How My Business Became the Foundation of My Next Chapter
Two years before my divorce, I did something that felt equal parts brave and reckless: I left my full-time job to start my own business. I had no idea, at the time, that this young business — still finding its footing — would end up being one of the things that held me together when my marriage didn't. I didn't build it to survive a divorce. But it's part of what let me survive mine.
There were nights during that period when I didn't feel like I was succeeding at either one. The business was young. The divorce was hard. And somewhere underneath both of those things was a quieter, harder question: could I actually do this on my own?
I want to share what I learned, because I know I'm not the only one who has started — or restarted — a business in the middle of a divorce. I see it constantly in my work now: women who, in the wreckage of a marriage ending, find themselves building something of their own for the first time. Sometimes it's out of necessity. Sometimes it's an act of rediscovery. Often, it's both. And almost every time, there's a piece nobody prepared them for: now you're also running the finances of a business, alone, often for the first time.
You're more capable than you feel on the hard nights
I want to say this first, because it matters more than any spreadsheet: on the nights when everything felt like presumed failure — the marriage, the business, all of it — I was more capable than I believed myself to be. I didn't feel that way at the time. I felt it much later, looking back. If you're in the middle of it right now, you may not be able to see your own capability yet either. That's normal. It doesn't mean it isn't there.
The business became a source of strength, not just a source of stress
Somewhere in the middle of the hardest stretch, something shifted. My business stopped being one more thing I was barely holding together, and it became the thing that held me. Being able to support myself — and my three children — through work that was mine gave me a kind of strength I hadn't expected to find in the middle of a divorce. It became part of how I put myself back together, not a distraction from it.
Being the only one meant I couldn't afford to ignore the finances
My career has always been in accounting. But running my own business, with no one else to catch what I missed, taught me something my career alone hadn't: when you're the only one providing, you don't get to be casual about the money. For me, "being on top of it" meant a handful of very specific things:
Keeping my personal and business finances completely separate — separate accounts, no blurring the lines, even when it would have been easier in the moment not to bother.
Invoicing promptly, every time — not letting the discomfort of asking for payment delay getting paid for the work I'd already done.
Following up on collections — because unpaid invoices don't pay bills, and I couldn't afford to let awkwardness cost me income.
Staying closely aware of my business expenses — knowing where the money was going, not just where it was coming from.
Running my business reports regularly — not once a year at tax time, but often enough to actually know where I stood.
Never ignoring the finances — because they weren't abstract numbers. They were my livelihood, and my children's.
None of this was glamorous. Most of it was just consistency, applied on the days I didn't feel like it. But it's also exactly what made the business something I could rely on, instead of one more source of uncertainty in a season that already had plenty.
The business became part of my foundation, not a footnote to my divorce
If you're building or rebuilding a business right now while you're also rebuilding a life, I want you to know: the risk is real, and so is what's on the other side of it. My business, with all its risk, became part of the very foundation of my next chapter — not something that happened despite the divorce, but something that helped carry me through it and into who I am now.
You don't have to have it all figured out. You don't need to be an accountant to run a financially healthy business — you just need a few honest habits, applied consistently, and the willingness to actually look at your numbers instead of avoiding them. That's where the strength really comes from: not from knowing everything, but from staying on top of what you can control, one report, one invoice, one decision at a time.
Joselyn "Josy" Martinez is the founder and CEO of Balance Financial Solutions, a fractional CFO and bookkeeping firm serving women business owners. She has more than 20 years of accounting experience and built her own business through — and beyond — her own divorce.
Please note that the blogpost above does not represent the thoughts or opinions of Fresh Start Registry and solely represents the original author’s perspective.