Got this letter from Bertrand and just want to share it with You.

Hey how are things? I am sending you this email today because you

are on my subscribers list and I am very grateful you always take

some time out of your days to check out my emails!

Today I am not gonna send you a freebie or tell you about some

new software we are working on (although I might do that later

on, we are cooking some VERY cool stuff right now : )

Instead I wanted to share with you my journey…

From a would-be internet marketer

… to a budding business owner.

I am nowhere near my goals and in all fairness, I am no big

time marketers that pretends to be bigger than he is really.

I have reached the poing where my business makes a comfortable

5 figures a month these days and where I have enough cash

in the bank to work at my own pace, and no more in ’emergency’ mode..

That’s the truth and it’s nothing to brag about.

I started with nothing and got here by hard work so I hope this might

inspire you too, if you are starting up in your business. I really believe

that with the right advice at the right time, anyone can do it.

You don’t need to be arrogant, a PC whizz or some kind of untouchable

guru to make it.

In fact I am fairly normal person who enjoys very simple things..

I have been blessed enough to understand that happiness is most

of the times around the corner and is found in the most simplest

thing in life..

So yea money is good, but family, health and maintaining good

values is what really drives me in life..

The story I am about to share with you today is a story of growth,

and something I wish I understood one year ago.

You see, I have no formal business training so I am a bit slow with

understanding how it all works..

So let’s start by the beginning, where we all start in our business

journey

—The SoloPreneur—

For me it all started in 2011 when I took a job and started investing

money weekly in my online business…

Within a year I was making enough to quit my job, which I did

as soon as I could (I wanted my freedom)

And then I started to get on with it..

I took coaches, and learned everything I could about online

marketing..

I bought hundreds of WSOs, and read all the free reports provided

by the likes of Kissmetrics and Hubspot (by the way, check it out!)

I taught myself Photoshop, HTML, CSS, WordPress, copywriting,

email marketing and everything there is to know under the sun..

And then I started making partnerships, releasing products and

niche business ventures.. I quickly doubled my income.

The problem is, I was never taught about how to build systems and

processes, so I quickly became a slave to my business and my

income stalled.

I started working days and nights non-stop to make it happen, to

the tune of 100 hours a week.

Now I don’t condone hard work, and I don’t in no way mean that you

should not work like a madman to get your business off-the-ground.

In fact I believe that starting a business always leads to some kind of

sacrifices..

For me in my first year in business I had to sacrifice the time I was

meant to spend with my friends..

Every Friday evening and week-ends when my friends would go out,

I would stay in and work on my craft..

I can safely say that this affected some of my close relationships, even

though now things are starting to go back to normal.

On the other hand being able to work from home got me closer than

ever from my family.. If my mum needs to go shopping on a Tuesday

morning, no problem, I’ll come along and carry all the bags for her..

While others might be stuck in an office watching their lives passing by..

And that freedom to spend time with the people you care about is to

me worth ALL the sacrifices and sleepless nights..

But I am disgressing here..

What I wanted to say was that the problem with being a solopreneur

is that you have to do all the work yourself.

A Solopreneur really struggles to delegate and is constantly innundated

with the thoughts that there is “one more thing” he can do before signing off..

That was me for my first 12 months in business. Always on, never off.

You might be at this stage right now, or you might already be a business

owner..

But if you are still a Solopreneur you need to read on.

Introducing…

—The Business Owner—

I had my epiphany a few months ago when I took a course in business

growth by Edward D. Hess

That’s the link if you want to check it out, it’s actually free

Click here

In this course Edward D. Hess said the following:

“In order for a business to grow, the entrepreneur must grow. First, the
entrepreneur’s role will evolve from primarily being a “doer” to a manager then
to a leader and ultimately to being a coach/mentor.”

That course virtually changed the whole way I run my business.

I stopped trying to do it all, and took a step back to become

the leader of my business.

If you want to grow, you can’t be a “doer” all your life. That’s what

I realized.

So I started hiring. Right now my company has 7 employees (5 full-time

including me, and 2 part-time). You can see us all here:

Click here

I also work with three consultants on a continued basis, my book-keeper,

my accountant and my lawyer.

So little by little, I have been starting to replace myself (by the way, I
bought

and studied the ReplaceMyself course –

Click here

lately, and it’s very solid, highly recommended).

So right now I am leading a small team who is “doing” all there is to do.

Besides answering some support tickets and writing emails, I spend 90% of

my time creating training material and teaching my team.

Here is a screenshot of some of the training material I have been creating.

Click here

So far I have about 40 articles that details every processes I have to go

through in my business.

For instance, I often find myself creating Facebook adverts so I created a

step-by-step process for that.

I also run some niche sites like

Click here
and most of

the day to day management of these types of sites is pretty simple..

So I have spent 5 days documenting everything, and hired an assistant who is

now doing pretty much everything there is to do on these niche sites (hiring
article

writers on Fiverr, posting articles, contacting potential clients, making deals,
etc.)

So my point is.. As soon as you can you should start documenting everything

you do so that you can replace yourself eventually as soon as your business

grows and becomes profitable.

When I was working at Google a couple years ago I was blown away by

how they documented every single process to the T.

In fact anyone could walk in in those Google offices regardless of knowledge

and start working right away just by following what Google called the Policy (a

series of systems and processes to tell you how to exactly do your work).

If you visit the Google support pages

Click here

you will

see their systemic approach in action. Everything, and I mean everything, is

perfectly documented..

So yea, some food for thought.. I am sure there are lots of things right now
that you

could delegate so that you can focus on the area where YOU are adding value

(is sorting your Gmail inbox or updating WordPress to version 3.4 really worth
your time?)

That’s the truth about growing YOUR business. Focus on what you are best at

and start documenting processes and then delegating.

I hope this email has been helpful to you, feel free to hit the “Reply” button
if you have any

thoughts about all this, or if you want to get in touch.

Hope you are having a great week,

Bertrand