Dave Richards: From employed to business owner – a BNI story

By Alison Poulter, BNI Canterbury Regional Director

In early July 2011 Christchurch chapter Kinesis held a brainstorming session about the industries they wanted represented in the chapter – a photographer was one of the mentions.

I did a Twitter search and found Dave Richards via another network connection. I checked out his website for the quality of his workmanship and made contact. Dave visited BNI and loved the idea of joining a networking group, but his current day job as a sales rep for a corporate company meant he couldn’t commit for several months.

Then in September 2011, Dave revisited Kinesis chapter with the intent of eventually giving up his day job and doing photography full time. He was confident he could manage both roles in the interim and applied to become a BNI member.

By December 2011, Dave was receiving quality referrals and dedicated his time to his photography business. He was lucky enough to have a flexible schedule and continued his day job in the hope it wouldn’t be long until he could do his passion full time.

Several months later in April 2012 Davie was offered the chance to be the new president of Kinesis, which he embraced with enthusiasm and outstanding leadership skills.

Then in May 2012, the big day. Having received his ‘dream’ referral several months ago, and having converted this referral into reoccurring revenue, Dave was ready to quit his day job.

Now in August 2012, Dave is still an active and valued member of Kinesis and is doing his photography full time. He credits his success down to the team work and referrals from the chapter and he continues to believe in “Givers Gain”