Anyone else deliberately staying small and not chasing scale?

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There is no right way, everyone has a different path and threshold for stress. Do what makes sense for you.

100% this. I run a small consultancy, eight people, and the number of times I've been asked "so when are you scaling up?" is wild. Like staying profitable and actually enjoying what I do is somehow not enough. A friend of mine went the VC route and within two years he was basically a middle manager in his own company. Couldn't make decisions without board approval, had to hit growth targets that didn't even make sense for their market. He sold his share last year and said he wished he'd just kept it small. I think there's this weird pressure, especially online, that growth equals success. But if your team is happy, clients are taken care of, and you're not losing sleep over payroll every month, that IS the win. Not everyone needs to build the next unicorn.

I've never even hired employees. I never wanted the added stress of managing, hiring, and firing. My goal has always been to making a living and that's what I've done over 2 decades. Gone are the days where I worked all hours of the day, 7 days a week and I'm happy to have reached that point.

I'm in that bucket. I aspire to double my business, but at a modest pace, one there I would want to put a lot of things on cruise control and not chase growth as much. I have a team of 3, if we doubled and I had a team of 6 I could get to a place where I could mainly just do the work I enjoy and hand a lot of the other stuff off. I have a competitor that does similar niche work, his goal is the opposite, rapid expansion, a presence in every major city etc etc. They are the only company in our niche market that is working on a global scale. I am not jealous of them or anyone on their team. Also from what I hear, peoples experience with them is 50/50 compared to working with select vendors(like us) in each city where our clients get a more white gloved boutique service.

I've gone the same route as you and it's worked out great. Being able to go at your own pace is such a blessing for not loosing your mind in the long run.

Your line about being able to travel while the business keeps running is the best signal in your post. Six people, remote, profitable, and no investor pressure is a healthy setup, so growth can stay optional and only happen when it protects that lifestyle.

I do. I am very skilled at my craft of jewelry design. I sell online and have minimal expenses from my home studio. My wife manages the business and we work 20 hours maximum a week. When I had a successful bricks and mortar store in the 90s, I worked a minimum of 60 hours a week. You don't own a store, it owns you. Since 1998, I have worked from home and no more than 20 hours. From 98 to 2012, I made enough commission selling at trade shows to only work around 20 days a year. I was selling cad cam machinery and software to jewelers. Then I opened my online store in 2012. I use the tech I sold to create my work. We once hired a guy to turbocharge our sales and the marketing he did worked right away. But he wanted a big chunk and while we benefitted, it would have pushed us into working a lot more hours, hiring staff, and being owned by the business once again. Have you ever read the parable of the Mexican Fisherman? That is the best advice I can point you to. That is our lifestyle.