As we’ve mentioned before, it can take as little as a year for a franchise, especially a WSI franchise, to become profitable. To some, a year seems like a long time; it can be difficult to get your head around how fast the time can go by until you’ve been there. So let’s have a look at some things you can’t do in a year.

Pay Off a Car: According to statistics, the average car loan in the United States lasts 70 months, or just under five-and-a-half years. It’s rare that people even get a two- or three-year loan, let alone a single-year loan. In most cases, you’ll still be paying for your car when your WSI franchise becomes profitable (hey, now you know where you can send that extra money you’ll be making!).

Earn Money on a CD: The average rates on CDs are pitiful right now. They outdo savings accounts, but still offer less of a return than a strong WSI franchise will. For example, a $10,000 investment at 2 percent interest compounded monthly for 12 months will offer a profit of $201. Is the price of a business-class plane ticket really worth not having access to your money for a year?

A WSI franchise owner is an expert in what they do.

Online advertising is a tricky field, and can have some negative connotations, as we’ve previously discussed. People hear “online advertising” and they think of pop-ups, crazy banners that say they’ve “won,” computer viruses, spam emails and all manner of other things. And consumers aren’t the only ones worrying about this kind of approach: the people who own businesses and want to advertise online have these concerns as well. They don’t want to end up on their target audience’s “spam” lists or lose potential customers through annoying advertising.

This is exactly where you, the digital marketing guru, come in.

You know there’s a lot more to the world than the obvious, and why should the web be any different? That’s the good news — it isn’t. There are many ways to use online advertising without resorting to any sort of uninvited tomfoolery that will only cause customers to cross their arms, huff and storm off.

Previously, I blogged about the importance of face-to-face contact in generating leads for your WSI franchise. This is a good, long-term tactic to adopt because once you get used to it; the process is very easy to maintain as a habit, and really lets your clientele get to know you in a sense. However, it isn’t the only way to develop such “face time” when promoting your business.

One tactic that can really work out for you is to host small, informal seminars which review what you offer to local businesses who might be interested in your services.

There are really two ways to go about the seminar process today — on-location and online.

An on-location seminar is fairly straightforward: Invite local business owners to an area you have designated for your presentation, be it your office, your town’s conference center or your own home if you have sufficient viewing space. Do make sure you can afford to provide refreshments (even a cup of tea or coffee goes a long way in keeping people content while they hear you out). The advantage of this is it really allows the natural flow of the Q&A that comes at the end of a seminar.

A WSI franchise represents much more than just another job — it represents a totally new set of options you’ll have once you get started. In a traditional employment arrangement, you’d be surprised at just how many of your options are dictated by your employer.

When you’re working for someone else, they dictate:

Your vacation time…Sick days…Bereavement or maternity leave…And, of course, how much money you make!

Sure, there’s flexibility built into any traditional employment system, but the fact is that they have an extensive amount of control over how you live your life. It doesn’t have to be that way, and with a WSI franchise, you’ll not only have more control over when and where you can do these things, but you’ll also have the money to make the most of your new options.

So, we’ve mentioned a few times that the average franchise posts a return to profitability after the initial investment within one to three years. But what exactly does that mean to you? Sure, it means that’s the point where you’ve made back your initial investment and can start saving or investing money again.

But what exactly does it mean compared to a more traditional job?

Let’s start with a fairly common area of measurement: retail service…

…It can take a year of working as a cashier to be promoted to specialist or low-level management positions.

…It can take as much as five years to be promoted to higher management positions.

…There is no guarantee of being promoted, even if you work hard.

…Your hours, even after several years of work, are dictated entirely by the needs of management.

Transitioning from traditional employment to owning your own WSI franchise can be daunting.

Many people every year miss out on the chance to have the life and employment style they most want because they aren’t sure they can make this transition. Admittedly, it does take work, and it would be a lie to say everyone is successful. However, there is nothing innately impossible about it. In fact, with the right mindset and approach, most who make the leap do so quite well.

With that in mind, here are a few concrete things you can do to help yourself make the change.

Contact people — You know people at your job, most likely. Managers, administrators, financial officials and so on. Talk to them. Ask them what their advice is for managing a department or maintaining a schedule that lets them accomplish things. Furthermore, talk to small business owners in your area. Ask them what short, straightforward advice they have for running a business. People like to help others, and you would be surprised what a short interview with someone who knows what they’re doing will tell you.

WSI franchise owners value their independence and direct control over their own business.

At WSI, we recognize that people have their own ideas about things — what a novel concept, right? Some of those ideas tend to involve ways to increase revenues, as is the case with all small business owners, because a profitable business is one that is going to stay around.

