When you start out you don't need that many commercial zones. Concentrate on residential and industrial first, once the citizens have jobs and places to live they will want to go shopping.
one thing to also look out for is farms. they seem like an easy way to get the economy going but cause massive water pollution.
i found later on when i wanted to build up the city and make it nicer and richer to tax 20% to dirty industry and then lower the hi-tech industry tax to 6%.
