I ran an hourly recruiting business that generated nearly all of business from referrals. I never really figured out how to do outbound sales when charging for time. The thing that was great about inbound leads for my business was that closing the deal was easier because the customer had a pain point they need solved yesterday.

The business grew from just me to 15 people just from cash flow in 2 years. The thing that scared the crap out of me was I knew if to the referral pipeline dried up, I'd have 15 people to pay with no outbound sales process to keep them busy.

I had an opportunity to cash out and free myself of the angst associated with not being in control of where my business comes from. I took that check, taught myself to code for a couple years, and am now on employed as a dev.

There are plenty of days I question whether development is the right career for me, but I like it a lot more than I don't like it. There are zero days where I miss having to meet payroll for 15 people for a word of mouth business.