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.

No, Ivers and Ruff are not laid-off investment bankers. In-fact, they were juniors at Rutgers University when they each put up $500 of their savings to start BTM. Their concept was to serve Rutgers students who craved the comfort of home. (BTM stands for “Better than Mom’s.”)

Ivers’ advice to budding entrepreneurs reflects the duo’s circumspect attitude toward growing a venture: “Live with in your means, start making money, and hold on to it so you can grow,” he said.

As Ivers and Ruff built BTM, they supported themselves through an activity similarly rooted in college culture: they managed the popular New Brunswick restaurant Hansel n’ Griddle, helping its owners open a new location on Church Street. Ivers said working for the restaurant ensured he and Ruff could keep BTM’s profits in the business, where they grew into a fund ready to support a future expansion.

By 2011, Ivers and Ruff were looking for laundromats. Ivers said the two sent letters to approximately 30 laundromat owners indicating their desire to buy one. This campaign proved fruitless, but a high school friend of Ruff’s who happened to visit Hansel n’ Griddle earlier this year had a possible solution: an acquaintance of his who owned Laundromat Express in North Brunswick was looking to sell it.

Buying a business can be tricky. The owner will usually base her asking price on a multiple of the business’s revenue, and it’s up to the potential buyer to determine whether the revenue figure the owner cites is accurate. The buyer also must figure out whether the business’s overall health is as good as the owner will likely claim.

Ivers said the self-service laundry industry is an especially difficult one in which to deal: owners rarely manage their businesses day-to-day, and they are somewhat less than eager to enter hundreds of cash (and coin) transactions into a bookkeeping system that produces tidy financial statements.

Faced with an accounting enigma, Ivers and Ruff devised a creative form of due diligence: they got a hold of Laundromat Express’s utility bills from the past two years and focused on water usage. Knowing roughly what water costs and how much water a load of laundry requires, the two were able to determine the business’s reported sales were likely accurate.

Since Ivers and Ruff bought the business in August, it has earned almost twice the revenue they thought it would. And because the two eschewed debt or investors, they get to keep the profit it makes.

In the time BTM Laundry grew into a thriving venture, countless would-be entrepreneurs have deferred their own business dreams in favor of waiting for an elusive bank loan. If they aren’t kicking themselves for waiting, the story of BTM ought to show them they should be.

Check out BTM Laundry online here.

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.

Though Lynn had never started a business before, she saw an unmet need in the area.

When she moved to New Jersey from Atlanta in 2009, she noticed her adoptive state lacked adequate options for body waxing. Lynn said most establishments offering waxing here are spas, which she said sell expensive but low quality waxing, or nail salons, which she said often conduct waxing in neglected back rooms that are somewhat less than spic-and-span.

At left, the sign outside Joelle’s salon

Lynn said even salons in the region that specialize in waxing often use harsh chemicals in the process and fail to leave coarser-haired customers with satisfactory results. Lynn said she sought to fill a gap in the market. “I wanted to open a waxing salon that not only offers organic waxing but that leaves a smooth finish,” she said.

With that, Beautiful Waxing Boutique, Lynn’s new venture, was born.

In fall 2010, Lynn enrolled in the Intersect Fund’s Entrepreneur University business-training course. When she graduated, she received a loan from the Trenton-based Isles, Inc. to help secure and outfit a venue for her salon.

After searching for months, Lynn found a suitable space. She got to work outfitting the salon and will hosted a grand-opening celebration on Saturday, January 14th.

When I asked Lynn whether she considers her new venture risky, she answered emphatically in the affirmative. “Yeeessss! Very much so,” she said in an e-mail. She added, though, that the industry research she conducted convinced her that the venture would pay off in the long run.

While it remains to be seen whether Beautiful Waxing Boutique will succeed, Lynn’s preference for the entrepreneurial lifestyle seems clear. “I don’t think things are how they used to be, where you can just work for someone your whole life, then retire and have your 401(k),” Lynn said.

Beautiful Waxing Boutique is located at 11 Schalks Crossing Road, Suite 624, in Plainsboro, N.J.

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.

Jackson tended bar at the Marriot Hotel near Newark Liberty International Airport for 15 years before the odd hours wore him out. After a few more years as the sales manager of a gym, he decided he was through agonizing over sales goals that padded someone else’s bottom line.

Seeking to apply his skills to a business whose profits he could keep, he and Carol founded Style & Swag – their clothing boutique in Franklin Township’s Somerset section. The store’s selection runs from quirky to genteel, and its founders strive to offer the kind of personalized service they say is absent from big-box and department stores.

Carol, who admits to loving fashion and shopping, counts creative direction among her duties at the store: “I’m the style and [Lavon]’s the swag,” she said. Her taste guides her toward designers who are distinct if not well known. “If it looks nice, if it’s something unique, I love it,” she said, “I don’t care if it was made by the guy next door or someone who’s been in fashion for 50 years.”

