At events like our Entrepreneur Showcase and Holiday Bazaar, our clients routinely earn $1,000 in sales per hour.

Now, we are launching our Mobile Marketplace, an unprecedented initiative to revitalize Central New Jersey’s business landscape.

We’re talking 12 Showcases per year throughout greater New Brunswick, a buy-local campaign, and getting our clients online and in local stores.

This is going to be big, but we need your help to make it happen.

Please give to the Intersect Fund’s Mobile Marketplace program. Every dollar helps, and — here’s the best part —  the Catholic Campaign for Human Development will match each of your dollars one for one, up to $35,000.

Small businesses are engines of economic recovery. Help us guide them toward a new, prosperous day.

Thank you for your help!

P.S.: If you donate online, make a note in the “Additional Comments” section that you would like to direct your donation to the Mobile Marketplace.

Sharifa Dunn helps our business course graduates apply for microloans.

So, you’ve finished the Intersect Fund’s Build Your Business course and written your business plan. Now what?

You talk to Sharifa Dunn.

Dunn, our Graduate Services director, will show you the next steps toward starting and growing your business. She will help you apply for a microloan, sign up for coaching sessions, and connect you with our graphic designers.

Dunn’s passion for helping entrepreneurs comes from an acquaintance she made half a world away.

In the winter of 2008, she studied at South Africa’s University of Kwazulu-Natal. The campus sits in the small city of Pietermaritzburg, which Dunn says resembles New Brunswick: it’s a mid-sized city filled with people from varied ethnic and social backgrounds.

But Kwazulu-Natal students, like their Rutgers counterparts, rarely venture far off campus.

One day, Sharifa decided to buck this trend and did some exploring. Off the edge of campus, she met a craftsman and his family. Working from a blanket on the sidewalk, they used thin wire and colorful beads to make small key chains shaped as animals and letters.

The man, his wife and their infant son spent long hours out on the blanket. Dunn noticed they were often out from sunrise until sunset, braving cold rain and sweltering heat.

Their dedication — almost certainly borne of necessity — inspired Dunn. The craftsman honed his skill, made something people wanted, and doggedly pursued success.

She noticed a degree of resourcefulness there that she also recognizes in clients here in New Jersey. It’s entrepreneurs like these — with enthusiasm and the talent to back it up — whom Dunn wants to help.

This summer, Dunn will finish her yearlong stint with the Intersect Fund. She will graduate Rutgers with a degree in Finance and then begin a job with the JP Morgan Chase Co.’s transactional banking division in New York.

A reporter interviews Intersect Fund trainer and CFO Ragavan Sree

At the Intersect Fund, Ragavan Sree teaches clients to write business plans and helps manage our finances.

He arrived on staff in the fall of 2008 with a mission: improve society by making sure everyone gets the same opportunity for economic advancement.

Inequality, Sree says, is what plunged his native Sri Lanka into a decades-long civil war that killed thousands.

When the country gained independence from British colonial rule following World War II, the outlook for the Tamil — the ethnic minority whom colonial officials had favored— grew bleak.

For years, the Tamil were denied access to jobs and education. Discrimination dashed young adults’ hopes of achieving the economic security their parents enjoyed.

Years of marginalization, Sree says, pushed some Tamil to form a rebel army — known as the Tamil Tigers — that fought the government for over 20 years.

Sree spent his childhood in Singapore and New York City — away from the stark disparity of his home country.

When he returned for a United Nations internship in 2005, he was surprised to see the government and the rebels working together. The Indian Ocean Tsunami, which pummeled the country several months prior, had left in its wake an inspiring — albeit temporary — sense of unity.

Sree found the cooperation heartening, but he regretted that it took a natural disaster for the warring factions to put aside their differences.

Viewing prosperity as a safeguard against the strife that ravaged Sri Lanka, Sree vowed to fight for economic opportunity. The Intersect Fund gave him the chance to do it.

A Rutgers senior, Sree will join the U.S. Army after he graduates. In July, he will travel to Fort Benning, Ga. for training as a specialist infantryman.

Megan Faust, a Rutgers Business School Marketing major, helps Intersect Fund clients increase their sales.

