one real estate agent, one financial planner, and so on.

Although these groups are proliferating in the area — the four BNI chapters in Kitsap County are mostly only a year or two old — most of their memberships remain fairly low, with 8 to 18 or so members. Some of this may be attributed to the “one person per occupation” rule, but not all of it.

“I don’t think people here understand the importance of networking,” said Maria Marsala of Elevating Your Business. Marsala has been involved with a number of networking groups in the area, and has organized several groups herself, including Pinnacle Business Connections of North Kitsap, which she is currently re-organizing in a different format.

She noted that many people will join a networking group when they start a new business, but then drop out after the business starts to take off a bit. This, she said, is a mistake.

“You need to continue to build relationships with people,” she said.

Some professions, such as attorneys, may have difficulty joining a referral group because strict ethical codes and laws restrict how those professionals are allowed to refer business. But for the most part, making a referral networking group work for you is mostly a matter of finding the right one.

Marsala keeps an updated list of networking groups in the area on her Web site, at www.theresourcequeen.com/networking/washington.html. She recommends that business professionals take that list and attend meetings at as many different groups as possible — most allow guests to attend several meetings before committing to membership — to find the group that provides the right combination of members and organizational style.

If it’s the right group, it will help you,” said Marsala.

She also cautions would-be referral group members to remember that it takes a serious time commitment before a referral group may pay off in business referrals.

“Some people may stop going because they don’t get referrals right away,” she said. “But networking is about building relationships. It’s not a quick fix” She recommends meeting members of the referral group outside of the regular meetings, to get to know fellow members better, as people are most likely to refer business to someone they know and trust.

“Business owners should consider networking as one of the many ways to market their business,” said Marsala. “It’s about more than just handing out business cards. You have to give to get.”.