Gerardo Kerik, WSI Consultant - I think WSI network, it's a very special network. It's a very special group. I think one of the things that surprised me at the beginning and continues to be the case is that most people that join WSI are very open business individuals that are very collaborative, that want to work with others and that want to share their expertise. And I can't emphasize this enough. I mean, that is incredible value because when you are an entrepreneur, even if you're part of a franchise network, you're pretty much on your own. I mean, it's a very lonely place to run a business, and being able to reach out to people in your place that are probably at different stages of development in their journey is invaluable because you get so many opportunities to learn from others.

That's firstly very important from an entrepreneurial perspective. And then from a functional perspective, I've managed to learn new skills, learn new techniques, and learn about new industries that have helped me close new business. In some cases, I've managed to close business thanks to the network because I've been in front of opportunities where I might not have the vertical or the industry expertise, but I've been able to bring in a subject matter expert after scanning across the WSI network that has helped secure that project. So I think those are invaluable elements of the network. But most importantly, I think just being able to reach out to other people and learn from others, I think we are more intelligent as a group than as individuals. We can achieve more as a group than as individuals.

Nicole King, WSI Consultant - I say this a lot to people that are looking at WSI as an option: I've been part of the network now going into my fifth year, and where I started with WSI to where I am now, there's been so much evolution. I'm not just talking within my own business. I mean, WSI as a whole has evolved so much. We also went through a very difficult time with the pandemic and shutdowns. For me, at that point, I was going into year two of my business, and it was very daunting at that point. But WSI actually stepped up, they did weekly meetings, they added more capabilities for connecting with new clients and webinars, and just kind of stepped up where a lot of us were still, I think, feeling like a deer in the headlights because everything stopped. I had to stop prospecting for a significant amount of time. But WSI just kept pushing forward to make sure that we were continuing to connect with each other and continue to have those opportunities to support us.

So I think even in those big moments that are almost once-in-a-lifetime moments, it really demonstrated to me it's not even just WSI as a company. It's WSI home office, even the people that are there and how much they care about the network and us being successful.

Mark Jamieson, WSI Consultant - The value that we get from the WSI network, listen, it's everything. I think starting out, although we did have some understanding, we very much relied on, you know, I called them my mentors. There was a handful of people within the network that I leaned on on a day-to-day basis. We'd be calling up, "How does this work? Why do we do that? How would you do this? Have you worked in this vertical before? What do you recommend?"

This is an amazing business. The network, the collaborative brainpower within WSI really is what I attribute to the success. We work hard internally, but there are people out there that really guided us, gave us direction, gave us the focus. When times were tough, they gave us the push that we needed. And it's even working through stages, typically, within any type of business growth. You're gonna hit certain stages in your business. Where, alright, I just made it here. My next threshold is here. How do I get from here? And that could be something as simple as, "How do I go from 0 to 100,000? How do I go from 100,000 to 300,000 in gross? How do I go from 300,000 to 500,000? From 500,000 to 700,000? From 700,000 to a million?" And within these thresholds, we needed the guidance and the support of certain people within the WSI network to help guide us through and get us through these ceilings.

So, the network is everything!

Melanie Gard, WSI Consultant - In our industry where a lot of people and concepts can be quite transitory. To have this constant support and being treated as individuals with real human needs and real human problems, and the advice not being generic but personalized to what we're going through, is invaluable. I've got a lot of other business contacts and people that I know who are also franchise holders of other franchise businesses. And I think that they get a little bit jealous when they talk to me because they're moaning about their franchisors, and I'm singing the praises of our franchisors. I'm always telling people, "Canadians are just the best people on earth" because the only Canadians I know are the ones from home office, and it's always been such a joy to work with them.