Ask most Rutgers students about their first New Brunswick memories, and you’ll likely hear stories about Grease Trucks and late buses.

But Megan Faust’s Hub City recollections date back a bit further. A New Brunswick native, she remembers softball games at the old high school and picnics at her father’s family home on Joyce Kilmer Avenue.

Now, as Faust completes a Rutgers Business School bachelors’ degree, she flexes her marketing muscle at the Intersect Fund. Her job is to help clients increase sales and find new customers.

This means finding events — such as craft fairs and community markets — where business owners can set up shop. Faust also helps clients navigate the world of Internet sales.

In December, Faust recruited clients for the Intersect Fund’s annual Holiday Bazaar & Gala, held at New Brunswick’s Hyatt Regency Hotel. She helped them pick which products to sell, advised them about arranging their display tables and coached them on how to make and keep customer contacts.

That night, Bazaar vendors netted over $2,500 in sales.

“It is so inspiring to see people who are willing to work very hard to improve their and their family’s lives, and to be able to do what they love,” Faust says.

Faust has a long history of serving the region she calls home. Before joining the Intersect Fund, she worked for New Brunswick’s Rent Control Board. She then joined the city’s economic development office, where she signed business owners up for a state program that halved their sales tax rate.

Faust sees New Brunswick as a city on the move, becoming more vibrant as new people arrive and settle in. It’s a dynamic that she wants to be part of.

And her business focus is no accident: Faust plans to open a clothing store in the near future.

Sam Johnson's Gourmet to Your Doorstep offers quality catering for large functions.

Life often demands a choice between quality and quantity. But Sam Johnson’s catering company — Gourmet to your Doorstep — brings heaping helpings of both.  Johnson frequently serves up outsize portions of Italian, Caribbean, and American cuisines.  The Trenton-based chef delivers his multinational menu throughout central New Jersey, but learning his trade has taken him around the world.

Johnson’s  journey began when he left his native Nigeria for Belgium, where he enrolled in flight school. But when rising fees grounded the would-be pilot, he changed routes. He became the kitchen aide at an upscale Brussels restaurant, where the demanding French chef recruited him as an apprentice.

Johnson mastered French cuisine, but he longed for a change of scenery. He came to the United States, landing a chef job at Atlanta’s international airport before becoming sous chef at the city’s Marriot Marquis Hotel. His next test would be the high standards of Atlantic City’s Trump Taj Mahal Hotel and Casino.

Shining there led him to several other kitchens, including those of the New Brunswick Hyatt, Kingston’s Main Street Bakery, and Merrill Lynch’s corporate headquarters. He cooked for two New Jersey governors and two state assemblymen, but his career’s most taxing turn had yet to come.

After the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, Johnson drove straight to New York. He joined the staff of Nino’s Restaurant — a Canal Street fixture that had become a soup kitchen for firemen, police officers and volunteers — and soon became executive chef, serving 7,000 meals per day.

Grateful Ground Zero rescuers, who had previously subsisted on hot dogs and hamburgers, eagerly awaited Johnson’s chicken Marsala and pasta primavera. “I could see the smiles on their faces,” he says.

Johnson returned to New Jersey with a desire to help those in need. So he brought his culinary talent to the Trenton Area Soup Kitchen, where he supervises the kitchen staff. He still makes meals from scratch and serves thousands each day. But for the first time in years, the veteran restaurateur has some time on his hands.

Gourmet to Your Doorstep can be reached at (609) 346-0318. They offer a range of catering options, including:

Fruit Cocktail Platter
Serves: 20
Price: $50

Lobster Bisque
Price: $2.50/person

Chicken Marsala
Serves: 20
Price: $50

Lasagna
Serves: 20
Price: $70 (meat), $60 (vegetable)

Eva Jimenez applies for a Capital Good Fund Citizenship Loan

Note: The Intersect Fund is one of several student-driven microlenders. The following story introduces Eva Jimenez, who received a Citizenship Loan from Brown University’s Capital Good Fund.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. — Eight years ago, Eva Jimenez left the Dominican Republic for Providence, Rhode Island — since then, she has carved out a rich and rewarding life here. She’s landed a steady job as teacher’s assistant, pursued her passion for painting, and become a legal permanent resident of the United States.

