The Real Pain of the Small Business Owner

Since creating Infusionsoft, we have heard thousands of painful stories from small business owners trying to manage and grow their companies. We hear about all the blood, sweat, and tears that do nothing more than get a company through to the next week, so the exhausted business owner can do it all again. Some of the stories that have been shared with us make our rough beginning look like a walk in the park.

Besides selling their products or services, managing employees, handling the overhead, and
budgeting their expenses, small business owners really have little time for anything else. The
sad truth is that few business owners are able to spend any time growing and expanding their
business. Their attention is being constantly pulled one direction after another, and by the time
they have a moment to themselves, they are too drained to do anything more than run the same
old gauntlet.

In many cases, the struggles of small business ownership spread far
beyond the walls of their company.

FAMILY

Think of the impact long hours at the office have on family life. The business owner works all
day, deals with unpleasant customers, and is constantly putting out one fire after another. By
the time they go home, they’re tired, frustrated, and short on patience. I’m sure you can guess
(if you don’t already know) what this end-of-day exhaustion does to marriages, parenthood, and
other important relationships.

Online, I attempted to find an exact statistic about the number of business owners that
divorce while trying to get their companies up and running. What I discovered was much more interesting. Hundreds of thousands of websites offer advice on what to do when, as a small business owner, you get divorced. No one is offering any suggestions for how to keep a family together and still run a company.
They all teach would-be entrepreneurs how to protect their assets from their spouse once they split. In other words, the world seems to
have given up on the odds of staying happily married and growing a company.

Even if you’re able to manage both family and business responsibilities, even if you have a compassionate spouse like mine (who worried about what to feed the kids but still encouraged my efforts), even if you don’t have a family waiting at home, there are other factors to consider.

FUNDING

According to famed economics professor Scott A. Shane, approximately 65% of small businesses are founded on the savings and personal debts of the business owner. That is money that has come directly from the owner’s pocket. Money that is irreplaceable should the business have a poor month, quarter, or year. The strain of having to repay borrowed money only adds a significant amount of stress to an already taxing situation. I’m sure you’ve heard the phrase, “lose the shirt off your back.” For many small business owners, this is quite literally the case. They’ve invested every last dollar they can in the hope of creating a better life for themselves. And, should the company go belly up, this person isn’t instantly absolved of their obligation.

Two of my employees were recently lamenting about their failed business ventures. The first had
taken out a bank loan to finance an invention that never caught on. At the time of the conversation, she was still paying on her outstanding debt of $15,000. The other heard the story of the first and chuckled. He said, “I wish that was all I had left to pay.” This man had borrowed money from friends and family, lost his product due to poor storage, and never quite regained his footing with his company. His debts were so great, he was too embarrassed to relate how much money he’d lost.

These are my employees, my friends, individuals I personally care about,
and by the time I heard their stories there was nothing I could do for them.
There was nothing, in fact, that anybody could do for them short of paying
their financial obligations.

SATISFACTION

Another concern of the small business owner is the simple issue of happiness. You see, the vast
majority of entrepreneurs start their own businesses to avoid working for someone else. And to
find happiness doing something they love. But, although business owners may start their companies with high hopes and ambition, inevitably, the business becomes the master…and the business owner, a slave to his/her own creation. The excitement and passion they once felt for their company gets buried under a mountain of invoices and paperwork.

Like I said before, we hear all kinds of heart-wrenching stories when small businesses turn to
Infusionsoft for help. Many small business owners are in search of that one last miracle-solution
before they give up altogether. Even then, they’re often so overwhelmed they don’t really have
a desire to make their companies work. It’s simply a matter of going through the motions before
accepting what they’re already anticipating. It’s as if they are saying to themselves, “Well, I
should have known better than to try.”

This is where the purpose of the book comes in. You see, in all the time I was worrying and struggling to get Infusionsoft off the ground, I was learning. The more I heard from other small business owners about what they wanted, what they needed, and what they were suffering, the more in tune I became.

I dreamed of ways to liberate and empower small business owners and their employees so they could enjoy doing business again. I envisioned ways of helping them wow their customers, and grow their companies quickly and profitably.

I wanted small business owners to feel the same passion and excitement for their companies they started out with, and to make the world a better plac ebecause they were able to serve not only their customers, but their families and communities as well.

 © 2008 By Clate Mask

Posted in: Introductiont to THE EDGE OF SUCCESS