Step 1 — Generating & Ratifying Your Chapter Growth Plan

A growth plan transforms a chapter from a collection of individuals into a coordinated team. Without one, growth is a hope and a prayer. With one, it's predictable and measurable.

• Members get clarity on which contact spheres matter and which seats are empty
• Visitors get a better experience — they arrive pre-connected to the right people
• Leadership has leverage — everyone works toward the same goals
• Referrals flow because members stay more engaged and take more action

Step 2 — Contact Sphere Review

We map your natural contacts based on your classification and what your chapter needs. The game-changer: the Connection Multiplier — when you invite someone, bring a relevant chapter member as a built-in referral partner.

• Auto-generated contact sphere profiles based on your classification
• Priority ranking — who should you talk to first?
• Add your own contacts and notes on the fly
• Cross-member visibility — spot warm introduction opportunities
• Example: Invite a painter, copy your roofing member. The painter sees an instant referral partner waiting. Attendance goes way up.

Step 3 — Missing Classifications (Empty Seats)

Every chapter has gaps — business types that should be there but aren't. See all of them at once and get matched with the best member to help fill each one.

• See all empty seats on one screen — nothing hidden
• Add status notes: "I know someone," "Will reach out tomorrow," etc.
• AI matches each gap to the member best positioned to help
• Pre-drafted email, call, and text outreach — ready to send
• Your prospect doesn't walk in cold — they're already connected

Step 4 — Re-Inviting Previous Visitors

People who visited before didn't forget you — life just got busy. A timely re-engagement often brings them back. These are your warmest leads.

• See everyone who visited in the last 6 months with full details
• Any member can reach out — not just the original inviter
• Loop in the original inviter to keep relationships intact
• Pre-written email, phone script, and SMS in any language

Step 5 — Advanced Prospecting in Your Region

Reserved for after Stage 1 activities are exhausted. Prospects are sourced specifically for your chapter based on missing classifications and geographic area — not generic vendor lists.

• Targeted to your chapter's specific gaps
• Local vendors within your area
• Dedicated deep-dive session scheduled separately
• All outreach templated and ready to go

Step 6 — One-to-One Meeting Planner

Members with 5–7 active contact sphere partners doing regular structured one-to-ones see exponential referral growth — not linear. This 4-phase framework makes every meeting count.

Step 1 — Identify White Space and Target Classifications

The Region starts by identifying white space — geographic areas with no active BNI chapter, or areas where an existing chapter has room to grow into a second chapter. White space can be found using BNI Global territory and membership data, Higgins Reports (such as a Regional footprint or classification-gap dashboard), or other regional growth reports the Region already maintains.

Once a target area is identified, the Region selects the classifications and professions it most wants to recruit there — the seats that will make the future chapter's contact spheres strong from day one (for example, a mortgage broker, a CPA, a commercial insurance agent, and a general contractor for a chapter anchored in real estate and construction referrals).

• Confirm the territory: Region reviews BNI Global territory maps and existing chapter footprints to confirm the area is genuine white space.
• Set the target list: Region selects the priority classifications for the new chapter based on the local business mix and existing chapter gaps nearby.
• Request Higgins support: if the Region does not have the internal data or bandwidth to do this analysis itself, the Higgins Team can run the white space and classification-gap analysis on request — just reach out to support@higgins.ai.

Step 2 — Higgins Researches Local Prospects

With a target area and classification list in hand, the Higgins Team goes to work identifying real, local businesses that fit those classifications. Each prospect — business name, contact person where available, phone, email, website, and address — is added to the Regional Prospects PURES Report, the Region's running list of every vetted prospect across its white space and existing-chapter territory.

The PURES Report tracks a verification status (fully verified, partially verified, or not yet verified) and a priority tier for every prospect, so the Launch Director always knows which contacts are the strongest bet for an initial invitation and which still need a confirming call before outreach.

• Local and relevant: Vendors outside the agreed radius or that don't genuinely match the requested classification are excluded — quality and fit over volume.
• No fabricated data: No invented names, numbers, or addresses. Anything that can't be confirmed is marked accordingly rather than guessed at.
• Living document: the Regional Prospects PURES Report grows and updates continuously as new white space areas are added or reprioritized.

Step 3 — Find and Invite Prospects

The Launch Director — or a designate appointed by the Region — takes ownership of outreach. Using Higgins and Hal, the Higgins AI outreach assistant, the Launch Director works through the Regional Prospects PURES Report to identify the best-fit prospects for the new chapter and reach out with a personal invitation to visit or attend a launch event.

If the Launch Director wants additional support reaching prospects at scale — email sequences, SMS, and follow-up cadences — the Region can request a Higgins Campaign at bnicampaign.higgins.business.

• Hal assists: Hal helps the Launch Director prioritize who to contact first, draft outreach, and keep track of who has responded.
• Higgins Campaign (optional): a structured, done-for-you outreach sequence the Higgins team can run on the Region's behalf when extra reach or consistency is needed.
• Stay compliant: BNI is described to prospects as a structured relationship and referral marketing organization — outreach should never promise specific results or referral volume.

Step 4 — Collect Invitations and Applications

Prospects who respond are moved into the formal pipeline: the invite form (using the startup / forming-chapter version of the form) captures their interest and visit details, and the membership application form lets them apply quickly once they've experienced a meeting or launch event.

Keeping this step simple and fast matters — the easier it is for an interested prospect to say "yes" and apply, the more founding members the Region secures before momentum fades.

• Invite form: visitor registration / startup invite form, tailored for a forming chapter rather than an established one.
• Application form: the standard BNI membership application, used to formally bring a founding member on board.
• Track everything: the Launch Director tracks who has been invited, who has visited, and who has applied so no interested prospect is dropped.

Step 5 — Build the Forming Chapter Report

Once at least three members have applied, the chapter has reached the threshold where the Higgins Team generates a Forming Chapter Report built specifically for this group. Rather than reporting on an established chapter's performance, this report is geared toward the tasks a forming chapter still needs to complete: mapping out the contact spheres the founding members already cover, spotlighting the classifications still needed to round out the group, and organizing the work of gathering enough committed members to schedule a charter / launch date.

From here, the Region, Launch Director, and founding members use the Forming Chapter Report the same way an established chapter uses its ongoing Higgins dashboards — as the working tool that guides who to recruit next and how the founding members can start referring to each other before the chapter officially opens.

• Contact spheres: mapped from the founding members already on board.
• Remaining classification gaps: the same classification-gap thinking from Step 1, now applied to the real founding group instead of the target list.
• Path to launch: a working checklist for growing from 3 members toward a chartering group.