Style & Swag welcomes all customers, but it seems geared toward those seeking clothing to cherish rather than those satisfied by a fancy label. “There’s nothing like purchasing something at a great price and feeling like you’ve gotten the best find in the world,” Carol said. She cited instances like these as the most rewarding part of co-owing the store.

Lavon said that although the store’s selection is small, its pieces are unique and well appointed. “Everyone has that favorite sweater,” he said, “We want what the customer purchases here to be his favorite.”

If a sense of style and a dedication to customer service were sufficient to build a popular retail store, Style & Swag would already be a smashing success.

As the Jacksons have found, though, attracting customers is a challenge. Carol said the store’s mantra – that classy is cool – has so far failed to resonate with many younger potential customers. Lavon said that like many new businesses, Style & Swag lacks the advertising budget for television commercials that could broadcast the store’s existence to a wide audience.

In the absence of a slick marketing campaign, the Jacksons are hoping to build a word-of-mouth network that centers on personalized service. “Customers remember the friendliness and service they got here,” Lavon said, “That’s what keeps them coming back.”

To see if Style & Swag can win you over, visit them at 653 Hamilton Street, in the Somerset section of Franklin Township.

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.

You still need the vacuums to expand your business, but you have few options for getting the money. Stumped? The answer is the Intersect Fund.

The Intersect Fund offers small loans to individuals who lack financial resources but whose talents and drive abound. Since disbursing our first loan in the summer of 2009, we have made more than 100 loans totaling $150,000. Thirty-eight percent of our borrowers have no credit score. Of those that do, the average score is 599 – too low to win a second look from even the most well-intentioned commercial lender these days.

Most lenders would deem our borrowers too risky to receive loans. They may be surprised, then, to learn our repayment rate is about 99 percent. How do we do it? By treating our clients like people, not numbers on a credit report.

Building Credit, Building a Business

Most Intersect Fund borrowers find us through Luis, our senior loan officer. Luis has made it his mission to help small businesses in New Jersey succeed. If you’ve been to a networking event, business seminar, or entrepreneur conference here in the last few years, you’ve probably met him. A small-business owner himself, Luis offers technical assistance in addition to loan application help.

Intersect Fund client Virginia Sanchez speaks about her business, Danny’s Deli & Grocery.

When a client decides to apply for a loan, she begins our five-step process:

1. She completes our pre-application with Luis’s help. This one-page form asks for things like household income, employment status, and other easy-to-retrieve information.

2. The pre-application reaches our underwriters, who try to determine whether the applicant can afford the payments of the loan she seeks, and whether her business seems ready to grow. At this point, we pull the applicant’s credit. We’ll often lend to borrowers with low scores or no scores, but we decline those who are behind on mortgage or child support, and those against whom civil judgements have been issued.

3. If the pre-application passes muster, our underwriters will seek more information: usually a proof-of-income, proof of ID, and four references whom the Intersect Fund will call to gain a sense of the applicant’s character.

4. Once our underwriters have verified an applicant’s income and received positive responses from her references, they’ll send her application to our Loan Committee, which consists of commercial underwriters, local business leaders, and community stakeholders. This process usually takes five or fewer business days.

5. If they approve, we close the loan and wire our new client’s funds directly into her bank account.

As our client repays her loan, she builds credit while building her business. Her improved credit and experience with borrowing will go a long way toward securing a larger, commercial loan in the future.

Of course, we cannot lend to every individual seeking funds. For example, if an applicant is behind on rent, mortgage or child support, we will not extend financing. Earning too little to comfortably pay one’s living expenses is also a deal-breaker, as is the presence of excessive collections on one’s credit report.

We want to extend opportunity to those who want to start businesses, but we have a duty to avoid burdening a client with too much debt.

Why we do it

Our clients’ perceived riskiness is only part of the reason banks turn them away. The bigger reason is that the economics don’t work out. Underwriting a loan takes time and money. The interest one earns on a micro-loan (our average size is $1,500) is too small to fund a bank’s high overhead costs.

But there’s still a big need for small loans.

In the past, Intersect Fund loans have enabled borrowers to buy trucks, vacuum cleaners, barbershop chairs, and much more. These tools will enable our clients to provide for their families and create jobs in their communities. The Association for Enterprise Opportunity reports that if one in three microbusinesses (those with five or fewer employees) added just one job each, the United States would enjoy full employment.

The stakes are too high to leave talented entrepreneurs behind.

Learn more and get involved

• To see a couple more interviews with Intersect Fund borrowers, click here or here.

• For more information on our various business services, including loans, click here.

• To donate to the Intersect Fund, click here.

Intersect Fund Executive Director Rohan Mathew appeared with colleagues today on CNN’s American Morning to talk about campus-based microfinance.

The conversation, which included Mathew’s counterparts in Providence, R.I. and New Haven, Conn., focused on the efforts of the Campus Microfinance Alliance, a group Mathew co-founded to help college students develop their local economies.

