What if you were gone tomorrow?
About Your Business Executor
Helping Canadian business owners get organized, prepare for the unexpected, and protect the businesses they've worked so hard to build through practical education, structured planning, and guided business continuity preparation.
Most business owners spend years building their business.
Very few are shown how to prepare it for the unexpected.
Your Business Executor exists to change that.
Why This Work Exists
No one starts a business expecting that one day they may become seriously ill, be hospitalized, experience a life-changing accident, or pass away unexpectedly.
Yet these things happen every day.
When they do, spouses, adult children, business partners, employees, and professional advisors are often left trying to answer questions they've never been prepared to answer.
How does the business actually operate?
Who needs to be contacted first?
Where are important records kept?
How do we access the systems the business depends on?
What would the business owner want us to do?
Many people assume these answers already exist somewhere.
In reality, they often don't.
Most businesses—especially owner-operated businesses—depend heavily on one person.
Their knowledge.
Their relationships.
Their decisions.
Their experience.
When that person is suddenly unavailable, uncertainty can quickly become overwhelming.
Business preparedness isn't about expecting the worst.
It's about reducing uncertainty before someone else is forced to make difficult decisions on your behalf.
Our goal isn't just to help business owners prepare. Our goal is to become Canada's most trusted source of practical business preparedness guidance.
Why I Created Your Business Executor
Throughout my career, I've had the privilege of working alongside hundreds of business owners at every stage of the entrepreneurial journey — from people starting their very first business to established companies preparing for growth, transition, sale, or closure.
Over time, I began to notice a critical gap.
Business owners invested significant time planning how to start, grow, market, finance, and scale their businesses.
Very few had a plan for what would happen if they suddenly couldn't show up for their business.
Many had never documented how their business operated.
Many didn't have a will. [Many still don’t have their business listed in their will.]
Many had never discussed who would step in if they became seriously ill, were hospitalized, or passed away unexpectedly.
For businesses built around one owner, the operational knowledge often lived entirely in that person's head.
If something happened, spouses, adult children, business partners, employees, and professional advisors were often left trying to figure everything out in real time.
The more business owners I worked with, the more obvious this gap became. There was no practical process designed to help entrepreneurs organize their business, prepare the people around them, and create clear guidance before an unexpected life event occurred.
Then, in December 2024, my father passed away.
Like many families, we suddenly found ourselves navigating unfamiliar systems while trying to process an enormous personal loss.
We assumed there would be clear answers.
Instead, we discovered just how fragmented the process could be.
Banks had one process.
Government agencies had another.
Information online was often incomplete, contradictory, or simply incorrect.
Much of the responsibility naturally fell to my mom as executor while she was also grieving the loss of her husband.
Watching her try to navigate that experience reinforced something I had already been seeing professionally for years.
Preparation isn't just about protecting assets or organizing documents.
It's about reducing uncertainty.
It's about making difficult decisions easier for the people you care about.
It was in that moment that years of professional experience and one deeply personal experience came together.
The combination of more than two decades of working with entrepreneurs and this deeply personal experience led me to create Your Business Executor.
Today, I help Canadian business owners prepare for the unexpected through practical education, structured planning, and guided business continuity preparation — so the businesses they've worked so hard to build don't become an unnecessary burden for the people they care about most.
Meet Jodi Laking
I'm Jodi Laking, Founder of Your Business Executor.
I'm an entrepreneur, business consultant, and business preparedness and continuity specialist with more than 25 years of entrepreneurial experience, over 12 years helping business owners across Canada and internationally, and more than eight years as a Senior Business Development Officer with the City of Hamilton.
Throughout my career, I've worked alongside hundreds of entrepreneurs—helping them start, grow, scale, transition, sell, and close their businesses.
Before founding Your Business Executor, I spent more than a decade through my consulting practice, Work Smart Canada, helping entrepreneurs navigate every stage of business ownership.
Those experiences taught me something that business owners rarely hear:
We spend years learning how to build a business.
Almost no one teaches us how to prepare it for the unexpected.
That's the gap I'm passionate about helping business owners close.
Why Work With Me?
Business preparedness isn't something most entrepreneurs have experience with. It is a unique area of business planning.
It requires an understanding of entrepreneurship, business operations, professional planning, and the realities of running an owner-operated business.
That's where my experience is different.
I bring together more than 25 years of personal entrepreneurial experience, over 12 years helping business owners across Canada and internationally start, build, grow, transition, sell, and close businesses, and more than eight years as a Senior Business Development Officer with the City of Hamilton, where I supported entrepreneurs, business owners, and economic development initiatives across a wide range of industries.
Throughout my career, I've helped business owners:
start new businesses
develop business plans and growth strategies
navigate expansion and operational challenges
prepare for business transitions and succession
explore business sales and exits
close businesses in an organized and thoughtful way
Those experiences gave me a front-row seat to one recurring challenge:
Most business owners spend years building their business, but very few are shown how to prepare it for the unexpected.
