Before getting the seemingly crazy idea to start JUST CAUSE IT, I never would have thought that I was someone who loved business. I mean, business? Aren’t business people those uptight men sitting in offices and doing, I dunno, boring business stuff? I certainly never really thought of business as being a “good” thing, and I think that I am not alone in the cynical delusion I previously held that there was somehow a magic chasm of language and intent that separated the “business world” from my magical world of art, altruism and social change.

So here I sit, at the intersection of those worlds, and I find myself – while still every bit an altruistic and artistic free-spirit – madly in love with business. And madly in love with all of the entrepreneurs who now surround me in my quest to use media and the Internet to save the world. (Yes, I actually say that when I pitch to VC’s to raise money. “Hi, my name is Alyssa Royse and I am going to save the world, but I need your money to do it, please. And yes, I’ll make you a bunch of money. Really!”)

Even though I am living my life at the intersection of business, art and altruism, I still didn’t really see the connection between those things. Until Friday, when I stepped back, and realized that most of the support that I have been receiving as I start this company has been through – are you ready for this – non-profit organizations. And I have even really internalized that entrepreneurs are in fact making the world a better place. We’re creating jobs, tax-revenue, products – all sorts of things that are vital to the economic engines that keep our communities alive.

Oh the happy dance I did.

Said happy dance originally took place at the 2008 Early Stage Investment Forum (ESIF), here in Seattle. ESIF is put on by the Northwest Entrepreneur Network (NWEN) as a way for early-stage companies to connect with angel investors whose money we need to keep going. NWEN is a non-profit organization that provides not only investment opportunities, but incredible education and training for starry-eyed entrepreneurs like me who have everything going for us except that we have no idea what we’re doing. They do, and they hook us up with mentors, train us, help us and really want to see us succeed. And, as a non-profit, they have no vested interest in it, they just really care.

But why? What do all of us entrepreneurs do for the world anyway?

Well, a lot, as it turns out. According to Entrepreneur Magazine, small businesses:

• Represent more than 99.7% of all employers
• Employ half of all private-sector workers and 39% of workers in high-tech jobs
• Provide 60% to 80% of the net new jobs annually
• Pay 44.3% of total U.S. private payroll
• Produce more than 50% of nonfarm private gross domestic product, or a GDP of roughly $6 trillion
• 130 million people are employed by small businesses.

Why do we need help? Well, it’s hard, and the statistics are daunting. Again, according to Entrepreneur Magazine, IF a company makes it past startup (and believe me, that’s a BIG if,) 66% of them will still fold after only 2 years in business. That means jobs and tax revenue that are gone.

There’s also the fact that a lot of small businesses become serious innovators that change the world as we know it. And every single one of them was started by an entrepreneur. Amazon? Some guy who wanted to sell books on the new-fangled Internet. eBay, crazy little idea for online auctions – which then spun out and has literally created career platforms for thousands of eBay sellers. Even etsy.com has made it possible for craftspeople to sell hand-crafted goods to an international market that they never would have had access to otherwise.

Hmmmmmm, maybe us starry-eyed entrepreneurs are pretty darned good for the world after all.

But all the good-intentions in the world can’t get my company funded if I don’t know how to write a business plan, create a “pitch deck” (the PowerPoint presentation that we use to convince investors that we’re a good investment), or otherwise manage a company. That’s where groups like NWEN come in.

So, there I was, on Friday, at ESIF, realizing that in fact my new-found love of business and my long-time love of making the world a better place do in fact co-exist hand-in-hand. Not just in my unique little world, but in this really great non-profit, and others like it around the country.

If you need something a little more altruistic as to why my running a successful business will make the world a better place, let me just tell you how many times I’ve said, “man, if I had the money I would just fund that program.” I’ve said it about arts programs, education initiatives, access to food and healthcare…. And again, I’m hardly alone. Those guys who started Amazon, and eBay and, I dunno, Microsoft, have done enormous good for the world with their wealth.

So, although I will continue to keep my business blog (StartHerUp.com) housed safely in the business section of the Seattle P-I, I will also continue to look at fostering the successful businesses of entrepreneurs as a very Just Cause indeed. And, if you want to know a little bit of what it’s like, you can watch the 10-minute video that I included in this post. Yes, that’s me, in case you wanted to know what I look and sound like. I hate seeing myself in video, but am awed and comforted by the brilliant company of the others on the video who I consider friends. They make me feel not so alone, like I really can do this.

Because people need me to. People support me. And the world is better when we are all able to pursue our dreams and make the world a better place in the process.