Long story short: I was a software engineer making good money, but was constantly miserable because of shallowness of the work and the big corp soulessness. I also didn’t have much opportunity for career growth mainly due to the slow outsourcing most of our team to Serbia. I had also always dreamed since college of starting my own business, and putting my other skills to use.

I learned about the senior care space and was approached by a reputable franchise, and after a lot of discernment, put a large amount of our savings in to start our office here in central Texas and subsequently quit my job. Doors opened in Feb so I’m about 4 months into operations. It’s just me right now running a team of caregivers. I only have 2 clients.

I’m learning customer service, hiring, firing, management, biz ops, and probably most difficult for me—sales & marketing, from scratch. I put in 80-100 hours a week.

I waited to get my loan and didn’t realize without cash flow I wouldn’t get it, so now I can’t hire another office staff member or I’ll burn through my savings too quickly. So right now without hiring someone, I have 12-15 month runway from today.

My spouse doesn’t work and cares for kids, so everything rides on me.

It is the most brutal thing I’ve ever done. Way harder than I expected. I didn’t realize how coddled software professionals were. I’m slowly burning out. I often imagine I would almost rather lose all the investment and go back to the cushy desk if this is going to be my life. I had so much more free time.

A lot of people have told me I have to stick with it and keep marketing (referral visits), which is my number one way of driving business, even though I find it exhausting and demoralizing. Maybe it gets better with practice and experience?

I don’t know what I’m looking for or what I need. Maybe someone who’s been through it? Is this really worth it? It’s hard to accept my new life especially since the end of this season seems years away at least with no guarantee of success.