I'm a generalist with a longer career and similar-ish pattern to you who has worked with mostly large organizations, but I ran and sold my family's small engineering business, and have kept coding for myself in multiple ways the whole time.
I would not assume that individuals working as specialists for 10 years in a field are actually specialists. Too frequently I encounter individuals who have plateaued while their peers have actually become true specialists. There are many reasons why this happens, but rightly or wrongly, many specialists aren't what you might think they are. I'm sure a lot are actually anxious about their own abilities.
I'd personally suggest evaluating whether you are able to better set boundaries. Making a progressive change to your role is often a possibility but it needs understanding and navigation. That way you can keep what you like and get more of what you want. Switching to just being a senior developer as you've framed it might not be actually what you want, and there are alternatives to get what you want.
On starting your own business you have to come to terms with not doing everything. If you are successful you will get away from anything that is originally fun and desirable. A senior developer mentors folks and derives satisfaction from that activity. The trade-off is often less focused coding and delivery. They are technical leaders with more flexibility in how their work may look.
Your observation on running a business is good, but the key is the feelings that you'll have. If you are too tied actually doing particular tasks versus running a business you'll not be able to succeed. Also, be careful about putting down enterprise app developers. They often have a side gig outside of work that the stability enables. They also know how certain parts of big businesses function which would give your business a leg up. Startup people have good talk about product-market fit, but there are many companies you don't hear about being acquired which involve some enterprise software product that a startup would never land on. That said, the upsides to the approach are different.
I would not assume that individuals working as specialists for 10 years in a field are actually specialists. Too frequently I encounter individuals who have plateaued while their peers have actually become true specialists. There are many reasons why this happens, but rightly or wrongly, many specialists aren't what you might think they are. I'm sure a lot are actually anxious about their own abilities.
I'd personally suggest evaluating whether you are able to better set boundaries. Making a progressive change to your role is often a possibility but it needs understanding and navigation. That way you can keep what you like and get more of what you want. Switching to just being a senior developer as you've framed it might not be actually what you want, and there are alternatives to get what you want.
On starting your own business you have to come to terms with not doing everything. If you are successful you will get away from anything that is originally fun and desirable. A senior developer mentors folks and derives satisfaction from that activity. The trade-off is often less focused coding and delivery. They are technical leaders with more flexibility in how their work may look.
Your observation on running a business is good, but the key is the feelings that you'll have. If you are too tied actually doing particular tasks versus running a business you'll not be able to succeed. Also, be careful about putting down enterprise app developers. They often have a side gig outside of work that the stability enables. They also know how certain parts of big businesses function which would give your business a leg up. Startup people have good talk about product-market fit, but there are many companies you don't hear about being acquired which involve some enterprise software product that a startup would never land on. That said, the upsides to the approach are different.