whydowork.com

[cindyprice]

Response to Question about WSI....think about it. My husband and I bought a WSI franchise in September. My husband sold a large order right out of the gate with WSI production center's help!!! They have time and responded quickly. This was an $18,500 website. We are trying to get another contract now. We paid $50,000 for the franchise and in addition minimums...UNBELIEVABLE. Basically it is a franchise. You need this "License" so please get the word out.

We borrowed the money (home equity) for the business and we stuck with it. Some helpful information. We invested $50,000. We have 6 kids and certainly didn't loose money. Plus we have months of recurring income!!!

[cindyprice]

One more thing I forgot to add...the MINIMUMS per month are as follows: $250, three months later $500, three months later $700, three months later $1,000. It is POSSIBLE to make this business work.

And I wanted to respond to the nice person who was giving advice to the WSI franchisee who had also mortgaged his house....Your advice is helpful for the fact that you use resources of WSI...what we paid $50,000 for. You see, you need WSI. With WSI anyone can do it!!!

[GuitarDad]

After additional investigation, I told them thanks, but no thanks. The more I investigated it, the more I realised that you really can find contractors globally, with a little effort and networking. Plus, since there still isn't any brand equity associated with WSI (that is, nobody has ever heard of them), then what value are they providing for that kind of money?

I think WSI makes sense financially if it were more of an at-risk model, but to ask us to fork over this much money without their sharing the risk is unreasonable. That's not a partnership. Plus, their marketing this inappropriately. I can't imagine how many people are buying into this thinking their job will be to sell web sites from their bedrooms. That's not what this business is about! This makes it difficult to develop brand equity when there are a lot of unsuccessful internet consultants out there waving the WSI banner around.

I really feel for those who are sufffering because of this. If it's any consolation, your saving others the same grief.

[tainted_870]

I always stay the hell away from systems that require you to pay lots of money.

I'm a lone wolf, I look for methods that show me how to make money by myself, without relying on some high-risk organisation.

All I need is my website, ClickBank, and Google - And that's my online income sorted!!!

[shaz]

Has anyone every delt with or researched the Netspace Franchise?

[gurdasmann]

Being a newbie in business, I paid £10k as a deposit for the wsi franchise after hearing all the sales pitches of such a big successful company... voted no. 1, etc. It all seemed great until they sent me the contract after I paid the deposit and it completely contradicted what had been sold and marketed to. Filled with clauses and fees to tie you in and make sure you always pay them ongoing fees regardless of whether the franchise works for you or not.

I then decided not to go ahead and requested my £10k back and refused to sign the contract. The sales person, left threatening voicemails saying I was going to court if I didn't sign the contract and give them another £25K. They still owe me £10k however, I was lucky not to lose more and seriously lucky not to sign the contract which would have cost me even more.

WSI have a shoddy business... you can tell from their technology and from their service to their franchisees. If you are considering wsi... please get this ridiculous thought out of your head. DO NOT sign up. Instead, set up your own company, find a reliable company that can deliver the websites and online marketing. Do it yourself... you can start with around £5K easy.

ASK FOR THE CONTRACT AND READ IT LINE BY LINE TO UNDERSTAND WHAT THEY ARE SELLING YOU AND WHAT THEY ARE CHAINING YOU DOWN TO. DON'T BELIEVE THE SALES AND MARKETING HYPE, ESPECIALLY NOT THE GUYS YOU ARE PROBABLY SPEAKING TO NOW!

[nickknowledg]

I have been looking at the WSI offer an they use some really fancy names such as:

Conversion Archtecture - this is a website

I think the offer is weak and really not worth £40k upfront, i have come across a company called Clever Business Websites and I belive they offer no upfront cost and jsut take a monthly fee for each site sold.

[akshah]

Hi,

Interesting post, I would certainly caution people from buying this franchise. I know of IC's that have had very bad financial hardship as a result of this "opportunity".

One of the production centers that they state is quality called Voloper sells a premium ecommerce platform! This platform is not PCI compliant and does not match ecommerce security guidelines. More importantly the platfrom has been hecked and credit card details stolen (yes they store credit card details on the system)

The data center once shut down for a few days and they restored to backups for a week before. If a site is getting ecommerce orders one can image the impact on VAT, returns, shipping etc... all the data went out of sink. The producion center said "We are a whole sale hosting provider and solution provider" hence client gets shaffted, who cant even give a reasonable explantion about the production center.