But until a few months ago, she had not yet fulfilled her most important dream: To vote.

Jimenez, a devoted public sector employee, was not a citizen. Not because she didn’t want to be, but because the cost of upgrading her status was simply too high. The application fee alone would eat up nearly a month’s salary, and the legal costs would tack on even more.  She wondered whether she could ever scrape the money together.

Luckily, help was on the way. Earlier this year, Jimenez heard about the Capital Good Fund, a non-profit microlender in Providence aiming to combat poverty and foster a more inclusive society. She learned the group would soon offer Citizenship Loans, designed to help legal U.S. residents cover the cost of becoming citizens, and was eager to take part.

In March, Jimenez received the first Capital Good Fund Citizenship Loan.

In September, she became a citizen.

Now, she feels she has a full stake in her community. She will have more job opportunities. She will inspire others hoping to realize the American dream.

“I’m very happy about organizations like the Capital Good Fund,” said Jimenez. She adds that although many fellow Latino immigrants could become citizens, few can cover the cost. This makes Capital Good Fund loans essential. “We need it,” she said.

Janice McMillan's Everything and More takes care of common household chores.

In a gadget-crazed world, the Smartphone is king. It can check e-mail, manage money and fire off Facebook updates. But believe it or not, there are some things your Blackberry cannot do. It cannot wait for the cable guy, bring your dog to the vet, or fix you a home-cooked meal.

That’s where Janice McMillan comes in. Her business, Everything and More, is about tying up loose ends. “I take care of the little things people don’t have time to do,” she says.

For the past five years, the Piscataway resident has made her clients’ lives a little easier. She’ll do the laundry, prepare dinner, watch the kids, and wait for that phone company employee who swears he’ll come by between noon and 5 p.m.

McMillan has made a career out of supporting others. She’s worked for 25 years at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, where she arranges programs that educate underprivileged high school and college students about careers in medicine. She’s logged enough years to retire, but she loves her job and wants to remain active.

Plus, there’s the networking. Among the clients of Everything and More are medical students with no time to clean their apartments, and co-workers whose private practices have eaten up their free time.

The idea for Everything and More came from McMillan’s memory of being a single mother. For years, she says, she couldn’t go out with friends, couldn’t spend time alone, and couldn’t even run errands without bringing her kids along.

“You need to have your own time,” she says, “when you don’t have to answer ‘Mommy’ questions.”

McMillan wants to give her clients more time to be alone, to work, or to do whatever they would like. And who knows? With everyday stressors out of the way, you may decide to spend more time with your family and less with your phone.

Everything and More can be reached at (908) 705-3995. She charges on a sliding scale that dips as low as $10 per hour.

Tamara Apollon sells baked goods — such as her famous Mango Tart — to fund an education center in her native Haiti.

When Americans think about the nation of Haiti, a rich culinary tradition is not the first thing that comes to their minds.

Which is unfortunate, says Haitian emigrant and baker Tamara Apollon. Few in the developed world, she says, can look beyond her country’s poverty and reliance on foreign aid. “People think we only take and do not give,” she says

She hopes to change that perception by bringing a variety of French-inspired Haitian treats to the American palate.

Apollon’s repertoire includes Marquise, a creamy, frozen dessert with layers of cookie and ice cream; Buche de Noel, a log-shaped Christmastime cake flavored with chocolate or Gran Marnier liqueur; mango cheesecake, and cupcakes with pineapple and grandia (passion fruit) topping. She also makes gingerbread and peanut butter cookies.

Though she has yet to take her business full-time, Apollon’s desk-bound day job provides ample opportunities for market research. “Every time I cook for work,” she says, “people are saying, ‘When are you going to start your own business?’”

Now, her business, Kids Can, allows her to boost appreciation of her native culture, and eventually, she will use its proceeds to improve the lives of her compatriots. Her goal is to generate enough revenue to create a center for disadvantaged girls in Les Cayes, a city on Haiti’s southern shore.

Apollon says that a lack of education and job skills forces many Haitian females into domestic slavery.  She wants to hire teachers to train them in hairdressing, cooking, sewing, and starting a business. “I want to empower them,” she says.

Kids Can can be reached at (908) 400-0910.

