good idea for membership site? (Think BNI, LeTip, Leads...)

[BizCardGuru]

Okay, I'm a member of a local business networking group, which is great - but can't be in ALL the business networking groups locally. Wish there were a way to, though - want to meet other business professionals with an interest in trading referrals.

So had this idea.

Create a WEBSITE featuring people in my community who want to refer businesses to each other. Anyone could view the site and read about the members (who would each have their own page) but to join you'd have to pay. For some people, this single page might actually be all the web presence they have.

Many business networking groups limit memberships to 1 person per business category (e.g. only 1 realtor in a group), which doesn't seem feasible for this, but I can imagine limiting to 3 per category or something like that. Or maybe you pay more for an exclusive listing.

I don't know if/how to encourage members to actually refer business to each other, or if that's actually necessary. I wondered about the value of a monthly newsletter - either done by ME, with each person being able to submit a paragraph of what they have for sale or what they're looking for right now - also wondered about the possibility of allowing people to make comments on each other's businesses.

Anyway - if anyone would help me brainstorm this idea, I'd love feedback! Have never done anything quite like this - needs to be very easy to do and maintain, especially since ownership/moderation of site may change over time.

Feel free to email me privately. Would also appreciate suggestions on software or services for this, although am thinking of using Webjam.