Unfortunately, operating a business is difficult for people above average in neuroticism. Your anxiety will hold you back unless you can have someone else fill in the gaps that you cannot, either in the form of an employee or a partner (both of which obviously will have their cons for your business).

Listen, I understand that you have issues that are beyond the concern or understanding of Reddit strangers like myself. That having been said, you need to realize that while your anxiety/mental state exists as is, there will be business-related limitation embedded in your very person.

This is sort of specific to your industry and business model. Another user mentioned online vending. Possible or not? If not, and you do plan on working locally, is it possible to work out of your home? And grow to the point you would like? And how bad is your anxiety? I imagine that if you are locally servicing, your business requires many emails/phone calls and preferably some face-to-face relationship building. If not, it certainly should at some point to reach any definition of “success”.

If you cannot find therapy that can help you overcome these obstacles (I’m assuming you’ve already tried this), you need to adjust your business and expectations accordingly. You can have a great idea and be excellent at what you’re trying to do, but sadly you will need to interact heavily at one point or another during your growth as a business owner. There isn’t a way you can bridge that gap without either lowering your expectations to meet your reality, or alter your reality in some radical way to meet your expectations.

Work hard, keep your head down, and try to do the scariest work on your most courageous days. Best of luck to you.