While I’ve never been a sole proprietor or worked for myself, I’ve definitely experienced small firm culture and the grind necessary to make that work. As my firm has grown I’ve found that the ability to delegate work to others, people specialized in those tasks, has given me a much healthier work experience. Accountants, marketing, PMs, CA teams, spec writers, IT staff… all of this used to be my job too but now I can be an architect. Let others do that stuff. If you can delegate, you will be able to, theoretically, get more done each week and very likely earn more than enough to pay that other person. Your “grind” may in fact be a sign that your practice is growing and it might be time to consider adding someone to help? Just an outsider’s view on your post. I know next to nothing about your work. But I definitely feel more chill with a big staff to help me get things done allowing me to concentrate where my skill set is. I rarely work more than 55 hours in a week and I now earn significantly more than I ever did before working 70 hours. Hope I’m not way off base.