The thing is, not every business allows you that kind of freedom. We’re willing to bet that a lot of good ideas for bringing in new revenue got crushed at your prior jobs. These ideas get put down for a lot of reasons — office politics, personality clashes, the management not quite getting the idea or sometimes even because it doesn’t work out due to reasons that the employee knows nothing about. Even when good ideas do get used, the credit doesn’t always go to the one who came up with it so much as their managers.

Digital marketing with a WSI franchise is a proven path to an exciting and satisfying career.

Consider it: The division of labor makes modern society possible. We’d never have all the wonderful diversity of options available to us if we all had to focus on, say, subsistence farming. When one group of people can specialize in one thing, other groups can specialize in others and the choices for everyone begin to multiply.

One maddening aspect of traditional business that we hear about from our non-franchise friends involves things their company does that make no sense at all.

Department shake-ups that come randomly, management saying the client asked for x number of changes that have nothing whatsoever to do with the original product, bonuses being cut for some reason and so on. Honestly, the number of things that seem to happen to people for no adequately explained reason is enough to make our heads spin, and we don’t even work for them. It’s not just that the changes happen — the fact that there isn’t any sense of connection to why they’re happening has to be disheartening.

This is another reason why franchising is such a wonderful job — you don’t have to put up with that kind of thing with a WSI franchise. You’re in direct contact with your clients, so you can talk to them about what they want and why they want it, getting the big picture instead of piecemeal little alterations. You have control of the finances, so there are no surprises at the end of the year. You can make plans for your money in the long term without worrying that betting on your bonus might not pay off.

Owning a WSI franchise is about more than just doing business — it’s about lead generation, knowing how to increase revenues and organizing your life so that you can handle the very real task of doing everything for yourself.

One of the advantages of traditional employment that self-employment tends to lack is division of labor. In a traditional setup, you have marketers, developers, analysts, investors, financing and other departments that break up the task and allow people to get more done overall. If you’re considering going into business for yourself, it’s important that you understand this option is not necessarily going to be available to you. Sometimes several people buy into a franchise together, but by and large the individual operator is the unit of ownership.

When presented with the options a WSI franchise offers, many people are initially skeptical, especially given the times we live in.

“In an economy like this, why would anyone take a risk and try to own their own business?” they ask.

Well, it turns out that there are a lot of reasons why someone might want to take on a WSI franchise, even in days like this.

One of the most important is that a WSI franchise does not prohibit you from taking on other work. Are you an aspiring writer looking for more time in your day to pursue your passion, but not ready to take the plunge into living on your writing fees alone? A WSI franchise allows you to control your schedule so that you can balance work and your passion on your terms, not someone else’s.

As we’ve discussed before, lead generation is an important element of operating a WSI franchise.

You need to keep people interested, and while most business for franchisees comes from repeat customers, you’re always going to need to bring new and interested parties into your sphere of expertise.

Owning your own business – rather than working for someone else – means you can perform lead-generating efforts based on realistic information you have, rather than some abstract numbers that corporate insists you meet.

A WSI franchise is owned and operated by a digital marketing expert. So what is it about digital marketing that makes it such an attractive tool?

One of the most overlooked areas is the interactive nature of the experience. Look at some of the most successful marketing trends of recent years — alternate reality games (ARG), flashmobs, viral video and so on. The common element of these is the interactivity they offer.

Many people can play in an ARG, and just as many show up to numerous flashmob events. Even viral video has the participatory angle of each viewer of the video sending it onward to others for their own enjoyment and consumption.

More than anything, a WSI franchise offers its owner a degree of flexibility that isn’t available to most people.

Most businesses exist in fixed models that can’t really be customized in any meaningful way. Not so with the WSI franchise, where you can set up the lifestyle you want in relatively short order.

Are you the kind of person who enjoys working several jobs? A WSI Internet franchise can be tailored so that you don’t have to invest all of your time in it at once, allowing you to pursue other hobbies and employment alongside your franchise and marketing work.

One of the upsides to a WSI franchise is having a complete picture of what’s happening with your business.

This is an innate advantage that small businesses have over larger ones — the “big picture” can be examined by one person and understood clearly. Not so with particularly large businesses.

How often have we seen this trope? Someone is content in their job, going along doing their thing, when suddenly without warning they’re fired because the business is in a crunch, or something goes wrong that no one knew was coming or could prepare for because someone higher up covered up things? We’ve seen it with Worldcom, Enron and other businesses, so this is clearly not just disaster mongering.

Obviously, when someone buys a WSI franchise, he or she wants to make money.

