One of the most important benefits of a WSI franchise is that its profits are your profits.

In a normal employment situation, this isn’t ever completely the case. There are situations that get close, such as salesmen making commissions, or bonuses for a department performing over expectations and under budget, but these aren’t really the same thing at all.

In a commission, you get a part of each sale, yes. But you don’t get to dictate what is done with the remainder of the profits. That’s up to management, corporate office, district or whatever chain of command is above you to decide. You might have a killer idea for how to re-organize the store, or present a better face to the clientele, but you might not get to initiate it because someone else is pulling the strings; you do not own the business.

People looking to make the switch from traditional employment to self-employment – including those looking to start a WSI franchise – have a valid concern when they ask “Is this for real?“

There are shady operators out there, fly-by-night outfits that promise the moon and leave you holding a handful of sand when the time comes to try to cash your hard-earned profits. Fortunately, WSI Internet Franchise is a company that has been around for a while, and is absolutely not anything like those scofflaws.

WSI has been in operation since the mid 1990s, selling website services and online marketing consultations. WSI is a legitimate, successful business model that has a lot to offer thanks to our unique approach.

Digital marketing is a rapidly growing field — in fact, analysts predict it will grow by at least one billion dollars in the next two years. Whatever one might say about the economy as a whole, the digital marketing field has room for new players.

We’ve talked before about what kind of candidate makes for a good WSI franchise owner, but those were admittedly somewhat generic qualifiers. After all, just about anyone can be a good “people person” with a bit of training and personal effort. But let’s talk about specific steps you can take to successfully transition from being traditionally-employed to self-employed.

1 - Start with our 90-day quick-start course.

All good jobs come with good training, and we’ve made it simple and easy to engage with our training program even if you’re already working on a job. For a little extra time each day, you can get the tools you need in order to run your WSI Internet Franchise.

2 - If you have a manager or supervisor, observe what they do.

Take the time to ask them how they handle things, and why they approach things the way they do. There’s a reason they’re in charge of the tasks they’re working on, and if approached in a friendly way they can probably be quite inclined to share their methods. This kind of information can be very important to you when you’re the one who has to manage things yourself with your franchise.

There is a sense of security that comes from owning a WSI franchise.

Anyone who owns their own business will tell you the same:

Even when times are hard, there’s something both personally and practically satisfying about owning your own business that isn’t quite the same when you work with or for someone else.

In a traditional employment arrangement, even fairly high-level employees can be kept in the dark from time to time. Consider what happened with Enron, MCI-Worldcom and so on. For a more humorous example, consider the movie Fun with Dick and Jane starring Jim Carey. Even as the company was imploding all around him, he was “promoted” to be the company spokesman and take the heat. Funny yes, and a bit of a stretch, but really it was only amusing because to at least some extent, we certainly can imagine it happening!

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.

Part of owning a WSI franchise is that you get to design your own perk structure!

Normally, the perks of a job are dictated by human resources, finances and the needs of the company. When you own your own business, you have power and are in complete control of this situation. Thus, your perks are determined by your needs and your understanding of reality, rather than what some administrator feels is best for you. For example…

Vacation Time — Maybe two weeks every year isn’t cutting it for you. Maybe you don’t want to take a whole two weeks just because some bureaucrat insists on it, and you’d prefer a few small weekend excursions spread throughout the year. Alternatively, maybe you just want a nice month off around Christmas time, or to enjoy the waves in the Bahamas during the summer. If you have the finances and the freedom to do it, it’s yours to do.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Even though we all dream of being our own boss one day, it has to be said that the idea can be a little daunting. What if we make mistakes? There’s less of a support structure to help you out if you fumble an important job in your own business, after all. That’s why a WSI franchise is a good choice for your transition from employed to self-employed – we make sure the process is easy to understand and readily accessible.

Training

We provide each WSI franchise owner with the training they need, just like they would receive in a traditional employment situation. Our 90 day quick start course is easy to understand, can be taken either on its own or on the side during a regular job as you prepare to make the switch. Either way, you learn the skills you need to run your franchise, with nothing hidden.

A Proven Approach

The WSI method has worked for hundreds of WSI franchisees since we entered the digital marketing game in 1995. We consistently update the specifics, but our core approach remains the same and provides a strong foundation for you to set out and bring in the revenue you expect out of a personal business.

Mentoring

Some training inevitably has to take place on the job, of course. Even with the quick start program and the proven method we provide, some situations will come up that surprise anyone. That’s why we have our mentoring program, so experienced franchisees can share their insights and ideas with new entrepreneurs eager to do things right.