The good news is: you built a functioning system!

Within thay structure, there is likely much room to make it much more tolerable, even freeing.

I say good news, because many people manage to have both a restrictive structure and a failimg business.

So you'rs already halfway there, and frankly, you've done the hard half.

What you need do is figure out how mucn actually depends on you. Likely far less than you think.

Then, once you've done that, figure out how to have the other responsibilities taken care of otherwise.

For a couple of days, track everything you do and how long it takes you. If that doesn't capture the variety, do it for a week.

Then look it all over, and classify it. It is:

* something only you could do
* something someone else could do (well enough, even if you'd be better)
* actually unnecessary. (You'd be surprised how much stuff doesn't matter)

Then, you focus on:

1. Eliminating the unncessary
2. Identifying who could do the stuff in the second category, and create processes for them to follow.
3. Then you're just left with the essential. If you do ateps 1 and 2 well, you can then switch to replacing your higher level functions.

Pretend you're the acquiring company, and your (the founder) have quit abruptly. How does the acquiring company run things? They are surely under no illusion that you are an irreplaceable part of the business.

You might need a vacation, or a break, as others suggest. (You will eventually, for sure). But I find that when I get overwhelmed, addressing some of the stuff above is the biggest stress reliver.

I do find a week of comparative isolation helps for this task though. (Actually, removing yourself from the office periodically can be a good way to digure out what has to be done. Feix Denniss wrote this is how stuff ended up delegated from him)

Strongly recommended reading:

The Four Hour Workweek
The e myth revisited
This: https://sivers.org/delegate
And this, as a caution: https://sivers.org/abdicate

Re the four hour workweek: selectively read this one. You're obviously not about to found an automated business from scratch. You're instead trying to make an existing operation less dependent on you.

So read for that purpose. It is an incredibly productive book if read the right way.

I run a business without employees, so take all this with a small grain of salt. I've been there with the overwhelm, but you have responsibilities I don't.

But I believe the above method will apply to your situation. You can turn your business from a drain to one with far more autonomy. It will be good preparation for phasing yoursef out with the acquistion.

Trust me, if you can make it to the other side, it's worth it. To decide every day what you want to do is an incredible freedom.

You do not get that as a walmart clerk. But if you've built a successful business and just need to optimize it, you are surprisingly close to a very free life.

Edit: Just reread and spotted the bit about domain knowledge. I'm in a bit of a similar situation in that the work I do is highly specific. For growth, I basically can't hire anyone to do part of what I do.

But, for all the admin work, I can, so I outsourced most of it.

For developer retention, I'd reach out to other software business owners in your city, and ask them how they do it. But that's likely a later stage thing. There are probably easier to deletate components you can take care
of first.