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.

Owning your own business is an exciting thing, and a WSI franchise lets you experience the excitement with a number of creative business solutions for your style of living.

Do you prefer to work a few days a week with long hours, so you can have nice, long days off? Or do you prefer to work a little bit early every morning and then have the rest of the day to yourself? Either way, you can schedule your days to take advantage of your best working hours, or to accommodate a family lifestyle.

Do you prefer to work with a lot of clients at once, or are you more of a single-client, hands-on kind of worker? Once again, you can choose your workload to suit your desired level of income and time investment.

There are a lot of things a franchise owner can talk to his or her mentor about. There’s always something out there you can chat over via messenger, email, the phone or even face-to-face over a cup of coffee now and then. So why is it that many mentor/protégé relationships feel a bit awkward and at a loss for words?
Well, people get nervous for all kinds of reasons. You don’t want to give the wrong advice. Maybe a topic you had planned to share might not pan out just right, or you could just genuinely be stuck for words. So, with that in mind, here are a few really good sources you can check out for topic details.

The WSI Coffee Break

— Our monthly webinar series which explores topics of direct interest to WSI employees, like the products and services offered in the WSI eMarketplace. Whether heavy or lighthearted, the material covered in this series is a gold mine of potential discussion topics for you to ask your mentor about. It can serve as an icebreaker to lead on to other topics, or be the whole discussion itself.

The WSI Internet Franchise Blog

— Same idea, though with less video! The written form is a bit different from the visual, so the ideas conveyed can be a bit different, and the net is cast a bit wider for topics. Check out the blog when it updates, and if something sticks in your mind, ask your mentor about it.