Green Days Our yearlong look at an herbal pharmacy's start-up

The rewards of starting a business are many: You can enrich yourlifestyle, boost your self-esteem--hey, you're in thedriver's seat of that vehicle called destiny. While the highsof entrepreneurship are fulfilling, the realities can provebewildering. Take the contender for biggest buzz-kill (at leastwhen absent): money. Scott Fiore, 31, saw red a few times en routeto finding start-up capital for his Littleton, Colorado, naturalpharmacy, The Herbal Remedy. "Finding financing's prettysimple," says Fiore. Unfortunately, getting itisn't as easy.

Fiore's money hunt ensued months before his August 1998departure from Rosemont Pharmaceutical Corp. in Denver. Heinitially pitched his business idea to the bank he had his personalaccounts with at the time.To his delight, a representative toldFiore his idea looked great and that he could get a loan. To hisdismay, the rep tacked on "in a year." After learning hisbank doesn't offer initial business loans, Fiore was referredto the SBA--a popular option for new businesses seekingfinancing.

But Fiore soon found the SBA route was paved with preconceived(and misconceived) notions. "[Don't] go to the SBA with[the idea that] they are impartial and don't need collateral,because that's not the case," he warns. The onlydifference, notes Fiore, is that the SBA deals with untestedbusinesses, while many banks don't.