My coach Rob Seidenspinner (on LinkedIn) always reminds me that all of us are creative, resourceful, and whole. If you're reading this blog, you have the makings of a green entrepreneur. Believe in your skills, talent, and knowledge --- you have an opportunity to better your own personal situation, your community, and our planet. So take the next step!

If you are considering starting up a green business, but don't know how to start, or if you have a green idea and want to implement it, we invite your participation in the GreenBizWomen.com community.

Your business is like a child: it takes nurturing, planning, and ongoing maintenance. It takes preparation, hard work, and reaching out to others to help you. However, you have an opportunity for a fantastic payoff when your business grows up and starts "bringing you a plate". I won't sugarcoat it, though -- ask any businessperson and they'll tell you there are major ups and downs and the work can and will take a toll on you and your family.

In my experience I've found that the people who work smarter (not harder) and who fully commit to the business are the ones who find a way to make their business work for them.

Step 1) Figure out your priorities.
Do you want more time with your family? Do you want to set up a passive income stream on the side? Do you want to join someone else's work or do you want to start your own project?

When you figure out your priorities for what you want, you can then set up some goals and understand your "benchmarks" for success. I recommend you go into business if you have A) the courage to succeed, B) the tenacity to make your business work, C) the desire to make a green difference in the world.

Step 2) What's your timeline?
What kind of timeline are you considering? You can set up an online affiliate program in as little as a few days, but if you're building a new business, product line, or service, you're looking at a goal three to five years down the road.

How much time do you have available and what are you willing to put in to your business? The answers to those questions give you an indication of your expected timeframe.

Step 3) What's your startup budget?
Going into business requires capital. This may come as a startup loan from friends or family, it may require you dipping into your savings, or it might mean you increase your tolerance for credit card debt.

If you are going into business for yourself, figure out how much you can realistically afford to support the business. Note that the road to profitability takes time, and even your best scenarios will require paying customers for you to make your business work for you and eventually pay you back and pay you a salary.

Step 4) What's your plan?
I'm not a big fan of "analysis paralysis" but you will need a plan to help you to organize your thinking.

Do at least a two-page draft of your big idea, whittled down into basic items such as:

a) the need --- what is the burning need that your product or service fills?

b) the market -- who is going to buy your product or service? Specify, specify, specify.

c) price points -- how much do you need to sell to break even (pay all your expenses?) how much do you need to sell to make a profit (pay all your expenses and have some left over?)

d) distribution - how will you get your product or service into the hands of your customers? is you going after your local market, a national market, or the international marketplace? who will help you promote and market your business?

Step 5) Get started with your checklist of what you need.
You'll need a product, a service, advisors/partners/supporters, a marketing plan, business cards, and a website or blog to start getting the word out.

Step 6) Fine-tune your mission statement.
Why are you doing what you do? Why will a customer choose you over all your competition? What is your niche offering that you do well, or the specific need for which your company has the best solution? When you identify your business in 7 seconds, you've nailed your mission statement.

For example: "My focus as a web developer is in creating websites that build community and foster a feeling of connectedness - we are committed to the success of women entrepreneurs, progressive organizations, membership groups, and fair trade, organic, holistic, sustainable, and green businesses. Our specialty is highly functional Drupal and custom Content Management System websites."

Step 7) Develop your keywords list.
I see this step as being essential to identifying your market. What top twelve words and phrases explain your company, your business philosophy, and your offerings?

This keyword list will drive your language when you talk, write, and blog about the company, and it will drive your focus when you reach out to potential and current customers.

Step 8) Get customers.
No business exists without customers, clients, users, and people who contribute to your bottom line. I'm sure you've read how megastartups like YouTube continue to lose between $250 to $500 million dollars a year, which might be fine for a large corporation like Google to absorb as part of their market research, but this series assumes that you are actually in business to make money (if not, I invite you to stop reading and go browse around the other fantastic posts on TheGreenGirls.com!)

You find customers online and in person. If you are predominantly online, develop a website and a social networking presence. If you are predominantly local, develop business cards, a 30-second elevator pitch, and start meeting people in your community.

What does your customer need? What pain does your service help lessen? Does your customer want to be entertained? What solution does your product offer? Figure out what your customer needs and understand how you will deliver value through fulfilling those needs.

Step 9) Get a website developed.
Of course, as a website developer, this is my strong bias, but my belief is that with an effective, functional, content management system-based website, you get exceptional results.

Through my company, we've had enough experience with non-professional looking templates, websites that your cousin's brother's classmate created, and websites that are hard-coded so that you can't make an update to it. Believe me, whatever you start out with, you'll eventually need to upgrade, so you may as well do it right the first time:

a) Get a content management system (a custom CMS, Drupal, Joomla!, and Wordpress are terms you'll hear more and more frequently).

b) Consider the main five pages you want to put online -- Home, About, Products and Services, Mission/Vision/Values, Contact --- as well as any additional pages.

c) Hire an effective web producer that you trust and who will still be around in a few years. Get a design and an installation done within your budget. Shop around for rate quotes and go with a team that feels right to you.

d) Content, content, content. It's much more important to fill your website with engaging and search-engine friendly page content about your business, about your industry, about trends and policies, about what you offer, and about you and your team. These are the items that personalize your company and make it easier to find when someone does a search on your keywords.

e) Analyze your data. How many people are visiting? What can you offer to get more people to come into your web pipeline? Consider creating a free resource and offering it to people who join your mailing list. Consider offering coupon codes to every 100 Twitter followers. Reach out: there are many ways to build your community of clients online.

Do you need more tips? We offer plenty of resources on this website as well as personalized Green Business Consulting: more info