Chapter 0

When we first started Infusionsoft, we really had no idea what we wanted to achieve. All we knew for certain was:

- We had the chance to work for ourselves,
- We were sticking it to the man, and
- Our earning potential was entirely in our own hands, which felt good.

But despite these advantages, it didn’t take long before we found ourselves in over our heads and questioning whether we were going to be in business from one month to the next. Naıve as to what was yet to come, we continued to plug away with a glimmer of hope that our budding company would become successful.

The chaos didn’t strike all at once. Business ownership seemed exciting at first. We talked about hiring employees, buying our own office space, and acquiring perks and benefits through the business. Our shelves were lined with books that shared the rules for business success. We let ourselves daydream about the life-altering breakthrough we were sure to experience and the financial freedom we were sure to find.

We were all working together as close friends. Furthermore, we weren’t being tied down by corporate jobs. But the chaos was steadily changing our reality. Within weeks, the amount of work required to run a small business forced all of us to reevaluate our situation. We began spending more and more time at the office, frequently working through the night just to get projects completed. We forgot the meaning of the term “lunch break.” The phrase “9 to 5” dwindled to an ancient and regrettable memory.

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 were the stress and fear that appeared one day and never subsided. These feelings started as a nagging in the back of our minds and soon developed into a full-blown monster raging in our heads.

We were worried about our product, our clients, and whether or not we’d be able to pay our personal mortgages.

The carefully avoided question was whether or not we could even make this businesswork. As if that question wasn’t taking its toll, we also developed small business paranoia, the gripping fear that causes business owners to feel the business will crumble to the ground like a house of cards if they step away even for a brief moment. We felt like we couldn’t go on vacation, on a date, or to our child’s little league game without jeopardizing the business.

Life had suddenly taken on a whole new meaning. Like every new small business owner, we felt trapped, controlled, and consumed by the business. What had happened to the freedom we were seeking? We were propelled into the age-old fight for survival, and the battle wounds were starting to show.

We rarely saw our families, and even when we were around, the business dominated our concentration. We had less patience and little devotion to the people who meant so much to us. Our minds were busy, our stress levels were increasing, and we completely forgot what it meant to live our lives.

Despite the raging personal battles, and almost miraculously, our company progressed, and we hired a few 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!

Rather than alleviating the chaos, the growth of our company seemed to be perpetuating it.
For one thing, in order to keep the company moving forward, we needed more money—a lot more money. Making payroll required a lot of cash. We invested our personal finances into building and growing our company. Multiple mortgages were taken out on homes. Savings accounts were pooled. We replied to all those credit card offers and racked up piles of high-interest personal debt. We leveraged whatever financial resources we had. Still, it wasn’t enough. We were continually panicked about being able to pay the bills.

On a couple of occasions, we had to approach our employees and explain we couldn’t make payroll. To our employees’ credit, they stuck it out and worked hard to help us get through the tough times. Meanwhile, as the co-founders, we often went months without seeing any money, or paying any of our personal bills. For a period of about 10 months, we paid our mortgages 30 days late almost every month, because that was the soonest we had the money to pay it—just in time to avoid a
30-day late rating on our credit reports.

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

Clate felt particular embarrassment one night when his 8-year-old son asked, “Dad, why are you so mad?”

“Because a freakin’ creditor called me on a Sunday!” Clate snapped.

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

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

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

Clate’s family all had a good laugh and Clate was glad his son understood how important sales are to a small business owner. But that wasn’t much solace. The pain we were all feeling was suffocating.

Another time, as Scott sat in the hospital with his wife and brand-new child, he was on the phone, closing a deal. When his irritated wife chided him, he looked down at the newborn baby and said, “You want to be able to afford the hospital bills, right?”

If ever men felt completely overwhelmed and humbled, we were those men. Our entire lives were wrapped up in a love/hate relationship with a draining, consuming company.

The truth is, there were times when we wanted to get out, but we couldn’t because we had so much debt, pride, and fear wrapped up in the business.
We found ourselves struggling to balance our dream and vision for our company with harsh realities. The truth was, without Infusionsoft we had no idea what we were going to do.

After a couple of years, 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. For the first two and a half years of our business, Infusionsoft was hanging by a very, very thin thread.

In terms of our treadmill analogy, the speed was lightning fast and we were so out of balance that we felt a wipeout on the rubber tread was imminent.

Then finally—finally—the clouds started to break, and we knew Infusionsoft was going to be around for a while.
A few favorable circumstances eased the chaos just long enough for us to turn down the speed on the treadmill and achieve a sense of balance. Almost accidental realizations gave us the knowledge to start breaking through the chaos to liberation.

We managed to formulate and perfect our business plan as we went along. We found easier, less time-consuming ways of running the company. We also worked on controlling the chaos in our own heads. Eventually, we moved past the majority of our problems. We were starting to think more clearly and we were starting to recognize there is a better way to run a small business.

Now, as we recount this story, we can smile at the crazy situations we made it through. We can share memories with the loyal employees who stuck with us, and we can laugh together about the funny things that happened back in those days, like the time the two of us took a client to lunch and both forgot our wallets. (He graciously agreed to pay.) Or the time we left the Arizona Farm Bureau Insurance offices after making a software proposal to their marketing director. We walked down
to the parking lot, got in Scott’s beat-up pickup truck (which was nicer than Clate’s beat-up truck which didn’t have air conditioning), only to find it needed a push start—twice. Yeah, that was fun to do in the client’s parking lot, right beneath the second story conference room with floor-to-ceiling windows where we had just made our software proposal. Talk about humiliating…

But, although we are no longer crammed into a tiny, little office space or driving old, beat-up pickup trucks, we haven’t lost touch with where we came from. These experiences intensified our resolve to ease the pains of entrepreneurs who are struggling to grow a business, because it really doesn’t have to be so hard.