About Sonya Szabo, Business Lawyer and Strategic Partner
I help Canadian founders build real businesses, legally sound, strategically clear, and built to last.
Not just the legal part. All of it.
Why I understand business ownership from the inside.
I started as a passionate business owner who loved what she was building, including the parts most people dread. For seven years, I built and ran a coffee shop that I grew into a million-dollar restaurant operation. I managed staff, built systems, handled contracts, and genuinely enjoyed the operational side of running a business, in a way that I came to realize not everyone does. I read everything I could find and integrated it all. The structure and the strategy were never the scary part for me. They were the interesting part. I loved being a CEO.
What I understood from the inside, though, was the cost of carrying it all without the right support. The worry that you've done things right, that your agreements will hold, that one oversight won't undo everything you've worked to build. That underlying heaviness of being a CEO is real, regardless of how much you love the work.
I decided to go to law school while running the restaurant. It wasn't to leave business behind, but because I wanted to be the person who could give other founders the support and big-thinking strategy before the expensive lessons arrived.
How I help founders.
I've worked with enough businesses to see clearly what the ones who struggle are missing from the beginning. It's rarely one big thing. It's usually a combination of gaps, protections that aren't in place, a mindset that's still catching up to the scale of the vision, and no clear map from where they are to where they want to go.
That's what I work on with people.
I'm a futuristic thinker by nature and a practical executor by experience, and that combination most founders need on their side. When you work with me, you're getting someone who can see the whole picture, where your business is, where it's capable of going, and what's standing between those two things, and who can write out the practical steps to get you there.
Who I work best with.
There are two moments when working with me makes the most sense.
Founders who know they need support.
I work with founders who are wise enough to know they don't have to carry it all alone, and that having the right person in their corner isn't a weakness.
They know support is what makes the best businesses thrive.
Start-up Founders.
You are a good fit to work with me if you're just starting and you want to build it properly from day one. You're not interested in winging it and fixing it later. You want to act like a CEO from the beginning and you need someone who can help you see what that actually looks like.
Founders in transition.
You’re also a good fit to work with me when you're standing at a threshold. A new offer, a new brand, a new identity as a business owner, and you're not quite sure how it all fits together or what the path forward looks like. You're not lost. You're actually very clear on what you want. You just need someone who can see it with you, tell you honestly what it's going to take, and help you build the map.
My credentials, briefly.
Bachelor’s in Business Administration, JD (law degree) from Queen’s, member in good standing with the Law Society of Ontario, certificates in intellectual property, negotiation, graphic design, marketing and entertainment law. Once upon a time, I got an Early Childhood Education degree, which means I know how to explain complex things simply without making anyone feel like they should already know them. My street cred includes 7 years running a million-dollar business, 4 years running a successful large event-planning business, 4 years in outreach, and homeschooling my kids.
I’m also a lot human.
I love green tea and coffee equally, have travelled to 39 countries and counting, call myself a birdwatcher watcher, married for more than a quarter century, empty nester, loudest cheerleader for founders who want both profit and peace and don't apologize for it.
Work with Sonya Szabo: two ways to start.
If you're at the beginning or standing at a threshold, a Strategy Session is where we start. One hour, a written action plan, and a clear picture of what comes next.
Or if you want to build your foundation one week at a time, join The Loophole, my free weekly newsletter for Canadian solopreneurs.