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

“I Have Pain!” The Infusionsoft Story

One day, my custom software company (eNovasys at the time) received an interesting phone
call. It was Friday afternoon and my partners and I were anticipating our weekend break. We’d
ordered pizza, and it had just arrived when the phone rang. Well, the last thing we wanted to do
was talk to anyone. Nevertheless, I decided to pick up the phone.
No sooner had I rattled off my greeting, than the man on the other end shouted, “I have PAIN!
Can you help me?” Then he paused.

Well, my mind was reeling with concerns. Was this a prank? Did this guy
even know what number he had dialed? What was I supposed to do about
someone’s pain? Shouldn’t he call a doctor?

Eventually, (after a 90-minute conversation) I got to the root of this man’s problem. What this
man, Reed Hoisington, wanted was a software program that would more effectively manage his contacts. He was trying to follow up with
his prospects and customers, but he was making a lot of mistakes. He was having
a heck of a time keeping straight leads, responders, and customers. He couldn’t
track things properly and the follow-up
was hit or miss. In other words, he was
mismanaging his business and it was causing
him pain.

The irony is, at the time of Reed’s phone call, we too had pain! Probably more pain than anyone in my company wants to admit.

Note: As you continue reading this book,
the importance of this story will become clear. You will discover how this story taught me the
one secret every small business owner must know, if they are going to achieve unbelievable success. But I’ll address that secret later. Right now, I want you to understand why this man’s declaration of “I have pain!” struck such a chord with me.

When eNovasys first began, there were four of us (me and the three founders) working out of a
small office space in the corner of a strip mall. We provided customized software to small businesses.
We built all sorts of custom software applications.

However, like many small businesses starting out, we really had no idea what we wanted to
achieve. In actuality, we had no idea whether we were going to be in business from one month
to the next. Still, we plugged away with a glimmer of hope that our budding company would become successful.

Business ownership seemed exciting at first. We let ourselves daydream about what our company
could become. I was working with close friends; and besides, we weren’t being tied down by
corporate jobs. But then almost instantly the reality set in. The amount of work required to run
a small business forced all of us to reanalyze our situation. We began spending more and more
time at the office, sometimes working through the night to get projects done. It didn’t take long
before our only option was to eat, sleep, and breathe our business.

But worse than the hours put in at the office was the stress and fear that appeared one day
and never subsided. We were worried about our product, our clients, and whether or not we’d
be paid. And in the back of our minds we were questioning whether or not we could make this
business work. We developed small business paranoia. We were constantly expecting something horrible to happen to us.

In fact, one of the founders became so agitated he lost 40 critical pounds in
a matter of months. The possibility of missing an important phone call kept
most of us from even eating during the day (not that we could afford to eat
anyway).

Life had suddenly taken on a whole new meaning. I was propelled into the age-old “fight for
survival.” My friends kept asking me where “the old Clate” had gone. I rarely saw my family, and
even when I was around, Infusionsoft (we had to change the name because people were calling
us eNovices) was on my mind. I had less patience and little devotion to the things that meant so
much to me before. My mind was busy, my stress levels were increasing, and I completely forgot
what it meant to “live” my life.

Despite the raging personal battles, and almost miraculously, our company
progressed and we hired several employees to help us manage the work.
But as we expanded, rather than finding more time, additional business,
and helpful solutions, we found ourselves wrapped up in more problems!

For one thing, in order to keep the company growing, we needed more money. A lot more money.
The two founders and I invested our personal savings into building and growing our company.
Multiple mortgages were taken out on homes. We leveraged whatever financial outlets we
had, yet we slipped further and further into personal debt. Still it wasn’t enough. We were continually
panicked about being able to pay the bills.

On a couple of occasions, I had to approach our employees and explain we couldn’t make payroll.
To their credit, they stuck it out and worked hard to help us get through the tough times.
And of course, the founders and I often went months without seeing any money.

But even as we tried to budget and gave up our own income, the money would run out, and the
creditors would come calling.

I felt particular embarrassment one night when my son asked, “Dad, why are you so
mad?”

“Because a freakin’ creditor called me on a Sunday!” I snapped at him.

The next question was, “What did he want?”

“He wanted to know why I hadn’t paid my bills.”

“Well Dad, did you tell him it’s because you haven’t made enough sales?”

How often had I said that? And how could I explain to my eight-year-old
son the depth of the financial situation we were in? What lessons was I
teaching him? And how could I bear to watch him go without…because I
wasn’t succeeding?

I wasn’t the only one depending on the next sale. As one of Infusionsoft’s founders sat in the
hospital with his wife and brand new child, he was on the phone closing a deal. When his irritated wife berated him, he looked down at his brand new baby and said, “You want to be able to afford the hospital bills, right?”

Now don’t think we didn’t try to find other
means of financing our endeavors. All my
pride was completely dissolved as I groveled
at the feet of bankers. Each time we
were rejected. I insisted they could trust
me to pay my obligation. But they all
shook their heads saying they’d heard that
story before. If ever a man felt completely
overwhelmed and humbled, I was that man.

I’m trying to present this information
as undetached and factual as
I can, but its impossible. My entire
life was wrapped up in a love/
hate relationship with a draining,
consuming company.

I think the worst part of this struggle was
seeing the frustration and fear in my wife’s eyes. It was killing to me to know I could be providing
my family with a much better life (if I was only willing to give up this crazy dream). Not only
was the company struggling to survive, I was struggling to balance my vision with harsh realities.
I would stare at the computer screen and try to wish away the debt, the long hours, and
the stress. But somehow I pressed on. We pressed on. Of course, I didn’t feel like I had much
choice.

The truth was, without the business I had no idea what I was going to do.
After just a few short months, we’d invested so much time, money, and
effort into the company that failure would have been the ultimate devastation.
So every day we trudged through one challenge after another, spending
long hours at projects that may or may not bring in revenue.

Finally, the clouds started to break, and we knew Infusionsoft was going to be around for a
while.

Ultimately, we formed and perfected our business plan as we went along. We took care of problems
as they came up because we simply didn’t have the time to plan for the future. So, for the
first few years of our inception, Infusionsoft was hanging by a very thin thread. Fortunately we
moved past the majority of our problems.

 © 2008 By Clate Mask

Sitting on the Edge of Success

Let me ask you something. Do you ever feel as if you are sitting on the edge of greatness? As if

there is something holding you back from being the phenomenal business owner you are capable

of being? You read all the books about owning and operating a company. You listen to all the stories

about small businesses becoming big businesses. You might know people who are living the

life you set out to live yourself, but you just can’t quite get there. You feel as if your business is

just waiting to explode. If only you could do something to make that leap from being the overwhelmed

business owner to the unbelievably successful entrepreneur

Well, this book will provide you with the knowledge you need to reach new
heights. This book is for those small business owners that have been working
to grow their companies and feel as if they are sitting on the edge of
success. This book is going to give you the strategies you need to double
your sales.

But, these strategies have not come easily. The success secrets I’m going to share with you have been the result of years of struggle.

 © 2008 By Clate Mask