4. THE EDGE OF SUCCESS-9 Building Blocks to Double Your sales 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 caus ing him pain The irony is, at the time of Reeds phone call, we too had pain Probably more pain than anyone in my company wants to ad mit 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 unbeliev- able 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 busi- nesses. 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 be come successful Business ownership seemed exciting at first. We let ourselves daydream about what our compa ny 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 c 2008 Infusionsoft© 2008 Infusionsoft 4 • THE EDGE OF SUCCESS- 9 Building Blocks to Double Your Sales 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 caus￾ing 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 ad￾mit. 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 unbeliev￾able 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 busi￾nesses. 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 be￾come successful. Business ownership seemed exciting at first. We let ourselves daydream about what our compa￾ny 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)