Today, I bring those experiences together through Your Business Executor.
My role isn't to replace your lawyer, accountant, financial advisor, insurance professional, or other trusted advisors.
My role is to help you organize the operational side of your business, ask the questions that often go unasked, explain complex topics in plain language, and guide you through a practical planning process that supports both your business and the people around you.
Clients often tell me they appreciate that I:
explain complex topics in simple, practical language
understand the realities of running a small business
focus on progress instead of perfection
create personalized guidance rather than relying on generic templates
help them move from uncertainty to clarity—one decision at a time
Because preparing your business for the unexpected isn't something you should have to figure out alone.
The Business Executor Method™
Every service at Your Business Executor follows the same practical framework.
Not because every business is the same. Because every business owner deserves a clear place to begin.
Learn
Understand why business preparedness matters.
Learn the terminology, responsibilities, and practical steps involved in protecting your business.
Prepare
Organize the important information your business depends on.
Identify gaps, centralize key records, and build a strong preparedness foundation.
Plan
Build your customized Business Continuity Roadmap™.
Work through the important decisions about how your business should be managed if you're temporarily unavailable, unable to return, or pass away.
Protect
Prepare the people around you.
Whether that means sharing your completed roadmap with your spouse, business partner, key employee, estate trustee, attorney acting under a Power of Attorney, or engaging Business Executor Services, this final stage ensures the work you've completed can be understood and carried out if it's ever needed.
Business preparedness creates clarity when life becomes uncertain.
What Makes Your Business Executor Different?
Business preparedness sits at the intersection of many professions.
Lawyers prepare legal documents.
Accountants provide financial and tax guidance.
Insurance professionals help manage risk.
Financial advisors support long-term financial planning.
Each of these professionals plays an important role.
Your Business Executor complements—not replaces—their work.
My role is to help you organize the operational side of your business, prepare for important conversations with your professional advisors, and create practical guidance that brings everything together.
Think of it as the bridge between your business operations and your professional planning.
Who I Help
Your Business Executor works with Canadian business owners who are the primary decision-maker in their business, including:
Sole proprietors
Self-employed professionals
Incorporated owner-operators
Small businesses with approximately 1–20 employees
Whether you're just beginning to think about business preparedness or you're ready to build a complete Business Continuity Roadmap™, there's a service designed to meet you where you are.
The YBE Approach
Business preparedness doesn't need to be overwhelming.
You don't need to complete everything in one weekend.
You don't need to have all the answers before you begin.
You simply need a practical place to start.
That's why every service is designed to help you make steady, meaningful progress—whether you're learning the basics, getting organized, building your roadmap independently, or working with me every month through Your Business. Protected.
The goal isn't to finish quickly.
The goal is to finish well.
Our Commitment
We are committed to providing practical, accurate information grounded in Canadian business practices and Ontario-specific guidance where appropriate.
When topics require legal, accounting, tax, insurance, financial, or other regulated professional advice, we'll tell you — and encourage you to work with the appropriate qualified professional.
We believe business owners deserve clear answers, honest guidance, and practical next steps.
Beyond Working With Clients
One of my long-term goals for Your Business Executor is to build Canada's most trusted source of practical business preparedness guidance.
A place where business owners, spouses, adult children, attorneys acting under a Power of Attorney, estate trustees, and professional advisors can find practical, accurate information to help them navigate the operational side of a business during illness, incapacity, or after the death of a business owner.
While my consulting services focus on helping business owners prepare their businesses for the unexpected, I also believe individuals and families deserve access to practical, reliable information during some of life's most difficult moments.
Because during difficult times, people shouldn't have to sort through conflicting information while trying to figure out what to do next.
Over time, I will continue expanding the Knowledge Centre with articles, guides, checklists, glossaries, planning tools, and educational resources designed to help:
business owners
spouses and partners
adult children
attorneys acting under a Power of Attorney
estate trustees
families navigating illness, incapacity, or the loss of a loved one
My goal is simple.
To make trustworthy Canadian information easier to find, easier to understand, and easier to use when people need it most.
Ready to Begin?
No matter where you are in your preparedness journey, there's a place to start.
I'm honoured to help Canadian business owners prepare the businesses they've worked so hard to build — so the people they care about have greater clarity, confidence, and support if life takes an unexpected turn.
If you're ready to start your preparedness journey, I'd love to help.
Jodi Laking
Founder, Your Business Executor
Legal Notice
Your Business Executor provides business preparedness education, planning guidance, and business continuity consulting services.
Legal, accounting, tax, insurance, financial, estate planning, investment, and other regulated professional advice is not provided through these services. Clients are encouraged to seek advice from appropriately qualified professionals where required.