There are plenty of couples in the design industry who build a business together and, despite the inevitable challenges, it works out. Just as common, though less publicized: It doesn’t. So it was with Toronto-based designer Ashley Montgomery, whose husband joined her firm a few years in to handle operations and accounting. At first, it went well. Then came the pandemic, which led to both explosive growth for the business—she was in demand all over North America, and her work got picked up by the big national shelter publications—and new stresses at home.

“I was burning the candle at both ends, trying to keep up family life while also feeling like I was killing myself taking red-eye flights and going here and there, and that’s where the resentment started,” Montgomery tells host Dennis Scully on the latest episode of The Business of Home Podcast. “The bigger the business got, the more resentment there was. … When we got home, our conversations were about work, and we kind of lost who we were as a romantic couple. Everything was talking about business and work and staff, and it just became too much.”

Montgomery and her husband went through a difficult period of dissolving both their personal and their professional relationship, and it was full of lessons (a big one: Don’t enter into a 50-50 ownership structure in your own business). Now that the dust has settled, she has emerged with an appreciation for new aspects of her work. “[Before the split], I knew what was happening with my design team, but I didn’t know what was happening in terms of money coming in, money going out, who’s owing invoices, who hasn’t been sent invoices, what are we investing in, what are we not investing in,” she says. “That’s taken me the better part of a year and a half to kind of get myself back into. … [Now] I enjoy the business operations.”

Elsewhere in the episode, Montgomery discusses how she navigates the differences between American and Canadian projects; her forthcoming debut book from Rizzoli; and why moving from a home office to a studio transformed her business.

Crucial insight: Early on in her career, Montgomery didn’t charge a markup on product. She doesn’t regret it. “If I passed along my discounts, which was very taboo, then I got to create these spaces with a much wider budget,” she recalls. “You’re sitting there going, ‘I want to use this light so badly—it’ll make this space gorgeous; or I can make a couple thousand bucks.’ … If I got one word-of-mouth referral from it, or one client signed on because they saw it on Pinterest or Instagram, I’ve paid myself quadruple what I would have made off of that one light fixture.”

To be clear, she charges a markup now: “You’ve got to kind of put the money to the side [at first], grow that passion, get those pieces in there, grow your portfolio, and then get to a point where it’s like, ‘OK, let’s start making money now.’”

Key quote: “It took a long time for me to get to a point that I could speak openly about [my divorce]. I’m still learning to speak openly about it, but what I have learned by speaking openly is I’m not the only one going through this. There are lots of young entrepreneurial females who are also in this boat. And it’s a hard thing to talk about because you often associate it with failure. But it’s not failure. You were able to stand up for yourself and say, ‘This isn’t working.’”

This episode is sponsored by Loloi and Blu Dot. Listen to the show below. If you like what you hear, subscribe on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.

The Thursday Show

Host Dennis Scully and BOH executive editor Fred Nicolaus discuss the biggest news in the design world, including the latest on tariffs, positive results from home retailers, and a look at whether designers and brands can be sued for posting to Instagram. Later, Tim and Bo Stump of M&A advisory firm Stump & Company join the show to talk about the state of the furniture industry.

This episode is sponsored by Ernesta. Listen to the show below. If you like what you hear, subscribe on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.