Breaking the Brick and Mortar Barrier

Among the many different franchise opportunities that entrepreneurs may consider, most have at least one thing in common; you set up shop and serve customers in one particular neighborhood and its immediate surroundings. To prosper, the right location needs to be researched ensuring plenty of foot traffic, adequate parking, the right customer base and so forth – all of which usually means steep development costs and expensive lease agreements. This has always been the reality for most businesses, but there’s at least one franchise opportunity that has designed its systems to bypass these costly considerations – WSI Internet Consulting & Education.

Through continuous development of advanced technologies and its proven, patent-pending systems, WSI has built the world’s #1 Internet Business franchise, as ranked by Entrepreneur Magazine. With over 700 franchise offices in 87 countries, WSI has emerged as the dominant global brand in Internet Consulting and is one of the most profitable franchise opportunities available today. Of course, as impressive as these accolades may sound, it’s important not to lose sight of how WSI got to be where it is. Unlike so many of the seemingly promising “dot-coms” of the Internet boom era, WSI built its success on a solid business model supported by real technologies and real people. It’s this business model that sets WSI apart from most franchise opportunities and makes it one of the most efficient and flexible franchise operations in the world, as it can be operated in a ‘virtual’ manner with none of the large expenses that are inherent to most other franchises.

Since 1996, WSI and its franchisees – known as Internet Consultants – have been committed to developing complete Internet Solutions for small- to medium-sized businesses worldwide. The unique WSI methodology, which combines business consultation services and innovative Internet technologies, enables any business to not only profit from a web presence but also reduce costs and operate more efficiently. While this may seem like an obvious approach, WSI’s Internet Solution framework represents a considerable departure from the industry norm. Traditionally, web development has been a service offered by people with technical or design backgrounds – not business professionals. But when business owners decide to build a web presence, they aren’t looking for a piece of art; they’re looking to invest in a solution that can help their business grow and serve their customers better. It’s the difference between what a website can do, and what a website can do for the business. How is a typical web designer supposed to be able to meet these kinds of goals without a solid understanding of how a business operates? Quite often they can’t, and that’s the vital gap in the industry that has given WSI’s franchisees such a commanding advantage.

To bridge this gap, while still operating in the most cost-efficient manner possible, WSI has formed a proprietary e-Marketplace that includes high-tech production facilities from low-cost areas throughout the world. It’s a strategy used by big-business leaders IBM and Microsoft that has worked equally well for WSI and its small- to medium-sized business clients. The WSI e-Marketplace includes web developers, interactive design companies, Internet marketing experts and more, connecting every franchisee to WSI’s network of professionals. It was the e-Marketplace system that sold franchisee Jim Hannigan on the WSI model. “These people have been vetted, they reach a certain standard, and they're well aware of the systems we use to work and communicate,” Hannigan explains. “Highly experienced suppliers add value to the whole proposition we bring to our clients.” And by combining the purchasing power of the entire franchise network into one virtual marketplace, franchisees are able to access high-level development services at pricing levels far below what is available to most web design firms. Being part of this system also means an Internet Consultant doesn’t need any previous web design or Internet marketing experience, as the technical details of site development are handled by industry experts. “Our responsibility is to get out there and market ourselves and our business to our customers,” states Hannigan. “All the most complicated bits, the development and the production and making things happen have been made incredibly easy by the systems that WSI has put together for us,” he goes on to say. Instead, the Internet Consultant’s job is to work with business owners to come to understand each business and uncover where Internet technologies can improve the way that business operates, how it markets itself and how to better serve its customers. As business owners themselves, WSI Internet Consultants understand the issues and challenges faced by other business owners, giving them an instant rapport on which to build a profitable, long-term business relationship.

All of this makes the e-Marketplace successful for WSI, however the most intriguing aspect of the business is that all of this is usually done without a fancy storefront or office. There’s no additional real estate to buy, no expensive leaseholds or property development, no inventory to carry, not even any staffing requirements. WSI franchisees practice what they preach and use innovative Internet technologies to not only improve their clients’ operations, but to also run their own business. At the heart of WSI’s virtual business model is its online production system, called ‘MAPS’. Initially developed in conjunction with the Canadian Government, this state-of-the-art technology allows Internet Consultants to operate their business from just about anywhere with a laptop computer and Internet connection. With MAPS, no matter where in the world an Internet Consultant may be operating from, they can be productive at any time of day, any day of the week – an invaluable resource for a global franchise network to have. MAPS unifies the Head Office, Internet Consultants, worldwide Production Centers and Authorized Suppliers into a single collaborative environment. In addition to complete project tracking services, MAPS gives Internet Consultants access to vital business resources, web hosting and maintenance tools, billing information and more. It’s an ingenious system that WSI has developed for its franchisees to maximize their productivity and help them stay focused on serving clients and not wrestling with back-end business administration duties. “My franchise has given me the ability to access the greatest Internet technology in the world. And not only the technology but the support,” points out Internet Consultant Eric Lopez. “All I really need to do is plug into it and find a way to get those services and products to my clients. I can do almost anything,” he concludes.

In addition to being extremely flexible in where and how a WSI franchisee can run his or her business, operating a business this way incurs next to no overhead. Lucrative margins enabled by the e-Marketplace are made even more so when you negate the need for major space and inventory investments. Many Internet Consultants successfully run their business from a home office, or by leasing far less-expensive office space in industrial areas as they expand operations. Equipped with this kind of freedom, WSI’s Internet Consultants can spend more on marketing and growing their business, serving more clients and increasing the overall value of the brand. This is the advantage of adopting e-Business strategies, and WSI and its franchisees are determined to share that advantage with businesses worldwide.

Due to our unprecedented historical 5 yr ranking with Entrepreneur Magazine, our President, Mr. Nigel Mayne, agreed to conduct a short 20 minute broadcast interview with Entrepreneur's radio network. Click Here or the banner above to listen!