Atul Sharma represents a 45-year-old engineering firm that has built 600+ projects in Dubai under the name Model Engineering Consultants. His journey with BNI started in 2019 upon attending the launch of BNI Warriors as a visitor. “It has been an incredible journey with a great learning experience. I’ve gained both personal as well as professional benefits along the way and honestly, BNI has surpassed my expectations.” He says.

Givers Gain

Coming from a big-ticket industry that doesn’t get referrals on a regular basis, initially, Atul got referrals once in three weeks. But he was determined to look at the brighter side, he started getting referrals and business for other people in his network. “I strongly believe in the Givers Gain mentality. I still remember there was a time where my sheet read 2.5 million in TYFCB and zero in revenue.”

In the process, Atul ticked off all the guidelines, generating referrals, completing one-to-ones, building meaningful relationships, and more. “Today, you won’t believe that the Gains part is coming faster towards me than the Giver’s part- that too organically.” he continues.

Intention Matters

When asked about how he took up the transition from in-person meetings to online meetings in the year 2020, Atul says, “In our chapter, we labeled 2020 as ‘interesting times’ because that brings in all the optimism.”

In interesting times, BNI Warriors categorized businesses into ones that stopped running, those that were partially running, and ones that were running full-fledged. “We geared up with all the analogies to ensure business exchange among these categories,” he says. “Power teams were created, new members started filling in the voids, referrals started coming in, and finally, it was a win!”

Atul is truly an inspiration to all the entrepreneurs out there. Upon being asked about one key takeaway for BNI members to follow, Atul chuckles saying, “I’m a very good student of BNI who follows all the rules & regulations religiously. I never intend to count the number of one-to-ones or referrals; instead I generate business by helping others with referrals.”

“I organically follow the process taught by BNI in the webinars, podcasts, and all other platforms.” In his words, he said that it is very helpful to set a goal of enabling people to find good business for them. “I’d say just stop running behind the numbers, work organically and the numbers will run behind you!” he adds as a final note.