Dear FoundHer · Episode 375 · October 27, 2026 · 25 min
Running a Business Through My Breast Cancer Diagnosis: What I Paused, What I Kept and What It Cost Me
What happens to my business if I get sick? Most female business owners avoid that question until life forces an answer. Lindsay Pinchuk, host of Dear FoundHer and an acquired entrepreneur who grew her first company from $500 to seven figures, had 17 days between a stage zero breast cancer diagnosis and surgery. As a solopreneur with limited support and no one to take over her client-facing responsibilities, she needed a business continuity plan for her small business, and fast. This episode shows leadership under pressure in real time. Lindsay explains why she pushed the application launch for Marketing Made Simple, her year-long mentorship, to January and the new cohort's start to February. It was one of the hardest financial decisions she made all year. She shares the 21-day partnership sprint she wrote before surgery and the retreat that replaced most of the anticipated mentorship revenue, though at a lower profit margin. Every choice came back to one rule she set on day one. Lindsay teaches founders to keep a bank of evergreen content for sustainable business growth. That habit kept her podcast, Substack, and Instagram running while she was offline, even as she let LinkedIn go quiet. She is honest about the emotional resilience it took to sit still and the decision-making behind who she told and when. Listen now for the one-page step-away plan Lindsay wants every solo founder to write this week. Four lists: Keep, pause, prep, tell. Then put it where someone else can find it. It is a simple business continuity plan you can create now, before anything goes wrong. Episode Breakdown: 00:00 Lindsay’s diagnosis and why every founder should listen 02:25 The solopreneur question most founders avoid 04:36 Pushing Marketing Made Simple to January 09:13 Building a 21-day partnership sprint instead 11:27 One-on-one sessions and three new funnels 13:05 What kept running and what stopped 15:57 Evergreen content banks and canceled events 17:15 Deciding who to tell and when 20:41 How a retreat replaced most lost revenue 22:58 Your one-page business continuity plan for small business Connect with Lindsay: Follow Lindsay on Instagram Follow Dear FoundHer on Instagram Subscribe to Dear FoundHer on Substack Grab the brand new content process I learned throughout this process Podcast production and show notes provided by HiveCast.fm Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.