Thank you. The advice about explaining your need to scale is great. I've made them aware that we currently don't service accounts of their scale but we can scale up. If talks proceed I'll be sure to expand on this.

Thanks very much for the email offer, I will take you up on that (putting out a fire right now though).

Thanks for your advice. Your suggestion re: success businesses with manual, redundant workflows is great food for thought!

Thank you. I felt a little dark when I knew things were going to end badly, but surprisingly I don't feel bad now that things are over. I feel slightly excited and interested in what the next opportunity might be, but as I said originally, I feel creatively burnt out and don't seem to have the critical analysis needed right now to figure out what to do next.

I hope things are working out for you now (mental health wise).

Thanks!

Thanks. I do need to forget about things but I also feel I need to feel as if I've earnt a paycheck. Does that make sense? I have not "won any bread" for the last 4 years and even some casual hours doing unskilled labor, I think, might make me feel energized.

I totally understand. Personally I would do some contracting. Having somebody tell you what to do and making some money without much stress can be good for the soul for a while.

I would expect contractors to be let go and/or contracts not refreshed at the nearest decision point at nearly all companies.

Thank you. I think just spending a few weeks doing some maintenance jobs around the house and yard is what I need.

Thanks! I might take this advice. I can certainly spend a week or two doing general maintenance in the yard and around the house.

Thanks, but not really practical for us (2 kids in school and partner with great career and tenure).

We do live frugally however which is how I was able to start the business in the first place. We traveled a lot when we were younger but now we live what many would probably call a "boring" life. We're anti-consumerist, minimalists I suppose and we're happy with that ;-)

Wow, I've just woken up to a bunch of new comments. Thanks everyone!

Thanks. TBH I think the niche was to small, the problem was too hard, the solution was too complex, the audience was too hard to connect with.

The niche can be served but I'm not sure it can be served and make a living from it. There are other competitors (without our USPs) but they're backed by universities so it's not clear if they're "stand alone" viable either. Thanks for your advice!

If be interested to know a bit more about how you are overcoming the field of dreams problem.