While startup capital can be a tremendous benefit in helping new companies get off the ground and gain a footing in their respective markets, too many small business firms go under because their owners failed to understand how best to “pitch” their business to potential lenders and/or investors. Even for those loan requests that are approved, many come with undesirable strings attached, such as high interest rates, investor input into how the business is operated, or disproportionate revenue sharing. Still other loan arrangements burden new business owners with heavy debt which they are unable to pay back due to insufficient revenue.

If you have an idea for a green business, and you have a relatively stable plan and a good sense of how to reach your customers or clients, then consider using GreenFunder http://www.greenfunder.com to raise the startup capital for your endeavor.

GreenFunder.com is a new fundraising site for socially responsible projects and businesses which is now actively seeking proposals.

This is a guest post by Maria Palma, author at Online Business Resources and The Good Life (originally posted February 28, 2008)

Starting a business is an exciting time for any entrepreneur. It’s something new and it’s certainly another way to produce an income. However, how do you know that this is something you should be doing? If it is you want to do, then how do you stay motivated? What can you do to make sure you don’t make the same mistakes other business owners make?

There's a saying in business that "1 is the worst number." Having one client, one source of income, one supplier, etc, can cause big problems when something goes wrong because you have no fall back. The same is true with investors - you should never spend all of your time trying to please just one. There is no way to know if the one investor you want to work with most will offer you the best deal, or even pay attention to your proposal at all.

My partner and I started our web design company with two Mac laptops, a burning drive and passion for connecting people to the Web, and our personal address books.

We were determined to focus on our core skills, which were converting ideas, needs, and processes into fully-functioning websites.

We wanted to support minority-owned, woman-owned, green, progressive, organic, holistic, sustainable people.

We wanted to focus on what we did best, and find other people to help us with the rest. As the company has grown, we've learned more. Here are some of the lessons I've learned --- you can keep them in mind as you build your own business.