How to recover mentally after shutting down a business
Closing a failed business drains your savings, leaves you in debt, and causes a deep loss of motivation that spills over into your personal relationships. This heavy financial strain and burnout stops you from feeling marketable or confident when facing the prospect of returning to a traditional job.
What the numbers show
Counted from the threads quoted below. How we count
- The most recent one is from October 2026.
- This comes up 21.6× more often in r/smallbusiness than across the site as a whole.
What people tried
Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.
Found another way around this?
Share your steps and trade-offs so fellow engineers don't have to reinvent the wheel. No account required.
- 1Taking a job at a small firm to cover billsDid this help you?
- 2relying on unemployment, severance, and savings to build a 2-year runwayDid this help you?
- 3putting on a good face for familyDid this help you?
- 4seeking therapy or focusing on mental and physical healthDid this help you?
- 5ramping up job applications and trying to stay busyDid this help you?
- 6Trying to work harder and smarter to turn things aroundDid this help you?
- 7Lowering expectations in lifeDid this help you?
- 8Taking a break or trying to pivotDid this help you?
- 9Advertising and attempting to rebuild the existing businessDid this help you?
- 10Putting operational systems in placeDid this help you?
- 11Trying to start something in a completely different industryDid this help you?
- 12Looking for alternative employmentDid this help you?
In their words
Unedited, grouped by where they were said, most upvoted first within each place, each linked to the thread it came from.
“The feelings of failure are worse each day the constant doubt and guilt are taking a toll on me.”source ↗
“Im stuggling right now but i put on a good face for my family as i cant show them the hell im going through.”source ↗
“The stress on me is overwhelming.”source ↗
“If I fail and run out of cash, I will need to apply to get an accounting job but I'm a bit concerned that I won't be marketable as I would've been out of the job for 2 years.”source ↗
“The little savings I had are basically gone. The business isn’t generating enough. And the jobs I’ve been able to find don’t really provide enough to sustainably support my family.”source ↗
“What scares me most is that I’ve spent almost two years trying to recover and I still feel like I’m standing in the same place.”source ↗
Where this came up
People with this problem also raised
- 6How to get back to work after a toxic job destroyed your confidence
- 5How to rebuild credit and pay off debt after a medical crisis
- 3How to find a new business idea after shutting down a company
- 2Feeling completely lost and bored after selling my business
- 2How to recover financially after losing savings in trading
- 6How to repair your reputation at work after crying or losing control