So, hi I guess.

As anyone reading this will quickly realise, I'm new to this. And when I say 'this' I'm not just talking about blogging.

Three months ago I decided to start my own business. Since then I've discovered a whole new set of challenges, emotions, talents and, quite frankly, personal failings I had no idea existed. I'm just hoping the old adage of whatever doesn't kill you makes you stronger proves true.

A particular biggie on the 'new emotion' front has been Frustration, one big source of which has been that I can't tell many people about my entrepreneurial ambitions. It wouldn't sit well with my current employer and would probably mean the end of my job.

My solution is to start a blog. I'm hoping it will give me the opportunity to share some of my start-up angst in anonymous, secret squirrel style.

Of course, I'm rapidly discovering that starting a blog brings a whole new set of paranoid angsts. What if no one reads it? What if people do read it but think I'm boring? How would I feel knowing there are hundreds of strangers out there, all across the world, who all read my blog and judge me 'boring'!?

Right now - hopefully not for too much longer - I work in advertising, so I’ve been institutionally conditioned to fear ‘boring’; it’s social leprosy.

As a child I didn't keep a diary. Whenever I looked over what I'd penned the day before I was shocked by just how mundane and insignificant the entry was. I blushed with the tediousness of my own pre-adolescent pretentiousness. And there's still a big chunk of my psyche that's screaming at me as a type; 'what the hell are you doing! They'll laugh I tell you, laugh!'

Still, the first thing I learnt when looking to start my own business is that you just have to get over any worries you have about people laughing at you. Because they will - your parents, your friends, potential suppliers. Even your cat will occasionally throw you a little narrow-eyed curl of the lip.

In fact, laughter has been one the best reactions I've had so far. The worst, and most common, is the 'well it's sweet that you still have dreams' smile that people give you when they don't want to crush your idea but are obviously thinking that throwing in a £50k a year job to focus on a hobby is just a little bit naive.

So that's what this blog is going to be about - the reality of taking that naive, slightly demented step into the unknown world of starting my own business. I'm not quite sure how it'll turn out (the blog rather than the business, though it's true for both), but it's likely to be a collection of the emotional and the practical. The why as well as the how. I'm as likely to cover the intricacies of tax codes for sole traders as what it's like to wake up at 4am in a cold sweat wondering if everyone you know thinks you're a looser.

Let me know if there's anything I should include. Like I said, I'm new to this, so all advice is welcome! Here goes...