A formally trained artist and architect, Janis Blayne-Paul puts her skills to work carving custom illustrations into small, stone squares.

Sometimes, the best way to find your niche is to think small.

That’s what Entrepreneur University graduate Janis Blayne-Paul did when she started her business, Karmic Stone, a few years ago. The Lambertville-based entrepreneur and former architect once expressed herself by designing big buildings. Now, she carves precise illustrations into small, flat stones no longer or wider than 16 inches.

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Zakiyia Forbes heads the Lounge Society, an event-planning service. In addition, she sometimes sells jewelry, soaps and oils at local vending events.

To land her first job, New Brunswick-based event planner and Entrepreneur University graduate Zakiyia Forbes had to take a leap of faith.

Despite lacking industry experience, she traveled to Manhattan to seek employment with a famous New York film festival. Forbes hoped her strong work ethic alone would win the day, but she didn’t count on it.

Her heart sank when she saw the phalanx of well credentialed, portfolio-clutching film students vying for the same spot as she.

“In my interview, I told the director, ‘I’m not a film student, but I’ll do anything you need — getting the coffee, stuffing envelopes, anything,’” said Forbes.

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A small sampling of the breads Nancy Kluberspies bakes

Some people start a business because they have too much free time on their hands.

That’s a problem North Brunswick baker Nancy Kluberspies would love to face.

When Kluberspies started her artisan bread venture — Lovely Buns — last summer, she already had a lot on her plate: raising three young children with her husband, teaching culinary arts and adjusting to life in the United States after emigrating from her native England a few years prior.

Most would balk at the idea of starting a business on top of so many commitments, but Kluberspies is the type to embrace constraints. In-fact, doing a lot with a little is part of what attracts her to bread:

“It always fascinated me,” she said, “that a few simple ingredients — none of which amount to much on their own — combine into an integral part of every meal.”

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As a child, Beulah Thomas would peer into the kitchen to see her mother baking pineapple upside-down cake and red-velvet cupcakes that garnered praise far and wide.

She was impressed by the creativity her mother infused into a task others might see as a chore. The recognition her mother’s foods garnered also inspired Thomas: Friends and relatives would come from an hour’s drive away to taste or purchase the treats.

It’s no surprise then that Thomas would seek to make her living in a field that allows for self-expression. After trying information technology and work as an administrative assistant, she determined neither of these areas would afford her such an opportunity. So she followed her mother’s footsteps into the foodservice industry.

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