Valley businessmen turned authors hit the New York Times best sellers list

GILBERT, AZ - Nine years ago Clate Mask and Scott Martineau started Infusionsoft , an e-mail marketing business in Gilbert. They're the first to admit that things weren't easy at first.

"We had many many months where we'd go without any income and we had the pressure of small business ownership," said Martineau.

Now, their business is booming. They just expanded their offices into a warehouse that doesn't resemble a typical office. Sure, there are cubicles but there's also an indoor basketball court and a football field.

"This is a great way to blow off steam," said Mask as he walked across the turf.

They've been stocking the lunch room with their employee's favorite cereals since day 1. As the number of employees has grown, so has the cereal collection. None the less, they continue to stock the cupboard.

"Sometimes they don't have time to go grab a meal. It's just something we provide. We did it from the very beginning in the early days," said Mask.

Mask said their unique way of doing business is part of their philosophy that business doesn't have to be boring. In fact, he said it makes sense for business owners to create a fun workplace.

"We think to attract great employees we gotta have fun in the process of doing your work," added Mask.

Mask and Martineau decided to put their business ideas into a book. It's called Conquer the Chaos and it hit number 4 on the New York Times best sellers list for advice books just a few weeks after it was released.

They hope their book will help new small business owners avoid the mistakes they made in the beginning. Mask said some of the best advice is also the most basic, "you've got to get organized, you've got to follow up and you've got to do it in an automated way so that you're not doing all of this manual labor."