You know you have something worth saying, experience worth sharing and that you’re good at what you do. Yet the post stays in your drafts. You rewrite the website copy again. You decide the video needs another take, or that you’ll talk about your new offer once you feel a little more confident.
This is the kind of self-doubt people often describe as imposter syndrome and, if you’re an entrepreneur, it might sound very familiar.
You may question whether you’re as capable as other people think, put your successes down to luck or timing, or worry that becoming more visible will expose everything you believe you’re missing. Sooner or later, you think, someone is going to notice.
For an entrepreneur or small business owner, that self-doubt can affect much more than how confident you feel. It can shape how clearly you talk about your work, whether you share your ideas and how easy it is for people to understand what you offer.
Psychologists Pauline Clance and Suzanne Imes first described the impostor phenomenon in 1978. They observed it among high-achieving women who, despite clear evidence of their success, believed they had somehow deceived the people around them.
Why it can feel so personal when you are the business
When you work inside a large organisation, the organisation carries some of the trust and reputation. You’re doing your job, but you’re not usually expected to be the whole brand.
When you are the business, it can feel very different.
You may have created the offer, written the words and made every important decision. Your values, ideas and personality are often part of why people choose to work with you. When you show up in someone’s feed or put yourself forward, it can feel as though the business and the person are the same thing.
That can be a real strength. It can also make the line between what you do and who you are feel very thin.
When somebody questions your price, it may not feel like a neutral question about money. It may feel as though they don’t think you are worth it. When a potential client chooses someone else, it can feel like a judgement of you personally.
This is part of what can make visibility difficult. You’re not simply putting a product on a shelf. You may feel as though you’re putting part of yourself in front of people and waiting to see how they respond.
The stakes feel personal because, in some ways, they are. But for many small businesses, visibility matters. People need enough opportunities to discover what you do, understand how you can help and remember you when they need you.
When you go quiet, it becomes harder for the right people to find you.
What the research shows about imposter syndrome and self-promotion
Research is beginning to look more closely at the connection between impostor feelings and the way people present themselves online.
A 2024 study involving 541 social media users found that stronger impostor feelings were linked with less authentic online self-presentation. People who felt more fraudulent or uncertain about themselves were also less likely to feel that they could present themselves freely and genuinely online.
The study found an association rather than proving that one directly causes the other, but it reflects something many business owners will recognise: self-doubt on the inside can affect how comfortable you feel being seen on the outside.
There can be wider social pressures too, particularly for women. Research has found that women may feel less comfortable promoting themselves when they anticipate negative social consequences for doing so.
A much larger study of academics on Twitter, now X, found that women were around 28% less likely than men to promote their own research papers, even after the researchers accounted for several other factors. The gap was particularly pronounced among some highly productive women working at leading institutions.
That figure relates specifically to academics promoting their research, so it cannot tell us exactly what happens to women running businesses. It does, however, support a wider point: reluctance to self-promote is not always simply a lack of confidence. People may also be aware, consciously or not, that being visible can bring judgement.
You may worry about appearing too pushy, too full of yourself, too much or as though you’re taking up more space than you should.
That can leave you trying to find an impossible balance. You need people to know what you do, but you don’t want to feel as though you’re constantly shouting about yourself.
When a comment gets under your skin
Being seen also means opening yourself to other people’s reactions. They may agree, ignore you, misunderstand you or criticise what you have said. When your work feels closely connected to who you are, that uncertainty can feel surprisingly personal.
Humans are sensitive to belonging, approval and rejection. Criticism can genuinely hurt, particularly when you already feel uncertain about whether you have earned your place.
Our reactions are also shaped by how we’re feeling when something happens.
Imagine receiving this message:
Thanks for sending this. I need a little time to think about it.
On a confident day, you may read it as a straightforward request for time.
On a day when you’re tired, anxious or already questioning yourself, your mind may decide: They don’t want to work with me. I must have got something wrong.
The words haven’t changed. The meaning you have attached to them has.
That doesn’t mean your feelings are silly or that every difficult interaction is a misunderstanding. It means it can be useful to pause and separate what actually happened from what your mind has made it mean.
You might still decide that something needs a response. But you’re more likely to respond to the situation itself rather than only to the first fearful interpretation that came to mind.
The invisible cost of staying quiet
There is a version of imposter syndrome that can look like modesty: not wanting to be one of those people who constantly shout about themselves online.
There is nothing wrong with measured, considered visibility. But there is a difference between choosing not to shout and feeling unable to speak at all.
Staying quiet can make it harder for people to understand what you do, see the value in your work or remember that you’re there when they need support.
You don’t need to post constantly or turn every part of your life into content. But if self-doubt repeatedly stops you from sharing useful work, it can limit opportunities that might otherwise have reached you.
Why waiting until you feel ready does not work
Avoidance can work brilliantly in the short term. It removes the immediate discomfort.
You don’t post. Phew. That’s a relief. I feel much better now.
But when avoidance becomes a pattern, the thing you’re avoiding can become harder to do.
The most common advice about imposter syndrome is some version of: just believe in yourself, work on your mindset and build your confidence. Once you feel confident and ready, you’ll be able to start.
We often expect confidence to come first. In reality, confidence usually grows through experience. You take action, sometimes in very small steps, discover more about what you can handle and gradually begin to trust yourself.
Imposter feelings may begin to loosen their grip when you act without waiting for complete confidence. Sometimes the outcome you feared doesn’t happen. Sometimes things do feel uncomfortable, but you discover that you can deal with that too.
The goal isn’t to silence the inner critic before you show up. It’s to stop giving it the final decision.
What working on this actually looks like
This isn’t about pretending to feel confident when you don’t. It isn’t about faking it, forcing yourself through fear or acting as though the discomfort doesn’t matter.
It’s about understanding what feels risky about being seen and learning how to take manageable steps even when some discomfort is still there.
Instead of asking, Why am I not more confident?, it can be more helpful to ask:
- What am I worried will happen if I post this?
- Has that actually happened before
- What am I trying to protect myself from by staying quiet?
- Is avoiding it costing me more than I realise?
For many entrepreneurs, being visible can feel the same as being vulnerable. But they aren’t quite the same thing.
You can be visible in your work without sharing anything too personal. You can speak with authority without pretending to know everything. You can let people see what you do without giving them access to every part of you.
The doubt may not disappear completely. The change is that it no longer gets to make the decision for you.
You can notice the doubt, allow it to be there and still choose to post. That is a skill, and it’s one you can build with practice.
If you are hiding, you are not alone
I work with entrepreneurs who are struggling with imposter syndrome, confidence and the pressures that can come with running a business.
Together, we can look at what’s holding you back and help you take the next steps with greater confidence. If this resonates, a free consultation is a good place to start.