Their Marquise serves 7 to 8 people and costs $15. Cheesecakes are $20 to $30 and serve 10, Buche de Noel costs $30 to $40 and serves 20.

Cookies cost $7 per pound, and a dozen cupcakes costs $15.

Sean Lewis parlayed his expertise into On-Center Glass, offering novices a taste of the glass-blowing. (Photo courtesy of Ryan Johnson Digital)

At 21 years old, Sean Lewis was a few semesters away from a Tufts University engineering degree. Sticking around a little longer would have earned him a safe, fiscally sound career path.

It was becoming clear, though, that the responsible route would not be the most rewarding. Always artistically inclined, Lewis found no room for creativity in his engineering course load. He liked the idea of transforming blueprint designs into 3-D structures, but he wanted something with hardware heavier than a calculator.

When he learned that a family friend ran a glass blowing studio in Tucson, Ariz., he left school and moved west within a week.

There, he found his passion. And after all, what’s not to like? You plunge a steel rod into a 2,000-degree furnace, lift up some molten glass (which, at that temperature, drips off the steel like honey) and mold it into a slender vase, a colorful ornament, or a million-dollar chandelier.

“It’s the best job in the world,” Lewis says, “ It’s one step away from alchemy.”

A few years ago, Lewis returned to New Jersey — his home state — with his wife, Marin. The two have started On-Center Glass, a business that invites outsiders into their fascinating world. They offer evening events for those who want a taste of glass blowing, and a semester-long course for those who seek to become experts.

Their “Blow Your Own” ball hosts up to ten guests for an evening party replete with food and music. Each guest helps make his own souvenir, such as vases or ornaments. Attendees then watch as Sean crafts stunning pieces of glass art from the furnace.

For those who want to take it a step further, On-Center offers half-day sessions, weekend-long classes, and individual lessons. At each stage, guests take home a glass souvenir they helped to make. It’s a creative outlet that demands focus, forcing guests to leave their worries at the door.

The Lewises seek to create a community around glass blowing. And in New Jersey, there’s a precedent. Around the time of the American Revolution, Sean says, glass was big business in the Garden State (think “Glassboro”). Craftsmen found sand — the main ingredient of glass — abundant at the shore and used the state’s famous pinewood for furnace fuel.

By inviting customers into their studio, Sean and Marin hope to spread awareness of a craft they’ve come to love. They also seek to create a safe and fun hangout for veteran creative-types and young, budding artists.

For information about pricing and reservations, e-mail Sean at info@oncenterglass.com.

Mike Ivers and Casey Ruff's Better than Mom's Laundry & Dry Cleaning offers next-day delivery on most garments.

The best business idea is often the one sitting right under your nose. Sometimes, you can even smell it.

Casey Ruff and Mike Ivers were juniors at Rutgers when they saw opportunity in dirty laundry. That year, they founded BTM Laundry & Dry Cleaning. The company will pick up your laundry, wash it at the laundromat, and return it to you the next day.

At first, they targeted fellow college students who yearned for the conveniences of home — “BTM” stands for “Better than Mom’s.” They knew students don’t like to do laundry. The question was why all students didn’t already pay someone else to do it for them.

The reason, Ivers says, is that most laundry companies charge by the pound, meaning that unless customers weigh their laundry beforehand, they won’t know how much the service costs until they receive the bill. This uncertainty does not sit well with often broke college students.

So Ruff and Ivers took a different route. Customers who would rather not pay by the pound can stuff their clothes in a big, blue “BTM” Bag, and pay a flat rate of $25 to get them washed. Like the per-pound option, this rate includes color separation, fabric softener, and next-day pickup and delivery. Stuffed to capacity, the bag holds about 30 pounds of laundry.

BTM picks up hundreds of these bags from college dorms, but they have also branched out to serve local businesses. Doctors’ offices, nail salons, and barbershops all need lots of sheets, towels and aprons cleaned every night. Several in the New Brunswick area have contracted with BTM to take care of it.

The company will also have customers’ clothes dry cleaned, a service that has become popular with families and young professionals in greater New Brunswick.

Since launching in 2006, Ruff, Ivers and their team of three employees have served nearly 1,000 customers. Their website is http://www.btmlaundry.com.