Nobody handed me a guide when my marriage ended and my business still needed me…
Nobody handed me a guide when my marriage ended and my business still needed me. So I wrote one. This is everything I wish someone had told me at the beginning.
She closes the door to her home office. Sits down at her desk. Her chest feels heavy in a way she can't quite explain — like grief has taken up physical space inside her and there's not enough room left to breathe properly.
She feels herself start to choke up. The tears are right there.
But she takes a breath. Because she can't break down right now.
She has a client call in five minutes.
So she pulls herself back. Takes a deep breath. Then another. She practices her smile. Straightens. Turns on the camera. And she's brilliant — because she always is.
But nobody sees what happens at that desk before the camera turns on. And nobody sees the exhaustion her body exhales the moment it turns off.
This is Sarah. She's been running her business for six years. Three weeks ago her partner of nine years told her it was over. The relationship is ending.
The house is going on the market — which means her home office is going too. Her accountant called last week with questions about the business valuation she couldn't answer. Her therapist is wonderful but doesn't understand the business side of the pressure she's under.
Sarah is not a real person. But I would bet everything that you know her. Or that you have been her. Or that you are her right now.
The pieces of real life that nobody talks about
When a relationship ends and you own a business, you suddenly find yourself managing two completely separate crises simultaneously — and almost nobody is equipped to help you with both at once.
Your lawyer handles the legal process. Your accountant handles the financial implications. Your therapist holds the emotional weight. Your friends and family show up with wine and well-meaning advice. And your business — the thing you have spent years building — keeps running. Because it has to.
But nobody sits at the intersection of all of it. Nobody helps you figure out what in your business actually needs your attention right now and what can wait. Nobody helps you protect your revenue while you are simultaneously negotiating your future. Nobody teaches you how to show up professionally when you are privately falling apart.
No one teaches you how to run a business when your life is falling apart.
And that gap — that empty seat at the table — costs entrepreneurs everything.
The data tells a story most people never see coming.
1 in 20 business owners close their doors entirely due to the financial strain of divorce.
57% of business owners going through divorce report their company took a direct financial hit (with an average $4K monthly decline).
70% say they couldn't focus on their work the same way during the next steps - the lawyer meetings, the questions about splitting up the ‘assets’ that once made up your life, together — the quiet.
Nearly one in twenty business owners closes their doors. Not because their business failed. Because nobody helped them protect it while their life was falling apart.
You've worked too hard for that to be your story.
I've been at that desk too
I know what it costs to keep showing up professionally when you are privately falling apart. Because I have sat at that desk.
When my own relationship ended in December 2019, I had to show up for family events (it was the holidays) and for my clients the next Monday morning —like my whole world wasn't crumbling. I managed lawyer appointments between client calls and project work. I answered emails while waiting to hear back from a realtor. I smiled through discovery calls while my phone lit up with messages from friends who had just found out and my ex asking me ‘why I hired a lawyer’.
I kept showing up to work. I tried to distract myself, doubled-down on my business to keep it alive through all of it.
But I did it completely alone.
And it was the hardest thing I have ever done in 25 years of entrepreneurship — not because the business problems were insurmountable, but because the weight of my life doing a 180 was chaotic. So many new questions that I had to find answers for.
And there was no one who understood both sides. The business that needed to keep running and the human being who was barely holding it together.
I sought out two different therapists to help me balance this new chaos, anxiety and nervous system that felt like it kept electrocuting me, but neither understood the business pressure.
My accountant didn't understand the emotional weight, just looked down and said he was sorry. Then proceeded to ask me if I wanted him to update my marital status on CRA.
My business coach was empathetic but pushed back when I asked to take a pause in our sessions. She was still talking to me about growth goals while I was trying to remember how to get through the next hour.
I needed someone who got it. All of it. At the same time.
That person didn't exist.
So I became her.
After 12 years as a business coach — helping hundreds of entrepreneurs start, grow, scale and yes, sometimes close their businesses — I have made a decision about where my work is going next.
I am not walking away from everything I have built. I am walking toward the work I was always meant to do. The work that comes directly from the hardest chapters of my own life and the gap I have watched too many entrepreneurs fall into alone.
I am now a Business Triage and Stability Advisor — specifically for Canadian entrepreneurs navigating separation, divorce and relationship breakdown who are determined not to lose what they have built.
What this actually looks like
This is not therapy. It is not legal advice. It is not generic business coaching with a divorce disclaimer added on.
It is practical, human, in-the-trenches support for the business owner who is operating at 40% capacity and trying to protect a business that was built for 100%.
It looks like sitting down together and asking — what in this business genuinely needs your attention this week, and what can wait? It looks like building a triage plan that works at the capacity you actually have, not the capacity you think you should have. It looks like communication scripts for rescheduling clients, managing your team, and protecting your professional reputation while your personal life is in flux. It looks like someone in your corner who understands both the spreadsheet and the human being behind it.
I call the framework we work through the STEADY Framework — because when your life is falling apart, you don't need a growth plan. You need to get steady.
And the most important thing I want you to know is this.
Running a business through a separation or divorce is one of the hardest things an entrepreneur can do. The fact that you are still showing up — still opening that camera or going to meetings, still serving your clients, still holding your business together with whatever you have left — is not something to take for granted. It is extraordinary. And you deserve support that meets the full reality of what you are carrying.
READY TO TALK?
You don't have to figure this out alone
If Sarah's story felt familiar — for yourself or someone you know — I'd love to have a conversation. A free 30-minute discovery call. No obligation, no pitch. Just an honest talk about where you are and whether I can help.
And if you're not quite ready for a call, download the free STEADY Framework guide — a practical one-page tool for entrepreneurs who need to get steady before they can think about getting ahead.
Does Sarah's story resonate with you — or do you know someone who needs to read this?
Leave a comment below or share this post with someone who needs to know they're not alone. Every share puts this in front of one more Sarah who doesn't know yet that support exists.
Jodi Laking
Business Triage & Stability Advisor · Work Smart Canada
Jodi has spent 25+ years as an entrepreneur and 12 years as a business coach helping hundreds of Canadian business owners start, grow and protect what they have built.
She is the founder of Work Smart Canada and Your Business Executor and the creator of the STEADY Framework.
She helps Canadian entrepreneurs keep their businesses alive through separation, divorce and life disruption — because she has been there herself.