Watch the video here and check out Lend for America, a new initiative to give college students hands-on experience with local microfinance this summer.

For years, the Intersect Fund’s Holiday Bazaar has been our signature event. I hope you’ll join us on Dec. 20th to shop and celebrate our entrepreneurs’ hard work.

See the links below for a vendor list and the chance to RSVP.

Date: Tuesday, December 20th (RSVP Today!)
Event: Intersect Fund Holiday Bazaar & Gala, Part Deux
Location: Hyatt Regency Hotel, New Brunswick
Intersect Fund Vendors: Click here for an up-to-date list.
Organizer: The Intersect Fund

To sell at our holiday bazaars, complete our two-minute application here. We’re almost full, but if you submit your application today, we may be able to fit you in.

The Intersect Fund’s first-ever Gourmet Food & Art Expo was a huge success. Get a taste (pun intended) of what went on by having a look at the above video by Will Ferguson.

Don’t tell me you went to a chain-store yesterday!

Shopping small is in this season.

Efforts like“Indie-Shopping” campaigns and Small Business Saturday (that’s today), mark a conscious effort by more Americans to patronize local businesses.

In addition to quality and customer service, economic benefits draw folks into mom-and-pop operations: small businesses keep a larger portion of their dollars in the local economy than their big-box counterparts do.

Lavon Jackson, who co-owns the Somerset clothing boutique Style & Swag with his wife Carol, cites prospect of creating jobs and reinvigorating his local economy as big motivators.

“When you shop small, you get big things,” Jackson said.

To get into the small-shopping swing of things, join the Intersect Fund at one (or both) of our upcoming Holiday Bazaars.

We’ll host one on Tuesday, Dec. 13th and another on Tuesday, Dec. 20th – both at New Brunswick’s Hyatt Regency Hotel. Click on either date to RSVP.

Check out Jennifer Bradshaw’s great article today on the Intersect Fund and our clients.

Who says profits and social good don’t mix?

As I advise would-be entrepreneurs, I’m struck by how big a portion of my clients – even those of modest means – seek to contribute to their communities as they grow their businesses.

The intersection between business sense and social value is where Craig Cuccia, a co-founder of the nonprofit Reconcile New Orleans, has lived for more than a decade. Reconcile New Orleans is a job-training group that prepares adolescents for food service-industry careers by putting them to work in Café Reconcile, the group’s Zagat-rated restaurant.

Cuccia spoke in Newark last week at the 2nd annual Social Innovation Summit, a meeting of entrepreneurs, academics, and other social visionaries interested in applying private-sector problem-solving to persistent social ills.

According to Reconcile New Orleans’s website, the group has graduated more than 600 youth from its 12-week course, a program that aims to teach basic life, interpersonal and work skills.

The organization is the brainchild of the late Rev. Harry Tompson, S.J., then pastor of New Orleans’s Immaculate Conception Parish. Tompson recruited Cuccia and a third founder, Tim Falcon, to launch the initiative in 1996.

Pictured at right, co-founder Cuccia.

Cuccia, whose background is in the for-profit world, brought his adeptness at persuasion to bear. “My first customers were the five guys form church I could guilt into coming,” he said last week. Like many of the diners who sample the restaurant’s food, those first customers returned.

Cuccia’s organization has become a community fixture in New Orleans’s violence-plagued Central City neighborhood; it now occupies a five-story building there. Since launching, the group has expanded to include a candy store, and – in a 2006 response to Hurricane Katrina – a construction training program.

It’s easy to view well-established groups like Reconcile New Orleans as inevitable. But Cuccia reminded his audience last week that launching a new and jobs-training program in a rough area is tricky. “The consultants – business school types – said, “Don’t do it. It’s not going to work,’” Cuccia said.

The project’s success, Cuccia said, required a degree of assent from the drug dealers and prostitutes who frequented the restaurant’s block. Cuccia said he spoke to them “as human beings, with dignity and respect,” and asked him what they wanted for their community. They responded, he said, by saying they wanted the best for their children.

At left, former Reconcile New Orleans participants in their new roles as hospitality professionals.

That the project required buy-in from neighborhood stakeholders (most of whom, it should be noted, are law-abiding citizens), was a happy consequence of a shoestring budget. “If we’d come in there with all the resources in the world and built an ivory tower, we would never have connected with the community in the way we needed to,” Cuccia said.

Those who seek to combine business acumen with social responsibility ought to view Cuccia as a role model. So should those who have entertained a business idea but have so far failed to pursue it. “Craig [Cuccia] is certainly one of those people who would say, ‘Don’t be afraid to follow your calling,’” said Jeffrey Robinson, the Rutgers Business School professor who convened last week’s Summit.

Robinson added: “If you feel like this is something you should be doing, start along the path as soon as possible. The parts will fall into place. Otherwise, it will just stay in the ‘idea’ category.”

Bottom two photos courtesy of Reconcile New Orleans