Roughly six years ago, I started a side hustle as a freelance medical writer. It grew and grew, to the point that I eventually quit my day job. Recently, I've found myself struggling a bit with how much I really want to work. Up until now, the goal has been growgrowgrow, but now I don't know if I want to grow, stay where I am, or scale back a bit. I should make ~$120k this year working an average of 30-35 hrs/wk.
Some background: My husband has a somewhat conventional job, so working from home and the flexibility that brings make me the de facto primary parent/housekeeper/etc. Daughter is in elementary school and involved in acrobatics and violin, so I handle lesson transport and daily violin practice. I also do most of the housework and "household management." We're roughly 7 years from FIRE if I keep working at my current rate and husband continues his current job.
My newer clients pay me well (roughly $1/word), but I have some older clients who pay me much less (in the range of $0.25/word). Dropping the older, lower-paying clients seems an easy way to scale back a bit (I'd ask them for more $$ first, but they have a set pay structure and I don't think they could accommodate that)....but I've been working with some of them for 5 years. They feel like friends at this point, which probably means emotion is clouding my decision and I know that's not a good thing. But there's also something to be said for a client who has been giving me steady work for 5 years, vs. some of my new clients with whom I've been working for a year or less.
I've considered possibly taking on an employee, but that sounds like a daunting task. I think the amount of editing I'd feel obligated to do would negate the benefits of outsourcing the writing.... unless I could find someone really awesome, but then they'd want the pay and their own byline, I'd imagine.
My goal post-FIRE is to complete my state's Master Naturalist program and get involved in some fun nature-based volunteer projects. That desire would be my primary driver behind cutting back - I'd love to start that now instead of waiting for FIRE. At the same time, though, I wonder whether I'd really feel comfortable continuing to send our daughter to afterschool care several days a week, just so I can go volunteer somewhere (you know, mom guilt... blahblahblah). Ultimately, I wonder if working a little less at this stage in our lives would just mean more time spent doing mom/wife/domestic things, in which case I'd probably rather just hurry along to FIRE.
It's hard to discuss this with people who aren't self-employed because they don't usually have control over their own schedule, but hopefully someone in here will have some insight!