IPO? Investor? Sell the business? or what?

I'm a programmer who started a business 2 years ago and its bringing in good
living money. I'm doing pretty good considering that I don't market or
advertise the business (all word of mouth).
But I want to take it to another level. I have no extra money besides the
money that I am using for living ($9k/mo at best - $3k/mo at worst). The
problem is that I need money to expand, to grow, to hire programmers for
some projects and so on. I don't have money to take a company public. I
don't have good credit. I don't want an investor to tell me how to run the
business. I can do some kind of equity deal and give away most of my
business to someone who has the ability to put it in gear... I've already
spent a lot of money and time looking at this option but I don't want
someone else to be in total charge of making decisions. I want to make the
decisions regardless of how much of the company I own - because I know my
business and I feel that someone else wouldn't know the first thing about
it... what options do I have?
I have the business listed for sale. I'm just trying to get a handle on how
I can run this thing in case it doesn't sell (Ross, I know you're reading
this!)

Thanks,
Rich