Would-be entrepreneurs love coming up with excuses to postpone starting the businesses of their dreams. Money – or a lack thereof – is usually the culprit: they fear that unless they can secure a big bank loan or generous investment, the success they seek will never materialize.

Dreamers like these should talk to Mike Ivers and Casey Ruff. The two founded BTM laundry – a New Brunswick-based company that picks up customers’ dirty laundry, has it washed or dry-cleaned, and returns it the next day – on a shoestring budget in 2007. After expanding BTM’s customer base to include thousands of students and families in the region, Ivers and Ruff bought a Laundromat – in cash – last August.

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Joelle Lynn (second from right) poses with friends at the grand opening of her Plainsboro waxing salon. Photo courtesy of Joelle Lynn

Entrepreneur University graduate Joelle Lynn once thought her job at the large mortgage-lending firm for which she works was secure.

When the housing bubble burst a few years ago, though, the ensuing waves of layoffs within Lynn’s company made her anxious. She decided to cut her hours and indulge her latent passion for entrepreneurship by founding Beautiful Waxing Boutique, a Plainsboro, N.J. waxing salon that opened this month.

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If your career hits the doldrums, you have two options: resign yourself to gloomy drudgery, or change something.

Earlier this year, Lavon Jackson changed something: He founded with his wife, Carol, a clothing boutique called Style & Swag.

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A local bulletin board displays ads for apartment rentals. Photo by Brendan McInerney.

Pop quiz: You own a cleaning service and need a set of new vacuum cleaners. What do you do?

Maybe you draw down your savings account. Maybe you ask your local bank for a loan. Maybe you put the suckers on plastic.

All good answers, but let’s make it a little tougher: your low income allows for little savings, you have no credit score, and the only plastic in your wallet is your EBT card.

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