I found you can negotitate the MSF (managment service fee) but you need to be careful in stating that you are not closing down.

The reality is that in the digital industry you need to be responsive, professional and flexible the wsi model fails on all counts. Imagine the scheduling nightmare. There is not reasonable methodology for requirments gathering. The IBA is just questions and depends on the consultant that asks them and their knowledge. In most cases there is no technicla knowhow.

Also the $300 does not get you much marketing/ leads thats paid speratley. My view is that this is not a one man business.

Regards AK

[akshah]

WSI Modular framrework my arse....

The use an open source product Dotnetnuke, paid PWC lots of money to be told use this free system!
Guess what as the project manager you end up trying to support this system.

There elearning system GLS might have been ok, but there are many more SCORM compliant systems out there.

The CMS systemes aparat from the cluncky DNN, are really poor, with the exception of volopers obs solution. The OBS is ok, but lacks several key features and there are lots of tie ins. More importantly working with voloper can really strees anyone up, the support staff never admit to any mistakes they make.

My view production centers do have it hard, the only one making good money is WSI. The hosting company known as Action hosting is quite good.

[NH23]

So what is the WSI pricing model?

It certainly seems like they're charging clients enough to make a profit. Is it just that you can't get any sales?

They claim that there are all kinds of recurring income. Is that for real? How are they trying to set up recurring?

Basically I just want to copy (improve?) their model without paying them, so any help is appreciated.

[Gary Baker]

I was just looking for internet marketing opportunities and I came across this one about WSI and I cannot believe that it costs $50,000 to join. I am very sorry for anybody who loses that on any business opportunity. What did you get for that amount of money and how/where it it go all wrong?

[seeking]

My advice to anyone thinking of buying any franchise: if you've never heard of them, and they've been in business 10 years, then make sure you can find at least 15 people who have been making a living at it for at least 2 years, who can honestly say they did it by the system you're buying.

[donnaclare]

Hi

My husband and I bought a franchise many years ago. We paid US$50K ($NZ100K) and took a loan against our home to do this. Our research back then lead us to believe it was all kosher but upon our visit to Canada for training found that this business did not stack up against its claims. However on return to NZ we got a number of buyers lined up and found that we got no assistance from WSI at all and found they could not/would not provide any service or build the websites required. We then realised that this business was never going to work!

Ethically we could not sell our franchise to any one else and neither could be get out of their contract or get our money back. Eventually after spending more money on a lawyer, we were able to get out of the contract by pleading financial difficulties but we had to sign an exit contract.

Believe me there has been a very negative impact on our family and many tears. It has taken us the last 8 years trying to get financially back on track. My husband was out of work for 9 months so the loss of income was huge.

If anyone is considering buying one of these franchise, hopefully you have been warned. I wish someone had warned us.

[buynsave]

Thank YOU!
Thank-you!
Thanks for all the help.
I was just looking for a $50,000 hole to throw money into. Then I decided to see if anything was posted about WSI.
So i found this post.
Thanks I do mean thanks.
What was i thinking. I was wanting a new adventure to make money and got sucked in.
All i can say is, Wow do i have stupid written on my forehead? I guess so.
Well Im better now.
Dean

[Joe Stalin]

I'm an experienced software development contractor (~17 years) and I've done a few web sites. Here is what I have witnessed from the customer end of a WSI deal.

A couple of years ago a friend who works for an old line accounting services outfit - a very traditional place - passed along a proposal they received from a local WSI franchisee to redo their web site.

The proposal talks about these huge additional income figures from converting web visitors to customers - the deals are usually made on the golf course and generally last for years. The numbers are all fictitious. It's quite clear that they don't even try to understand the client's business, they just ramrod an overstated set of hypothetical numbers.

What really gets me is the pricing of their design and hosting services and the miserable value that is reflected: a 10 page site that consists of a standard web hosting account, plus graphic design of the home page, is over $1000 plus $250/month. The customer is paying top dollar for a package of services that doesn't include or mention SEO, copywriting, professional design services, etc. That's the *basic* site. It all goes up from there. (To give some idea of the poor value, there are plenty of reliable hosting plans around for $10/month that surpass the features they list.)

The idea seems to be that they don't mention one thing that someone with barely a GED couldn't do. Web design is a high skill, professional service. It's not a commodity.

I think WSI has a schtick that may have sold some sites ten+ years ago when most business owners were not exposed to web designers. Today, customers are too sophisticated to accept proposals like this.