This is a guest post from Holly Jackson, who has valiantly offered to write stuff while I’m cavorting with my pinko comrades.

One of the best pieces of advice I was ever given about running a business came early on, from a virtual stranger on Twitter. “Congratulations, and you’ll know you’ve made it when you start sabotaging yourself and your business,” they tweeted in reply to my triumphant announcement of something or other.

I remember being really annoyed at the time by the response, thinking I couldn’t possibly ever become like that. I was new, I was different, and I would never do something as stupid as screw up my business. I felt like an explorer, discovering a brand new world and gleefully hacking my way through the marketing forest. I couldn’t imagine feeling any other way about my new venture, or my work habits.

Cut to me sitting around on my netbook the other day, and coming to a shocking and horrible revelation: I hadn’t even tried to submit a guest blog since February. For someone who runs a writing business, that’s a pretty disastrous statistic, especially since I’d spent the first three months submitting and getting accepted. It wasn’t conscious avoidance either; it was just always really easy to convince myself that I should spend my free time rewriting my about page for the eighth time, or creating a new mailing list idea, or taking the dog for his fourth walk of the day.

I, too, was self-sabotaging, and it was hurting my business.

When I really sat down to think about it, I realized that something bigger was in play. Mostly, the fact that whenever I thought about submitting another guest blog, I felt like my stomach had relocated to a boat in bad weather, and someone was stomping on my chest. I didn’t have any real reason to feel this way either, since I’d had guest blog pieces accepted before. And then, I had my second horrible realization.

I didn’t want to submit a guest post because I was scared shitless of not knowing the outcome.

I knew I could write a good post but I was terrified of being rejected. Every guest post I’d submitted so far had been accepted. The fear of failing – of putting that effort in and not having it rewarded – was too much.

Not only was I scared, but that fear was powerful enough to create four months of procrastination, indecision, and business issues. All from that one little voice in my head saying, “But what if it doesn’t work?”

I think this voice is really the embodiment of the two big fears that small business owners have: the fear of failing, and the fear of not knowing what will happen. There’s all this stuff on the internet about how failing is part of running a business, and we all sit there and read it and nod sagely, like we’re experts and have become one with the business building process. But really, when it comes down to it, the idea of failure as a learning experience is only easy to take if you’re applying it to other people.

If you think about trying new things and failing at them yourself? Welcome to that gnawing pit in your stomach.

There are so many things that you discover when you start a business, but there are three big ones that every ittybiz owner should have tattooed somewhere before they start (preferably without a semicolon).

1. Fear (and rejection) are something that you sign up for when you start a business.
2. The first time you fail, it feels like you’ve failed at everything. After that, it’s all uphill from there.
3. Running an ittybiz (even when you’re making money) is fucking scary.

If you can acknowledge all of these things and accept that they will happen to you sooner rather than later, well, then you’re probably a good candidate to run an ittybiz. That said, stock up on Tums anyway. You’ll probably need them.

Holly Jackson is the owner of Cottage Copy. This week, she’s offering ten new discount website packages to celebrate her recent business expansion.