Starting and running a business is no easy feat. Yet, entrepreneurs appreciate and welcome the challenge.

The co-founders behind Infusionsoft, a leading sales and marketing software company for small business, understand this challenge and are authentically dedicated to tackling it head on.

Today at ICON, Infusionsoft’s annual small business conference (dubbed the ‘Ultimate Small Business Conference’), Co-founder and CEO Clate Mask candidly shared how Infusionsoft grew from humble beginnings and fought to overcome common small business challenges that plague a majority of entrepreneurs.

“In the early days it was fun … novel … everything was exciting,” said Mask. “We were working way more hours than we thought we were going to work, we were making way less money than we thought we were going to make, but we were our own boss and we were having fun.”

The Dark Side of Entrepreneurship

But there is a dark side of entrepreneurship – behind-the-scenes work in the trenches that doesn’t necessarily lend itself to high-profile media coverage. Like most small businesses “we were fighting for survival and just struggling like crazy,” Mask recalled.

“We had increased our rent [by moving into a nicer place],… we hired a little sooner than we should have … [and] then we lost an [important] client… We started to bump into some real challenges and went through some really dark struggles for survival.”

Eric Martineau, Infusionsoft co-founder and Chief Software Architect, echoed Clate’s sentiments: “I remember we went months sometimes without paying ourselves … I remember the feeling of missing payroll. That’s the worst feeling…”

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Like many small businesses “we had maxed out all of our credit cards … and by we I mean [Clay and Scott] because my credit was so bad I couldn’t even get a credit card,” he laughingly recalled.

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Like many small businesses “we had maxed out all of our credit cards … and by we I mean [Clay and Scott] because my credit was so bad I couldn’t even get a credit card,” he laughingly recalled.

Struggling in the early stages of small business can be a demoralizing process, but they decided to stay the course. “We were totally extended financially and one night a creditor called … I said, ‘Look I’m trying to get this business off the ground I’ll pay as soon as I can,'” Clate added.

Needless to say they felt the pinch financially, but today they credit their tough lessons learned to paving the way from a struggling startup to a eight-time Inc. 500/5000 winner and much more.

Hard-Won Small Business Success

Through the struggles and hard-won success, Infusionsoft co-founder Scott Martineau agreed that “times were difficult for us… but we wouldn’t have changed it for the world.” Eric Martineau added: “The truth is it got better. We started making sales. We started paying ourselves every month. We were living the dream of starting your own company.”

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Today Infusionsoft is still dedicated to their mission of helping small businesses succeed. While Infusionsoft is far from their lean startup years, it is clear they remain committed to the core values and vision set for the company upon inception.

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Today Infusionsoft is still dedicated to their mission of helping small businesses succeed. While Infusionsoft is far from their lean startup years, it is clear they remain committed to the core values and vision set for the company upon inception.

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