What Divorce Does To a
Homebased Business Owner

Through the years, many of my home-business friends have written to me after going through a divorce from a spouse who once played an integral role in the business. One woman who for years had run a successful publishing business out of her home wrote to me a year after she had separated from her husband, commenting on the impact this change had made in both her personal and home-business life. Of course she wishes to remain anonymous. - Ed.


 My husband continues with our original company while I am trying to develop a second company I started earlier, and this is splitting the energy, efforts, income and momentum in so many ways. Right now, things are slow as I am torn in so many directions. 

Recuperating from this kind of lifestyle change is difficult at any age—emotionally, physically and financially—but it is especially difficult when you're past 50. At this point, I am trying to understand and comprehend that this is now my life and I can do anything I want (if only I knew what it was). Increasingly, I am learning to think of my own needs, which is exciting and wonderfully energizing. I am growing and changing dramatically, learning finally to like myself as I am and what a feeling that is!

I had to leave to grow up in so many ways. I even enjoy the pain of sadness, regrets, anger, bitterness, self-pity, since I recognize it as an essential part of growing up. Sometimes I sit in wonder at the courage and reckless sense of adventure it took for me to actually do what I had contemplated for so long. I hope to be like a phoenix and rise again.

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