Every year, a good number of people dive into the seductive waters of self-employment and entrepreneurship, joining an impressive number of existing small-enterprise owners. According to the National Association for the Self-Employed, there are some 16-million self-employed individuals who own businesses in the United States. By most viewpoints, the statistics for small-business survival are daunting.

Veteran business owners share a common bond — even if they have nothing else in common beyond the experience of being self-employed and having created an enterprise, they have weathered the numerous challenges of startup and sustained entrepreneurship. As most will tell you, the experience becomes part of one's very soul. While challenges don't cease to arise, one's ability to more gracefully and confidently handle them does deepen with experience.

The full text of this article outlines four of the most common dilemmas that new entrepreneurs face as they take the leap into self-employment — feeling overwhelmed, feeling isolated and lonely, feeling frustrated about a seeming lack of response, and feeling anxious and out of sync — and offers both a perspective on each challenge and how it might be effectively navigated.