Why join
A room that turns up for you
BforB is a referral network. Business owners meet every fortnight, in the same room at the same time, to hand each other real work — with one seat per profession, so nobody at your table is competing with you for it.
What it is
Twenty-five years of the same simple idea
BforB has been running referral groups in the UK for twenty-five years. The format has barely changed in that time, because it does not need to: a fixed group of business owners, one per profession, meeting on a schedule tight enough that everyone knows everyone's work.
The idea underneath it is not complicated. People do not refer work to a company they have heard of. They refer it to a person they have watched turn up, explain themselves clearly and look after the last person they sent. The meeting exists to make that happen on a timetable instead of by luck.
Come and see one
Join us at a BforB meeting
Visiting a group is the only way to know if the room is right for you. Pick the one nearest you and we'll get you on the guest list — your first visit is free.
Opens the group's booking page. No charge to visit.
What every Business for Breakfast group guarantees
- 25 yearsRunning referral groupsThe UK's original referral breakfast
- One seatPer profession, per groupEvery referral for your trade comes to you
- FreeYour first visitFood included, no card needed
- 90 minEvery meetingSame agenda, start to finish
Our mission
To make referrals something you can plan for
Most businesses get their best work by word of mouth and have no idea how to get more of it. We think that is a process problem, not a luck problem. Every part of a BforB meeting — the fixed agenda, the single seat per trade, the one-to-ones, the fact that every introduction is said out loud and written down — exists to turn word of mouth into something you can put in a forecast.
Our core values
What this room runs on
Give first
You arrive looking for someone to help, not someone to sell to. It sounds like the soft option and it is the opposite — the members who pass the most work are, without exception, the ones who receive the most.
One seat, held
Your profession's chair is yours alone for as long as you hold it. We turn away good businesses to keep that true, because a room with two of your trade in it is a room where neither of you can speak freely.
Turn up
Same day, same time, every fortnight. Nothing else in this list works without it — trust is built by repetition, and a group where attendance is optional is just a mailing list with chairs.
Say it out loud
Every introduction is named in the meeting and written down afterwards. No vague promises to think of someone. If a referral happened, the room heard it and the record shows it.
Know the person, not the pitch
Members meet one to one between meetings, on purpose and to a structure. You cannot confidently recommend someone whose work you have only heard described in sixty seconds.
Keep learning
Asking a room for work is a skill, and most business owners were never taught it. The Referral Academy exists so that nobody has to be naturally good at this to do well here.
Hold the door open
Every member was a visitor once, usually a nervous one. First visits are free and include the food, and somebody is always assigned to meet you — because how a room treats a stranger is the truest thing about it.
Come and see one
Join us at a BforB meeting
Visiting a group is the only way to know if the room is right for you. Pick the one nearest you and we'll get you on the guest list — your first visit is free.
Opens the group's booking page. No charge to visit.
Before you come
What you should know
It asks for your diary, not just your money
A fortnightly slot plus the one-to-ones around it. Members who treat it as an appointment do well; members who attend when it is convenient tend to conclude it does not work.
It is slower than it looks
The first referrals usually take a few months, because they arrive once people genuinely understand what you do. Anyone promising you work in week one is selling something else.
Your seat might not be free
One seat per profession means the answer is sometimes no. Come as a visitor and we will tell you honestly whether your trade is already taken in that group, and which nearby group has it open.
The person behind the table
Hi, I'm Mel.
Together with my husband John, we created Business for Breakfast after wasting years trying to get cashflow to our business. We realised that relationships are key therefore created an environment that welcomes business people and allows them to thrive.
The only real test
Come to one and see
Everything above is what we would say. A meeting is where you find out whether it is true. Visit a group, watch the referrals go round the table, and decide from the room rather than from the page.