Profitability is the bottom-line factor of anyone’s consideration of starting a small- or medium-sized business; how much money are they going to bring home, and how often?

So it’s crucial that a person understands how to define profitability.

The first way is to consider the return on investment (ROI). Investing $10,000 and getting back $75,000 is a very clear gain. Though again, one must make sure to consider the rate of return with the ROI. Getting that $75,000 over 75 years might not seem as desirable or profitable as getting it over 3 years.

Lead generation and WSI franchises go together perfectly.

You need new clients to keep getting work, and they need your services to maintain their own advantage in their personal businesses.

One option you can use for lead generation is social networking. Today, there is no excuse whatsoever for any business not to take advantage of the power that social media offers anyone ready to invest a bit of time.

WSI franchise owners know that one of the best arguments in favor of the franchising model is the excellent return on investment it offers.

After all, many franchises reach profitability within one to three years. But sometimes a bit more detail is needed to clarify just what the return on investment for a franchise looks like.

We’ve discussed the comparison between franchise self-employment and working for a traditional company. A good way to look at the breakdown is the wage by hour comparison. How much were you making per hour at your previous job, and how much per hour now?

The reason that this is an effective way is that an hour of work is an understandable, easily-grasped measurement. You know how much you could type, data enter, manufacture, bake or sell in an hour of effort, and you know how to break down hours on the job versus pay in a period to figure out hours. It makes the concept simple to relate to.

Owning a WSI franchise isn’t the only way you can make your life measurably and demonstrably better.

WSI is a proud participant in the effort to make child poverty a thing of the past through our MCPH initiative. Poverty is a complex issue with many causes and definitions, but everyone — from the most ardent fiscal conservative to the most avowed social justice crusader — is in complete agreement that those who suffer the most from poverty conditions are children.

Just this past weekend, WSI was proud to host the first annual Make a Difference Day- FUNFEST 2011 on Toronto’s beautiful Centre Island. Sites near the Children’s Park have been reserved for a BBQ and children’s event, letting everyone participate in fun and helping bring a little justice to the world while sharing in delicious food and fun games.

Many WSI franchise owners focus on how to increase revenue.

That most certainly is an important aspect of any business — the more money coming in, the better. However, there is also value to learning how to make the most of the revenue you already have, so that every dollar coming in is being used to its best effect.

An effective way to do this is to do an analysis of the time you spend on certain projects, and what those projects bring in compared to what expenses you have to lay out for them.

We talk about WSI Franchises as being part of the “digital revolution,” but just what does that term even mean?

There are a lot of buzzwords that get thrown around; isn’t this just one more that doesn’t really mean anything? Well, if you know anything about the WSI Internet Franchise by now, you’ll know that that’s definitely not the case.

A WSI franchise is all about having the flexibility to respond to what your customer needs and desires.

Sometimes they may think they want one thing out of digital marketing, but you can convince them of a more effective strategy or a more important goal. Other times they may clue you in to trying something more ambitious than you had planned. Either way, there are many, many ways to do the digital marketing “thing,” and you will find each of them rewarding in its own unique fashion.

Social Media
Twitter microblogs, Facebook friending circles, StumbleUpon notices, ReddIt campaigns — each of these offers a unique way to reach out and touch someone. Google+ has now joined the scene as well, so you can expect a new range of options that you can help your clients implement there.

Going from a traditional job to owning a WSI franchise needn’t be an overnight jump. Many people choose to make a transition from employment to self-employment.

One of the best ways to prepare for the transition is to do a lot of research. There is a lot of material out there, both WSI-specific and about franchises in general, that can really give you a good sense of what to expect.

For example, one could research the rate of return on investment of most franchises. It’s one thing to understand that a franchise is typically profitable within the first one to three years. However, knowing the typical curve from month-to-month can help you paint a more specific picture of what sort of money you can expect to have and when.

When we talk about owning your own WSI franchise., we often mention the security of owning your own business.

There’s a lot to be said for it, including the financial security, the emotional security and many other elements of the idea. However, one of the most important is the security that comes from being able to give a quick response to unexpected changes.

Large businesses end up being very bureaucratic. This is a necessary process, because large businesses have a vast amount of information to handle — financial, personnel, public relations — it all adds up. Thus, large businesses build up a layer of red tape to control and organize the collection of all this information and all decisions that come with operating a business. The problem is, anyone who’s dealt with red tape understands that it leaves very little discretion to any one member of the organization. Procedure must be followed, even if it’s clear that the solution lies slightly outside the manual. This is why when you call technical support places, you always hear, “Have tried turning it off, then on again?”