I think your fear is fairly common among the self employed. Going out of business for any reason is pretty much the nightmare scenario, unless it's the best option somehow.
I was self-employed for 15 years. I had two small weekly newspapers that I published. There were three full-time employees (including myself), and five or six reporters I paid by the piece. We did pretty well for being small community weeklies, thanks to the publishing of legal notices. A change in state law, however, caused those notices to dry up, and within eight months of the change and five months of its implementation, we were out of business.
For me, the biggest fear was laying off the other employees. We had been fortunate enough to build up some savings and pay off most of our debts, so my family was in decent shape for a year or two, but not knowing the status of the employees, it took a toll on me.
I've also lived the other fear of not making enough to make ends meet. That in and of itself can be worse, because the tendency is to keep holding on when all indications are it's never going to make it. I held on, though, and we did eventually make it with that same newspaper business.
I've spent the better part of six years since either looking for work, going to school, or trying to earn STEEM. My wife is working, but she wants out again as soon as possible, and I might have to go back to work. I definitely feel that pain, because I haven't worked for anyone else since 1996, basically, over half of my adult life.